Wedding | Jin & Paddy

Tell us a little about yourselves!

If you ask us how we met, Jin will tell you "at work." Paddy, on the other hand, will need at least two hours to tell you the full story. Things between us started just before Jin was moving to London. Paddy conveniently ended up moving to Berlin, where we played cat and mouse between the two cities for six months before making it official at a lake just outside Berlin.

Paddy then swiftly moved to London, where we lived together for four years before moving back to Sydney, which is home for both of us.

We both love a little boogie, whether it's at a festival or in our living room, ocean swims (even in winter), and hosting and cooking for people. It can get spicy in the kitchen: Paddy likes to follow the recipe, whereas Jin prefers to improvise. Being different is what we love about each other and our relationship.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We spent a lot of time chilling in parks when we first started hanging out, so having the ceremony at one of Sydney's best gardens, the Royal Botanic Garden, felt special.

For the reception, we knew we wanted to keep it in the city, as we had friends and family travelling from overseas and interstate and wanted to make things easy for everyone. We also didn't want to spend our weekends driving to venues, so instead we had dinner dates in the city after work to scope out potential places.

We knew Kiln was the one as soon as we ate there. The food, drinks and service were incredible, and the design of the restaurant—with its amazing city views—was stunning. It also meant we didn't need to overthink styling.

How many guests did you have?

Around 110. Cutting down the guest list was the hardest part as we're both quite extraverted.

What was your budget?

$50K maybe a bit over.

Tell us about your outfits.

I (Jin) ended up finding a white dress from one of my favourite Australian designers, Anna Quan, and loved it even though it wasn't technically a bridal dress. To make it feel more like me, my local tailor added a bow to the back using leftover fabric from the hem.

The veil was from Depop, by another favourite designer, Sandy Liang. Shoes were the hardest decision—I wanted something bridal, unique, comfortable, and wearable beyond the wedding. After a deep Instagram scroll, I found the perfect pair from Anonymous Copenhagen.

Similar to the shoes I wanted a bag for the day that I could wear after the wedding but unlike the shoes I didn't want anything white or too bridal so went with a blue Rejina Pyo bag. For jewellery I kept it simple with my mum's pearl necklace, my aunty's pearl earrings, a tennis bracelet gifted by another aunty at the tea ceremony and my jade bracelet I've worn for a while, which was a gift from my mum.

The tea ceremony dress was a Kua that my aunt and cousin had worn for their weddings as well. The earrings for the tea ceremony were the only piece of jewellery I bought and they were a red pair of Simone Rocha earrings I had been wanting for 2 years.

Paddy was looking for something a little different, so started looking online for vintage suits, but decided he'd prefer a tailored fit with P Johnson Tailors. Comfort was also key for him as he wanted something that would be light weight and breathable for the Australian summer. He also wanted something that was a bit different, and when he found a chocolate brown seersucker suit wool, he couldn't say no. He added some formality to this by adding more texture, a silk knitted tie and simple black loafers from G.H Bass.

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

We knew we wanted something that was easy, casual and fun. This meant choosing a location that was easy for people to get to, a venue where we didn't need to put much effort into decorating and having a cocktail style reception, so we didn't need to worry too much about finalising exact numbers and putting a seating chart together. Also, for anyone who knows Paddy they will know that he can't sit still. We both wanted as much opportunity to mingle with our guests and even more so for our guests to mingle with each other. How often do you get all of your favourite people in one place?

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

Jin's parents and family are from Singapore and so it was important to include parts of her heritage into the wedding like having Singapore orchids in her bouquet, a tea ceremony and 'door games'.

It was also important for both of us to include where we both grew up as part of the wedding. So the tea ceremony and where we legally signed our marriage certificate the day before was at Jin's childhood home and then where we got ready and did our first look was at Paddy's childhood home.

We also wanted to make sure our wedding was personal and felt like us so we had Paddy's brother officiate the ceremony, our friends play music as part of our ceremony and a friend be the MC. It really just felt like a gathering of our closest friends and family.

Finally, a consistent support line for any average day or celebratory moment, Jin and Paddy's love for the colonels chicken was an easy choice for catering at the Tea Ceremony, which was actually really cheap!

Any tips for couples getting married?

Take the time to understand what each person wants. Both of us put in equal efforts into planning the day and as a result the day felt like a true reflection of both of us. Also, take a moment for yourselves where it is just the two of you. We had a moment where we had a cocktail at our reception before anyone came up and it was so nice to take 5 minutes to breath, be alone and reflect on what had happened in the day. The day truly goes as fast as they say it does.

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

We genuinely loved all our vendors. It did take some time to find our vendors (except for our photographer) as we wanted to find women owned businesses, but it was worth it because it meant less planning and worrying for us as we trusted them to bring our vision to life.

Alanis K was the first and quickest person we locked in, even before we had locked in the venue. As soon as we met Alanis we knew she was the right person to capture our wedding. We both can be awkward in front of the camera, but she made us feel so at ease and managed to capture all the moments (big and small) as well as the essence of the day that made it feel like us.

Maddie from Modern Romance Social was our biggest cheerleader and gave us so much energy when we were taking photos. We knew we didn't want a full scale video production and so having Maddie capture the little moments meant that we have so many video snippets of the day we can look back on.

Trish from Butters, who made our cake, is the most talented and creative baker. We said we wanted a cake inspired by our initials PBJS and so she made a peanut butter jelly sandwich cake of our dreams.

Yen and Jules from Studio Sonder were a dream to work with. The brief was wild and whimsical and they absolutely nailed it even though our floral budget was not huge.

Last but not least Liz the events sales manager at Kiln. Liz was a delight from the get go, from our initial questions about how we could make the venue work for us, to building out how we could add a butter tower, and then the buzz and vibe she added on the day itself. The entire team at Kiln were just the best.

Photographer: Alanis K @alanis.k.photography | Flora: Studio Sonder @studio__sonder | Content Creator: Modern Romance Socials @modernromancesocials | Ceremony Location: Sydney Botanic Gardens @botanicsydney | Reception Location: Kiln @kilnsydney | Celebrant: Vow2Officiate @vow2

officiate | HMUA: By Eve Make-up @byeve_makeup | Catering & Beverages: Kiln @kilnsydney | Cake: Butters @butters___________ | Entertainment: DJ: Daniel Andaloro @dan_discoloro | Lion Dance: THQCabra @thqcabra | Dress: Anna Quan @annaquanlabel | Suit: P Johnson @pjohnsonworld | Veil: Sandy Liang @sandyliang | Engagement Ring: Benjamin Rose @benjaminrosejewellery | Wedding Rings: (Jin) Hamish Munro @hamish.munro & (Paddy) Aspendos Jewellery @aspendosjewellery | Shoes: (Jin) Anonymous Copenhagen @anonymous_copenhagen & (Paddy) G.H Bass @ghbass | Other Jewellery: Rejina Pyo @rejinapyo