A black tie wedding with a twist, Tim and Dasha’s Netherlands wedding was sophisticated and oh-so elegant. Playing up their heritage and traditions, this gorgeous wedding celebration was perfect for this sweet couple. Read on to hear all about their proposal and more from this elegant wedding day!
The proposal
From the bride: Tim proposed to me quite some time ago, not too long after university. We just started to live together, and we were trying to make it in a big city dreaming about what the future can be. One evening in November, I was coming home from one of my part-time jobs. When I entered the flat, everything was dark and the door in the living room was closed. When I opened it, I saw a sea of candles, a dinner, and Tim with his guitar. He put me on the sofa and started singing a song that he wrote and I started crying. He then went down on one knee and proposed. I instantly said yes. I always knew that he is my soulmate.
Finding the perfect Essense of Australia wedding dress
I’ve always been passionate about fashion. However, I’ve never been a woman who’s been dreaming about her wedding day. So, when we decided that we want to get married in a year, I felt very overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to start, so I kept postponing my dress shopping.
I decided I wanted to go dress shopping with my mum, my future mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. So, we booked tickets to the Netherlands (Tim is Dutch, and his family still lives there. We had only a couple of days and four appointments, so I really needed to narrow my search.
I spent nights and days on Pinterest and Instagram trying to understand what I like and what I need and it didn’t really get better. I wanted to go one more time in London to narrow the search. Little did I know that I would find my dream dress.
I chose about 10 dresses to try on. It was a real mix of textures and silhouettes. There were a couple I really liked, but when I put this dress on I was shocked! And the bridal assistant said: “I think this is the one”. When I left the fitting room, I saw myself and started crying. I suddenly realised that this is what I’ve been looking for all this time. It represents everything I wanted: Its classic, timeless, sophisticated, structured, simple and incredibly elegant. It was exactly my style is and this dress was simply me.
By this time, I had only four months left until the wedding. The bridal salon was panicking a little bit and informed that I can’t have a dress made for myself. However, there is one dress in the same size in the brand’s warehouse in Australia. It is one dress in the world! I had to make a decision straight away because anyone in the world could buy it any second. But I was going to the Netherlands the next day! I knew that I couldn’t do it to my mother as I am the only child and I really wanted to give her this wedding dress shopping experience. But I said I need to sleep on it. We left the salon and I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about this dress, constantly. I finally called to confirm my order and…the dress was still there! I couldn’t believe it. It was a real destiny for me to have this dress. This dress made me feel so special! I never regretted my choice and I am now sad that I can’t wear it again.
The wedding details
Tim’s family house is almost in the middle of nowhere. It is surrounded by forest and lake. It because a place where we came when we were running away from incredibly but intense and hectic London. One of my most favourite things was sitting in the garden on a Summer night with a glass of wine. It’s very quiet and fresh, not too warm. And on one of those nights, I said: ” Can we do it here?”. And 13 months later on a beautiful Summer day, we received our friends and family from 10 different countries.
I always wanted to have a Black Tie wedding, but Tim didn’t want to be a burden and make our friends wear ball gowns and buy tuxedos. We compromised by saying that it is a Cocktail dress code. However, we both were dressed for a black tie wedding.
Being an event producer has its benefits. I’ve done so many luxury dinners that I already knew what I wanted. Luckily my man had the same taste. We wanted it to look very organic in the garden, but be classic and elegant rather than rustic. So, we chose gold candles and cutlery, French glassware, grey tablecloths, and big green eucalyptus table runner. And all of this really represented us and our lifestyle. Moreover, we organised everything ourselves and did the cleaning before and after, did some DIY, were buying small elements like confetti ourselves. The ring bearer was one of the family’s first dogs Bo who we love so dearly.
Besides enjoying being in the spotlight walking down the aisle and crying to the vows, I remember speeches. We didn’t ask any of the guests to do a speech, because we wanted them to have fun, didn’t want to make them do stuff.
We were very surprised how by many people were giving speeches and how amazing they were. Everyone was crying! I gave my speech in three languages (English, Dutch, and Russian) and even people who didn’t know Russian were crying. What I will always remember is how much effort people put in this wedding for us and how many of them came from different ends of the world. It made me realise how many amazing people I am so lucky to have in my life.
