Sean and Fika's "modern vintage" inspiration at Villa Danieli, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur

Congratulations, dear Sean and Fika! We are honoured to have been a part of big day held in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year. Thank you for sharing your wedding with us and our readers!

A bright centerpiece for the bridal table adds much cheer to the ambience.

Over the past few years we have been seeing an increase of wedding receptions being held in nice restaurants, in addition to the norm of having them in hotel ballrooms. Restaurants are perfect for smaller, more intimate weddings if you're not inviting hundreds of guests. We enjoy decorating weddings for both types of venues but there's definitely a little more challenge with restaurants as their identities play a huge role in shaping our design inspiration. Things to take into account are the architecture, interior design, ambience, even its energy.

We can't wait to show you Sean and Fika's beautiful wedding reception in Villa Danieli, photographed by the talents at The Photoz and organized by the wonderful wedding planners, Natasha and Sharon of The Peak Xperience.




Fika has always loved the rustic feel of old Italian buildings and decor while Sean likes all things vintage, so our couple came up with "modern vintage" for their wedding theme. Neither of them wanted a big, ballroom wedding, and with a guest list of about 120 of their closest family and friends, they wanted a warm, inviting and intimate reception. Villa Danieli at Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur couldn't have been a more perfect venue for this wedding, wouldn't you agree?




Villa Danieli is an award-winning restaurant styled after a trattoria, with a warm, inviting interior. We chose a complementary colour palette of pale yellow, pale pink and white blooms, using Fika's guidelines for "pale versions of bright coloured flowers", which was what we would have also chosen given the rich colours and dark furniture of the venue. The glow of candle light through out the venue made the evening very atmospheric and romantic.



Going with the rustic ambience of Villa Danieli, we used rectangular, wooden boxes filled with roses, hydrangea and silver leaf for some of the floral arrangements. These were perfect for the long guest tables and dividers in the restaurant, not forgetting, a nice complement to the glass vases for the other floral arrangements.




The bridal table was cosy and circular, so we created a simple and lush centerpiece consisting of several low arrangements in glass vases, encircled with candles of different shapes and heights.




Textures abound in this modern vintage wedding reception! From guest tables to decor, tableware to the wedding cake, it was a feast for the senses no matter where you were seated. The beautiful and elegant cake was baked by Man Kwan of Passionate Cakes.



We love this little alcove in the restaurant, featuring a long table with low pendant lamps and lots of dark wood. Here, we kept the floral decor to a minimum considering the multitude of textures and dark colours, while not blocking the view of guests seated on the inside of the alcove.



Once again, many thanks to our wonderful couple Sean and Fika. We had a great time decorating your wedding, and we wish you all the best on your new journey in life together. Fika and Sean sent us a message, which we would like to share:

"When we had a first look into the venue, before the reception started, our jaws dropped open! The decor was high above our expectations and truly made our wedding dreams. Our guests were also dazzled by the beauty. Lily and her team understood our vision and made it reality. Thank you so much, Lily and team, for helping make our dream wedding come true; we will remember this evening for years to come."

Real Wedding: Jason and Pui Yee

"I see you there in glory shining bright,

Following the sun and its path of light,

Standing tall above all others in the field,

You grow, conquer, and do not yield."

- An excerpt from 'Poem to A Sunflower', by Katherine R. Lane

No prizes for guessing what flowers will be featured in this Real Wedding - Sunflowers, of course. Yellow, yellow everywhere.

First of all, we want to thank our readers who have personally asked us about our blog and who have been wondering where we've gone. We're here, guys! Still loving what we do best (or doing what we love best?). Since our last post in February, we are glad to say that we have preeet-ty busy around here. Oh but how we have missed our blog!



Let us introduce Jason and Pui Yee, our newlyweds who held their big day at Carcosa Seri Negara, Kuala Lumpur. We were glad to see a familiar face, as we had previously decorated the wedding of Jason's sister. Thank you for entrusting us with your super special day.

Many thanks to Zung of The Photoz for capturing these wonderful shots.

So, our beautiful bride has a thing for sunflowers. We would have loved to give her an all-sunflower wedding, but we agreed that mixing it up with different textures while sticking with the yellow theme would make the garden wedding ambience all the more special.

The lawn at Carcosa Seri Negara has seen many weddings, as garden weddings in Malaysia have become very fashionable in the past decade or so. Carcosa, with its colonial legacy and spacious lawn, is a popular venue.



We love the retro feel of the chairs, those lines, and the combination of cream and tan. They are the hotel's own. The idea for the wedding registration was one of the most unique we've seen! Guests were asked to "leaf" their thumbprints and signatures on the couple's 'Wedding Tree'.



Friends and family have fun with photo frames decorated with our bride's favorite flower!



For added texture and dimension to the floral arrangements, we used other yellow flowers such as dendrobiums, dancing lady orchids and roses. There are also different shapes and shades of green, from the woody sunflower stems, to the ribbony amaranthus, and the beautifully-patterned deep green local leaves.

Here's a tip for brides (or friends and family) planning to do their own wedding decor: If you're using flowers with stems and are separating the stems from the flowers, try and incorporate the stems in the floral arrangements. Not only do you reduce wastage, but they also tie together your wedding decor theme.

See that "leaf bowl" in the first picture, and in the first photo right below? We used real umbrellas for those arrangements! It is an easy prop to use in an arrangement, just fill up with flowers and other leaves and ivy, and you're good to go. But of course, being an outdoor venue, the challenge was to ensure that these umbrellas don't sway too much or fly away in the wind. Let's just say a lot of "reinforcements" were used to secure the umbrellas to the wooden beams :)



Here's a great example of using a bright, cheery color without compromising elegance. Stick to a very simple color palette (of colors that complement each other, of course) and keep ornaments to a minimum. 



We love our bride's bouquet! We applaud Pui Yee for using the vibrant sunflower in her wedding, and sticking to a yellow theme. Many people shy away from their favorite colors because they think it is too bright or colorful for a wedding, but let us share with you from experience - just go with your heart. Color is a part of your personality, and people will see that your wedding decor is "so you". On top of that, using interesting colors will only make your wedding all the more memorable to your guests!



Thank you so much, Jason and Pui Yee, for sharing your beautiful day with us. Here's wishing you a lifetime of joy and love and wonderful memories!