Wedding of Sparkles: Bits of Confetti

I thought I had better sit down and commit some of these bits of confetti to the blog, before they get too deep into the fog of my memory. I already feel like the whole Wedding of Sparkles is fading away too quickly! I’m ready to get married again! The whole event was perfect, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Despite the beginning of the day being threatened by a giant windstorm, it turned out not to be a match for our jubilant excitement! So let me guide you through some of the highlights!

What else do you do on your wedding day but make an emergency fashion trip to buy additional bejewelled accessories? That’s how we roll in the Molli Sparkles household. So we booked it over to Calibre, and sorted out some tie bars to keep our ties in place due to the wind. Once back home (with still an hour to spare before our car pickup) we had that final coffee, and spent our last minutes together as merely long-term partners. Knowing that we would be coming home as husbands, was not lost on us, and we both appreciated how life changing this experience was about to be.

Our photographer throughout the event was detailed and invisible. Anna from Anna Murray Photography caught every element of the wedding, while also being out of sight enough to catch those memorable sneak peaks! When we arrived at Adam’s parent’s house to begin getting dressed, she spent time with us getting ready, then took us for a few photo-ops around the house. As we were wandering down the back creek, the camera-shy Mr. Sparkles leaned over and whispered, “I’m only doing this because of you.” To which I replied, “Well, good, keep doing it.” LOL! Despite his reservations, I managed to get him through all the clicks of the shutter without too much pain. I kept promising him champagne! As we got the preview shots back a few days ago, he finally admitted it was worth it! Winning! (Also, pause here to say all photos in this blogpost are credited to Anna Murray Photography).

Wedding stylist, wedding planner, event coordinator extraordinaire and friend, Jo Kalivas of Jo Kalivas Events made the whole experience smoother than the vocal stylings of Babyface. When we walked into Adam’s parent’s house, it had been transformed. Like, listen, I knew there were going to be some shenanigans–I had been approving the cashflow after all. However, I did not realise the level Jo was going to be taking this party. It was only three weeks prior that I had called her to say, “Adam has cancer. We want to get married in three weeks. What can you do?” After that first call, I think she took it as a personal challenge to show me exactly what she could do!

The entire back patio had been transformed from red-brick-suburbia into swanky-rainbow-metallic-quilted-disco. There was major meterage of charcoal, fabric drapery on every vertical surface. Acrylic signage was embossed with our names, logos, and dates. Cocktail tables encouraged gatherings with an arrival drink, and velvet lounges on the lawn invited you to stay a while. Mirrored disco balls overflowed throughout the gardens, and neon signs inspired electric sparks between guests.

Through it all, Jo had used my quilts to tie it all together. Again, I knew they would be there as I had dropped them off days earlier. Yet, to see my Rainbow Mountains quilt top hanging vertically as the arbor backdrop was a sight to behold! Believe me when I say I did not make this quilt with the intention of using it in my wedding. These two happenings were not related in the slightest. It hadn’t even crossed my mind until Jo asked to use it. I originally said, “No, I don’t think so because it’s not finished. It might get dirty.” Listen to precious ol’ me. Reluctantly, I handed it over, not knowing where it might end up. “Well colour me happy, there’s a quilt in here for two!” comes to mind! I will never get over the visual of me standing in front of that quilt while being married! Thanks, Jo!

If you need a wedding/event planner, reach out to Jo Kalivas Events. She made every step feel like I was included, but without any of the pressure or responsibility of making it happen. For a control freak like me, that was heavenly. She took the time to get to know us as a way to ensure our event was tailored not only to our requests, but to our personal style. There were so many times (many) where our independent ideas happened congruently, or I’d approach her with a request and the response was, “Babe, that happened last week.” The best! This is a woman you want on your team!

The catering for the Wedding of Sparkles was a total treat! If you’re in the Sydney area, and need the a big helping of deliciousness, look no further than Bren and Luisa at The Grazing Co. At the beginning of the year we did a full menu tasting with the Museum of Contemporary Art’s own in-house catering company. We had spent hours designing the perfect menu with them, only to see all of that crumble due to COVID19.

When I sent our previous menu to Bren and Luisa as inspiration only they responded with, “Oh, we can do that whole menu.” What? My only beef with the whole thing was that I didn’t get a chance to really chow down! I sampled everything, but I wanted seconds, damnit! Especially that chilli caramel port belly with warm caramel and prawn fur. Who the hell knows what prawn fur is, but mmm-hmmm, but I’ll take some to go! You bet I’ll be calling them for all of my events from now on!

Can I also give a giant shout out to the drinks?! Of course, by design, that department was left up to me and Mr. Sparkles. You can see the menu above, but I don’t think I took a sip of anything other than champagne. If someone (even yourself) gives you a glass/bottle/case of champagne, do not forsake it! You drink that mother up! Shout out to the bar staff who were super friendly and kept the drinks flowing! One small thing, we did manage to over-cater, a bit, a tad, a few sips here and there. There were three cases of beer, three cases of cider, twenty four bottles of wine, three bottles of Pims, three bottles of Aperol, and four bottles of champagne left. It all came home with me!

With time ticking down to the big event, I was fidgeting like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I’m sure you’ve all seen the live stream: the first ten minutes the camera was bouncing around so much you’d think I was on a pogo stick. No, girl no. It was just my hands showing every bit of nervous excitement that was bubbling to the surface. Even our celebrant, Ollie, came over to me, looked me straight in they eye with Bren the chef bearing witness, “Calm down.” My immediate response, “What? Do I look nervous? Am I nervous? I’m okay. Am I okay? I’m fine. No? What. I’m fine. I think. Who are you?” Someone should have slapped the silly out of me. Instead, I stood in the kitchen, took a deep breath as my soon-to-be-husband held me through.

Then thank goodness we did the live stream, because the whirlwind of emotions caused the ceremony to be quite of a blur! I remember Mr. Sparkles reading his vows with such conviction, and then reading mine with a quiver in my voice. I remember looking at my friend Zach in the audience when it came up that I might be a bit of a controlling perfectionist (maybe). I remember staring at the ring box trying to figure out which one I was supposed to remove and being terrified of picking the wrong one. I remember the celebrant saying, “Joshua loves being loved by Adam,” and then correcting him when he called me Ms. Sparkles. I remember the kiss, and thinking we forgot to practice the kiss! And then it was over.

One of the highlights of the whole ceremony was at the end having the kids sign our marriage certificate! Most kids don’t get to see their parents get married, and we wanted them to play a vital role in our celebration. I have been a part of their life for 15+ years, with Harrison being 9 and Charlotte being 4 when we first met. (If you’ve been around the blog long enough, you’d remember a few proud dad posts!) Suffice to say, we are family through and through. We needed two witnesses, and thankfully we don’t have three kids, or we surely would have had to pick favourites!

If there’s any advice I can give to anyone about to get married: cherish every minute of your experience. It goes by so quickly! Not only the ceremony, but the heartfelt hugs, the dizzying highs, sweet drinks, collected conversations, and lingering notes of your favourite songs. The next few hours disappeared without so much of a breath! So be present in every moment because you don’t get it back.

From there it was time to eat, drink, be merry, and take more photos! I believe we got a photo with every guest in front of the Rainbow Mountains quilt! Again, a blur, combined with those feelings of “Hey, I just got fucking married!” There were hugs, high-fives, congratulations, and Kylie Minogue singing “I’m spinning around” somewhere in the background.

The feeling of getting pronounced husband and husband was like none other. Suddenly all seemed right with the world, even if for that very moment, in that tiny space of a backyard. Utopia was clearly a possibility and I was living it. I’m not sure what I expected, but the atomic bomb of joy emanating from within was overwhelming. I remember seeing Anne-Marie first and nearly needing to be held up with a hug from her. And then the boys were upon me inspecting the sparkles on my wedding finger that I thought I’d never get to flash. For a boy from small-town Oklahoma who never thought marriage would be allowed him, this was a thing of dreams.

Originally, we weren’t going to do speeches. I mean, honestly, we hadn’t thought it all the way through. We got to the part where everyone arrives, we get married, there’s food, drinks and mingling. Remember, we pushed go on this wedding just three weeks prior. Many of our original plans had been paused and pushed aside. Plus, as Mr. Sparkles kept saying, “I don’t want a traditional wedding.” I think he was afraid I was going to pop out in a white, poofy dress and veil! (Next time!) Anyway, speeches weren’t something I had factored into the night. That is until our German friend Sebastian (drunk as a skunk, mind you) stumbled up to wrap his arms around me, “Joshie, you’ve got to do speeches. Adam says so. It’s up to you.” Um, what? This was not the version of the night I had expected.

Turns out Sebastian played us both, just to get the speeches to happen, but I’m glad he did! Y’all know I love a good yarn, and this gave me a chance to tell the story of how Mr. Sparkles and I met. Ironically, we were introduced by our longtime friend Heath (and Sebastian’s boyfriend) at ARQ nightclub, 15.5 years to the day. It’s my own Cinderella story that I may share with all of you another day. But in this moment, the speeches allowed our small gathering of family and friends a beautiful connection point.

Y’all have heard of the acronym, BYOB? (If you haven’t: bring your own booze / beverage). Well, we had a CYOC policy: cut your own cake! It happened quite by accident! It was again, one of those more traditional wedding things we hadn’t really planned for, the cutting of the cake. So I finally harangued Mr. Sparkles into cutting the cake with me, and letting me feed him a piece. (There’s a photo-op moment of that on my Instagram.) However, once that was done, we kind of forgot about it, and I went back to drinking my champagne. Except, guess what! Other people wanted cake! Who knew? Well, here’s the knife, go for your life! And that’s how CYOC began–just help yourself. It was actually an amazing policy, and allowed our guests to get as much cake as they wanted!

As the evening set into night, and the love flowed between all of our guests, I knew I was not just lucky. This actually had nothing to do with luck. Mr. Sparkles and I had made this love, and kept it growing for 15.5 years. We chose to be together, we chose to surround ourselves with these amazing people, and thankfully they chose to share it with us. Despite COVID19, and with the help of some very special people, our wedding was everything we wanted it to be. We sincerely missed all those close friends and family that couldn’t share it with us due to travel challenges. We are hoping you’ll be able to celebrate an anniversary (or two) with us in the future! Mark you calendars for 26 September 2021, because we’re gonna need your help celebrating!

The live stream was watched by so many people around the world, from six of the seven continents. I’ve put it on my YouTube Channel if you’d still like to check it out. (Click Here To Watch) Thank you to everyone that sent messages of congratulations, support, and toasted a glass of champagne in our honour! We felt you there, and we loved seeing all of your selfies watching from home! So what’s next? Wedded bliss.

There are so many people we want to say thank you to for being part of this journey: Bev & Kev Joyce, Harrison Joyce & Phoebe Chandler, Charlotte Joyce, George & Faye Psyhogios, Gabrielle Sullivan, Zach Horder, Anne-Marie Hales, Steven Cox, Andy Buckingham & Grant Lowe, Heath Fullarton & Sebastian Ciskos, Kylie Falconer, Karina Bonouvrie, Jules An, Steve & Cathy Flippance, Jo Kalivas & Efrem Bunguric, Anna Murray, Luisa & Brendon Onorato, Marie & Max Mann, Lacy J Lodes, Carol Chrisenberry, Mel Haviland, Judy Le, Alyce Blythe & Family, Melissa Gottliebsen & Family, Danielle Thomson, Jen & Martin Green, Jessica Miller, Colette & Jeff Hawkes, Jono & Todd Perkins, and the entire Wedding of Sparkles Crew & Contributors. It’s been a ride.

Wedding Planner / Stylist: Jo Kalivas Events
Photography: Anna Murray Photography
Draping & Decorations: NPM Events
Furniture: Simply Seated
Props: The Treasure Room
Lighting: Sydney Fireworks Pyrotechnic
Graphic Design: Starfruit Designs
Printing: Nasa Design Sydney
Signage: Letters By LouLou
Balloons: Bellino & Co
Catering: The Grazing Co
Cake: Mastello Creations
Crockery & Glassware: The Pretty Table Hire
Suiting: Calibre (shirts, jackets) and Twisted Tailor (pants)
Accessories: Calibre (ties, tie bars, brooches)
Shoes & Belts: Florsheim
Rings: Gregory Jewellers
Quilts: Molli Sparkles