Suzanne + Neema's traditional Muslim wedding at the Sydney Polo Club
Suzanne & Neema's wedding
This stunning traditional wedding was held at the Sunnybrook barn at the Sydney Polo Club. Suzanne and Neema combined all the important cultural traditions with their own DIY and rustic touches. The results were - as you can see - quite phenomenal. See their stop motion video and photos below. A full list of vendors is at the bottom of the post.
This post was written by The Modest Bride
Sometimes you come across a wedding that just blows you away. Such weddings have a wonderful blend of beauty, clear attention to detail and raw emotion that emanates from the photographs. This is one such wedding.
Every element of Suzanne and Neema’s wedding is simply breathtaking. With a stunning vintage (from my favourite Rue de Seine!) gown that dictated the theme of the wedding, to the eclectic styling, the DIY elements, and the sheer happiness of all those taking part captured beautifully by amazing photographers, this wedding will stay you with you for a long time yet.
Here are all the details:
How we met
We met while studying together at Sydney uni, no exciting story to tell really!
Theme of wedding
My dress, which I bought before anything else was decided (before even the date was set), really dictated the theme. As soon as I tried the dress on I knew it had to be an outdoor wedding with old country elegance. Lace, flowers, hay bales and sun. That’s where the dress belonged. And the planning and theming all took off from there.
More importantly than the theme we really wanted the wedding to be about bringing all our favourite people together to celebrate with us in a casual yet beautiful setting. Neema and I planned the entire wedding together and we really focused on the guests. We wanted everyone to have a great time!
Bride’s dress
After having no luck finding a dress in Sydney’s streets I decided to take my search online and stumbled across the Rue De Seine bridal website and fell in love with their vintage gowns. I picked my dress (the dreamy Alana dress), called their New Zealand store (you can’t purchase the vintage collection in Australian stores) and made the purchase there and then over the phone. The original dress was actually sleeveless so my brothers fiance’, who is a fashion design student, skilfully added tulle sleeves.
Bridesmaids
I didn’t really have bridesmaids. My two close friends, after getting fed up with waiting for me to ask them to be bridesmaids (I really didn’t do anything formally!) decided to get matching dresses in different colours (they called themselves the unofficial bridesmaids). The girl in the pink long sleeved lace dress (Inayah) and flower headpiece was my sister and the other two girls in lace and flower headpieces were my cousins. I just knew I wanted these girls to be an important part of my day and asked them to wear lace and flowers.
Best Moment of the Day
I think this would definitely have to be the morning of the wedding before the party actually started! Neema came over with coffee and oregano pizza (mana’esh) at 8 am to pick me up (in my trackies and t shirt) so we can go over to the barn to help set up, meet caterers and drop off a whole heap of things. It was so much fun! Seeing our vision for the day come together that morning was surreal.
Florist
Our florist and stylist was Jessica Sylvester from A mother’s niche. I came across Jess while searching online and her beautiful work was exactly what I was looking for. Jess was honestly the best person we worked with in planning our wedding. She was honest, easy to get in touch with and you could just tell she poured her heart into her work.
Venue
The reception was at the Sunnybrook barn at the Sydney Polo Club.
Cakes
We bought plain cakes (Simmone Logue) and Jess our floral stylist did the cake toppers
Groom’s attire
Politix suit and Hugo Boss tie
DIY
The entire party at my house was DIY. My sister, cousins and aunt made the tissue paper and ribbon garland that was placed at the front door and they also cut out 50 little paper bags which they filled with confetti. My brothers and Neema put up the white flag bunting. We did all this the night before the wedding, stayed up until about 1am!
Makeup
Catering