WedLuxe Magazine Winter/Spring 2016 Toronto & Eastern Canada | Page 157

Kelly was dressed in a red cheongsam for the traditional Chinese tea ceremony which took place before the wedding ceremony. The cheongsam was designed by the bride’s aunt and custom-made in Shanghai. Kelly wore a pair of teardrop earrings for the ceremony that belong to her mother and swapped them with a pair of earrings from Henry’s mother for the reception. N ew york-based couple kelly chen and henry lau met in their freshman year at columbia university in 2006. seven years later, Henry surprised Kelly with a trip to Iceland and proposed under the stunning northern lights. The couple were married on June 6, 2015 at a private residence in Toronto—Henry’s hometown. Kelly and Henry wanted their wedding to be a fun, unique, and colourful celebration. Melissa Haggerty and Gabi Armenia from spectacularspectacular were commissioned to provide full-service planning and design assistance for the event. “We were so excited to hear that Kelly wasn’t afraid of colour,” says event planner Melissa Haggerty. “In fact, the more colourful it got, the happier she was!” As the event was hosted in Toronto and the couple reside in New York, Kelly and Henry relied on Melissa and Gabi to assemble a team of vendors to bring their dream celebration to life. “They were amazing and instrumental in bringing everything together,” says the couple. Yorkville-based celebrity makeup artist Victoria Radford of radford applied Kelly’s makeup, and Allison Kam of anthony passero salon styled her hair. palettera custom correspondences produced the wedding stationery. “Our invitations were a take on traditional Chinese porcelain plates, except that ours were done with a riot of colour,” explains Kelly.