A Halloween Wedding in Hong Kong
Kayo & Derek on their wedding day on October 31, 2015
With the rustling of fallen leaves under my feet and the smell of roasted pumpkin in the air, I have always anticipated Halloween: the candies, the parties, and most of all, the costumes. Dressing up was always my favourite part. I’d spend months planning the perfect costume. Six years ago, I blended my two loves when I married the man of my dreams on Halloween in Hong Kong.
After watching Baz Luhrman’s film, The Great Gatsby, I dreamt in art deco: the flowy frocks, the bling-bling headdresses, and the never-ending parties. Furthermore, I fell in love with the romantic-yet-somber aesthetics of leather driving gloves, matte vintage flasks, and abandoned theatre-turned-parking-garage in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive. I adored the idea of neurotic vampires, Adam and Eve, who collected ancient books and vintage guitars. The star-crossed lovers travelled around the world to be with each other, despite their undead circumstances.
My heritage also inspired my wedding, too. As a Taiwanese Canadian woman, I always wanted a Chinese-style wedding dress—a slim-fitting silk qipao with a Mandarin collar.
Janet Wong, a Hong Kong-based tailor, seamlessly assembled my ideas and eclectic sensibilities. She created the perfect dress for my three flower girls and myself.
“It’s black!” Mama gasped on my wedding day when she saw the dress. Well, it’s not quite black—it’s a shimmery, silvery black. A full-length dress with a Mandarin collar that cinches at the waist, embellished with delicate silver and black sequins in a zigzag pattern.
My talented husband created my wedding bouquet of white tiger lilies and cheerful orange daisies wrapped in regal black-silk ribbon. I wore my mom’s vintage, double-strand South China Sea pearls, matching earrings, and glistening dark-grey shoes given to me by my friend, the mother of the flower girls.
Despite Mama’s misgiving about Kayo’s black dress, she had a great time at the wedding.
To complete my art deco look, I commissioned a headpiece from Debbi Harrison Bond, an accessory designer. She used vintage glass rhinestones to craft my Daisy Buchanan-inspired sparkler. My nails were shellacked black dusted with gold glitter at the tips. To my art deco sapphire and diamond engagement ring, we added a simple white gold wedding band.
An art deco-inspired engagement ring.
My three flower girls were dressed in the innocent, timeless aesthetic of The Great Gatsby. They had ivory silk tops embroidered with traditional Chinese patterns of fish, phoenix, and dragons. To complement my dress, their ensembles featured Mandarin collars. Each dress had a different gauzy, sweet, vanilla tutu. They wore little flower hairbands and golden ballerina flats.
The adorable flower girls in matching Mandarin collars and tutu.
Derek and Kayo at the wedding reception.
After the ceremony, it was time for the costume party. Once the sheer top layer of my dress was removed, a knee-length dress was revealed underneath. Traditionally, Chinese brides change into three outfits during the wedding reception, but I didn’t want that for myself. My shorter dress gave me the freedom to move about, socialize and dance. My groom and I were vampires, joined together by eternity against the odds.