Wedding | Christina & Sputnik

Tell us a little about yourselves!

We’re a couple of Australians living in Berlin. Christina is a video editor and Sputnik is a software developer. We met 13 years ago at art school in Sydney, became instant best friends. After 2 years, we realised we were in love and we have been together for almost 11 years now!

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We chose to have our wedding back home in Sydney as it would have been way too difficult to get everyone over to Europe. We had a February wedding, a decision made to escape the worst of Berlin winter!

We knew we wanted something untraditional for our wedding. We were sold on Mary’s Underground pretty early for our reception venue as we loved the moody, bistro feel. Also we spent a lot of early days together lining up for Mary’s Burgers in Newtown, so it felt right.

Finding a ceremony venue was more difficult because we decided we wanted to get married in an art gallery. Eventually we found Artspace, a contemporary, not-for-profit art gallery in Woolloomooloo which fit perfectly. I think we might have been the first wedding hosted there too!

How many guests did you have?

Roughly 75.

What was your budget?

50K AUD more or less (we’re terrible at budgeting).

Tell us about your outfits.

Our favourite part of the wedding! Christina adores fashion, so our outfits became a really special part of our wedding. We chose to forego tradition and go on our outfit hunt together. Being so far away from our family and friends, it was so nice to experience this together. We know each other so well, so we knew what felt right and what didn’t.

Christina travelled to Amsterdam and London to look at dress options, ultimately landing on the Galaxy Cape dress by Vivienne Westwood from a boutique in the Netherlands called Wild at Heart. It felt truly like her, grecian and a bit punk. Her shoes were white ballerinas from Repetto. She has a few pairs now, so she knew they would be comfortable and will be worn to death after the wedding.

Veil and alterations of the dress were made by Gemma at Gemme Atelier in Berlin. Her studio is filled with whimsy and we had so much fun coming up with different veil options and she made the beautiful Juliette veil that tied the entire look together.

For Christina’s second outfit, she had a pair of Simone Rocha bow earrings that she based her look around. She worked with Stella Bagiotas, a dressmaker based in Berlin (but she just moved to Australia!) to create a 2 piece set so she could move around freely on the dance floor. For shoes, she went with a pair of sandals from Toteme.

Sputnik’s outfit is pure joy. He spent many afternoons wandering around Berlin trying to find something that felt like him. Eventually he stumbled upon a Yohji Yamamoto reversible jacket from 2015 (the year we started dating and also the year we went to Japan!). It had a really interesting button detail and a flat collar that he was after that speaks to his Fiji-Indian heritage. Because the jacket was so unique, he also had Stella Bagiotas create him a custom shirt to fit the jacket perfectly. His pants & shoes were Acne Studios.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

We wanted the day to feel truly like us. We wanted our guests to drink delicious wine, eat beautiful food and dance until late. Because we spend so much time away from our family and friends, we wanted to prioritise a calm, chill day that we can spend with our loved ones (of course sometimes things don’t go to plan and calmness goes out the window!

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

We love to dance and music generally. We spent a lot of the Berlin winter leading up to our wedding creating playlists that felt right. Christina’s background is Greek, so we had to incorporate Greek dancing (which was a surprising highlight of the night!). We also had one of our best friends Angie Osman take over the DJ decks late into the night. As a semi-surprise, Sputnik had been learning how to build some live visuals and made the most incredible and hilarious backdrop featuring all of our favourite things (Cher, Croissants, Hot Cross Buns, Henry Rollins, Tony Soprano, etc.)

Any tips for couples getting married?

We’re naturally quite private and introverted so having your emotions on full display for the whole day is very overwhelming. Things go wrong and the pressure of this day being the best day of your life is a lot at the time. But with the benefit of hindsight, we would still honestly do it all again!

And being married is the best! What a magical, crazy way of declaring your love and connection to one another.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

Damien Milan, our photographer. He was the first person we booked and was the absolute best (Christina had his website saved in her bookmarks for a very long time, so once we got engaged she knew exactly who our photographer was). It felt like he was a kindred spirit and matched our energy. Damien is amazing with lighting, watching him measure how light falls with his hand was very special. It’s such a joy to watch people do what they love and we are so grateful for our beautiful photographs.

Sara (Hello Love Events), our On the Day Coordinator. We are so glad and grateful to have Sara, as we originally weren’t sure if we needed an on the day coordinator. Turns out we really did! She kept us chill and helped us immensely with our run sheet. And of course on our wedding day was a true star. We couldn’t recommend Sara more!

We loved all our meetings with Victoria Pearson, our celebrant. Our meetings with her gave us space and pause to reflect on our relationship and think about what being married means to us. Victoria crafted the most beautiful ceremony for us, telling our story to our loved ones, and helped us to write our vows, a process we loved so dearly.

Photographer: Damien Milan @damienmilan_photographer | On the Day Co-ordinator: Hello Love @hellolove.events | Flora: Mimi Floristry @mimifloristry | Videographer: Honeybear Films @honey

bearfilms | Ceremony Location: Artspace @artspacesydney | Reception Location: Mary’s Underground @marysunderground | Celebrant: Victoria Pearson @ceremony.vp | Hire: Black Cab Central @BlackCabCentral | HMUA: Rachelle Facelo @rachellefacelo | Catering & Beverages: Mary’s Underground @marysunderground | Cake: Ornella Cakes & Dessert @ornellas_cakes | Entertainment: Champs / Ira Gontcharov @Champs.flac; Angie Osman @angieosman | Dresses: Vivienne Westwood @Viviennewestwood & Stella Bagiotas @stellabagiotas | Suits: Yohji Yamamoto @yohjiyamamotoofficial; Acne Studios @acnestudio; Stella Bagiotas @stellabagiotas | Veil: Gemme Atelier @gemmeatelier | Engagement Ring: Devi Petti @devipetti | Wedding Rings: Johanna Gauder @johannagauder | Shoes: (Bride) Repetto @repettoparis; Toteme @toteme & (Groom) Acne Studio @acnestudios | Earrings: (Second Outfit): Simone Rocha @simonerocha_ | Bouquet Ribbons: Niamh Galea @niamhgalea