In an 18th-century Lisbon palace tucked into one of the city’s most creative neighborhoods, Jane and Brandon redefined what a wedding could feel like – intimate, expressive, and charged with intention. Palácio do Grilo became their canvas, transformed through candlelight, natural wine, sculptural installations, and performance art that blurred the line between dinner and spectacle. Guests moved through rooms that felt more like a curated cultural experience than a formal celebration, where Renaissance references met disco-ball fantasy and surprise was part of the design language. Florals by our member Oh, Maria Flores added another expressive layer to the design, with sculptural arrangements that felt organic and intentional.
Jane’s bridal wardrobe mirrored that same tension: a striking custom black gown that challenged tradition with elegance and edge, followed by fluid, fashion-forward changes designed for movement, mood, and late-night dancing. Brandon’s tailored, avant-garde looks echoed the cinematic energy of the evening, grounded yet unapologetically modern. Captured by THE WED member Ginger’s Eyes, the celebration reads as a visual story of contrast, culture, and creativity, where atmosphere mattered more than convention and emotion guided every choice.
Our Love Story
The Day We Met
We met on Hinge, though I was hesitant about online dating and approached it as a kind of social experiment. When I came across Brandon’s profile, one detail instantly stood out: our shared love of Soulection, a DJ collective known for blending soul, hip-hop, and global rhythms—it felt like an immediate point of recognition. Our first date was a Sunday brunch in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, spent over chicken and waffles, a long walk through the park, and conversations about music and travel. There were no instant fireworks, but a quiet pull that deepened over time. Brandon became my first, only, and last online date.
The Proposal
We chose to propose to each other. From the beginning, our relationship has felt like a true partnership of equals, and a mutual proposal felt like the most authentic way of choosing each other intentionally. We celebrated in the Catskills, our annual escape from the city, returning to our Airbnb after a cozy dinner at Café Susanna’s. In sweats by the fire, we shared private words, laughter, and tears—just the two of us—choosing our future together.
The Engagement Ring
We designed and shopped for our rings together, choosing the engagement rings we would exchange as a shared experience. What began as ring shopping quickly became one of our favorite dates—playful and intimate—filled with laughter as we tried things on and imagined what felt most like us. We wanted our rings to reflect our individuality while still belonging to the same family, so both were made at Shahla Karimi. Inside Brandon’s wedding band is the engraving “love love,” a phrase his grandmother often used instead of saying “I love you,” which we later realized we had both echoed at the end of our vows and continue to share with each other and our family.
Our Wedding
The Vision
We never called it a wedding. We called it A Celebration of Lovers and Friends. Our vision was cinematic, theatrical, and unconventional, reimagining tradition through our own cultural lens with playful contrast, surprise, and emotion. The evening unfolded like a living performance, moving from artful dining and avant-garde moments into a disco ball–lit fever dream that carried guests into the palace nightclub—an “unusual celebration,” as my mother perfectly put it.
Our Team of Vendors
We were thoughtful in choosing our vendors, knowing that creative alignment mattered most. From the beginning, our planner Carolina from Lovers Studio embraced our desire to create something unconventional, and that same spirit carried through our entire team of vendors. We approached the wedding as a shared creative project, drawn to vendors whose work felt fashion-forward, expressive, and less traditionally bridal. The process was deeply collaborative, especially with our photographer Anna, and it became even more meaningful knowing everyone was equally excited to create something unique together.
The Location
We chose Lisbon because it felt like a true meeting point between our worlds—the United States and Malaysia—with Europe as the perfect middle ground. Our planner, Carolina of Lovers Studio, suggested a wildcard venue, Palácio do Grilo, an 18th-century palace tucked into a neighborhood often described as the Bushwick of Lisbon. We were immediately intrigued, but our first daytime visit left us unsure. It felt unconventional, and at first glance, we couldn’t quite see it yet. Still, something about it lingered, as if the space was waiting to reveal itself in its own time.
Everything changed when we returned that evening for my birthday dinner and saw the space come alive under candlelit tables and low lighting, where Renaissance art, natural wine, visually striking dishes, and avant-garde performance art unfolded around us. The venue felt dramatic, creative, and mysterious, inviting us to be bold and expressive—a reflection of how we both grew up surrounded by music, performance art, and dance.
The Ceremony
Our ceremony entrances were conceived as declarations, shaped by our cultures and our instinct to do things our own way. Inspired by boxing walkouts, they were poetic, theatrical, and unapologetic. Brandon arrived first, unexpectedly, on a majestic black stallion to Kendrick Lamar’s Wacced Out Murals, a song that opens with a heavenly mariachi refrain before dropping into hard-hitting verses that mirrored his presence as grounded, spiritual, and self-assured.
He was followed by a three-piece choir featuring his mother and two sisters, dressed in traditional Southern Baptist maroon robes, performing a soulful rendition of I Choose You by Willie Hutch. I then entered with my mother in an all-female procession, honoring the women and matriarchs who shaped our lives. We exchanged vows between two surreal, parallel white extruded steps with a cascading layer of moss, set against the palace façade. The contrast felt deeply symbolic, representing two paths of growth moving side by side, rooted in the past while looking toward the future.
The Cocktail Hour
The atmosphere shifted into a feel-good, J Dilla–inspired rhythm as golden hour arrived and the energy softened from intimate to warm and soulful. Natural wine and Aperol spritzes flowed as guests moved freely through the space, lingering in conversation and taking portraits with our black stallion, Medidor.
The Reception
The reception unfolded in a candlelit, low-lit dining room at Palácio do Grilo, once the palace’s original horse stables. We preserved the room’s intimate, restaurant-style layout, with small tables of six to eight guests scattered throughout, allowing conversation to unfold naturally over the course of the evening.
As dinner progressed, Palácio do Grilo’s performance artists began to emerge subtly through the arched doorway at the front of the room. Dressed in white and moving in avant-garde poses, they quietly disrupted the space, sparking curiosity, intrigue, and moments of playful confusion. Watching our guests react, engage, laugh, and connect with the performers throughout the meal became one of our favorite parts of the night, transforming dinner into a shared, living experience.
We gave the artists very little direction, wanting to be surprised alongside our guests. Their final act became unforgettable as they led an illuminated, disco ball–guided procession from dinner to the dessert installation, into a separate room where we shared pastel de nata, and finally onward to the club section of the venue. As Donna Summer’s I Feel Love filled the palace, reflections scattered across the walls, turning the transition into a surreal, dreamlike journey that felt spontaneous and electric.
The Special Touches
We were able to fully express ourselves through layers of thoughtful detail, from the playlists that guided each transition to my black ceremony dress and the grandeur of the groom’s entrance on horseback. We leaned into contrast, blending the old and the new and borrowing meaningfully from both of our cultures, curating only the moments that genuinely excited us and felt personal. We never felt the need to follow traditional wedding conventions, and that freedom shaped the entire guest experience. Every detail reflected who we are, allowing everyone to feel our personalities in each moment and celebrate it together.
Our Favorite Moment
Our favorite moments were the ones we could not plan or control—the moments of pure surprise. Watching our families meet for the first time, seeing our mothers dance together, and witnessing the awe as Brandon arrived on horseback and I followed in procession with the women of our family felt deeply emotional. The sense of mystery and surprise kept our guests curiously engaged, something unique to Palácio do Grilo and impossible to recreate elsewhere. It felt like a moment suspended in time, alive with joy, connection, and a vibrant energy shared by everyone in the room.
Our Style
The Bridal Looks
Fashion became a way to honor my Southeast Asian heritage while embracing a contemporary point of view. I was intentional about wearing Asian designers throughout the weekend, drawn to work that felt culturally rooted yet boldly modern, where tradition and modernity coexisted. For the welcome party and tea ceremony, I wore a red lace gown by Sau Lee, a refined nod to my Chinese heritage and the symbolism of luck and prosperity. I paired the look with jade stud earrings passed down from my mother as a wedding gift, a subtle and deeply personal link to family and tradition. For the ceremony, I chose a custom black gown by Vietnamese couture designer Phan Huy, modern and subversive in spirit, with an elegant silhouette animated by intricate beading that created texture, movement, and depth.
I kept jewelry minimal and sculptural, wearing silver square statement earrings by Eliou to balance the boldness of the gown. As the evening softened, I changed into a fluid satin gown by DATT for dinner, followed by DATT’s Rosanne Sheer Mini Dress for the after-party, a playful mesh-layered silhouette with sculptural ruffles designed for dancing late into the night. While getting ready, I wore a sheer off-shoulder two-piece set by Indonesian brand Saya Tales, its billowing sleeves and romantic lightness perfectly suited to the palace setting. Black is not traditionally considered auspicious in Chinese weddings, but with Brandon’s encouragement, I trusted my instinct to be subversive. Paired with my mother’s maroon gown, the contrast created an unexpected harmony, forming a palette that felt both modern and deeply rooted—a visual expression of generations and cultures meeting in the middle.
The Groom Looks
Brandon wore two custom looks over the course of the celebration. For our tea ceremony, he wore a custom silk tang shirt by Malaysian designer ByMeichi, crafted in maroon silk and finished with light jade buttons to complement my red qipao. For the ceremony, Brandon leaned into a modern, fashion-forward look with a custom design by Phan Huy, inspired by his favorite Met Gala moments. References on his mood board included Austin Butler, A$AP Rocky, and Lewis Hamilton. Instead of a traditional suit or tuxedo, he wore a cropped, structured shirt jacket with a deep V neckline, styled with a satin scarf, Prada boots, Dior sunglasses, and a silver necklace.
For the reception, he shifted into a more relaxed, unbuttoned gray double-breasted suit with subtle white striping, chic and effortless in tone. Later in the evening, he changed into Comme des Garçons Converse Chuck Taylors paired with a tailored, elongated vest accented with silver hardware from Heliot Emil. We curated all of our looks together, intentionally stepping away from tradition. Together, our styles felt like two sides of the same story—modern, expressive, and entirely our own.
Our Advice
For the Planning Process
Finding a planner and creative team who truly understand and align with your vision is essential. When trust and collaboration are present, ideas flow freely, and that is where the magic happens. Working with people who clearly understood the brief made the process feel intuitive, allowing us to lean into bold and unconventional choices with confidence. We often asked our vendors what inspired them creatively outside of weddings, which offered insight into their perspective and helped us build a team we genuinely connected with.
The venue was the most significant decision we made, setting the foundation for everything that followed. Beyond beauty, flow and functionality mattered just as much. Choosing an unexpected wildcard was something we never would have discovered on our own, yet it became one of our best decisions—a testament to trusting our planner’s expertise and shared taste. Having someone who understands your sensibility and knows when to push you creatively makes all the difference. Lastly, we made a point to enjoy the process and have fun. We treated the wedding as a creative project we were building together, a rare and special moment in our lives to collaborate and create side by side. Through months of open brainstorming, creative exchanges, and throwing out wild ideas in the year leading up to the wedding, we learned even more about each other. It was a deeply meaningful time, one that became a core memory and a lasting point of connection as we moved toward marriage.
For On The Day
We were intentional about not starting the day too early, knowing that ease and enjoyment mattered more to us than a rigid schedule. I began the morning with breakfast at the hotel alongside friends, while Brandon spent time with his closest friends by the rooftop pool. Starting the day in a way that genuinely fuels you—whether alone or surrounded by people you love—sets the tone before everything begins to move quickly. Being present can be challenging when the day unfolds at such a rapid pace. Right before the ceremony, Brandon and I took a quiet moment together to share our gratitude, a practice we returned to daily in the lead-up to the wedding that helped ground us and reconnect with the bigger picture. We stayed close throughout the day, knowing that being present with your partner matters more than trying to be everywhere at once. In the end, it is your most meaningful and expensive date night, so be mindful of where you place your energy, let go of the small things, and remember that if you are not having fun, what is the point of having a wedding at all?
For Post-Wedding
Plan as little as possible for the day after. We welcomed friends who stopped by to say their goodbyes, but we also protected the space to be alone together and embraced whoever naturally lingered. After such a full night, it felt important to let the experience settle, giving ourselves and our guests time to absorb the magic and ease into wedding bliss. We spent a quiet couple of days in Comporta, just outside Lisbon, surrounded by nature, watching candid iPhone footage from angles we never saw while waiting for the full gallery and final edits. It became a beautiful way to relive the wedding once the noise faded, savoring the memories together at our own pace.
Vendors
Photographer: Ginger's Eyes
Videographer: Bárbara Rocha
Venue: Palacio do Grilo
Wedding Planner: Lovers Studio
Florist: Oh, Maria Flores
Stationery: Jess Zhang
Cake & Catering: Palacio do Grilo
Celebrant: Melcolm X. Ruffin
Music: Sahar Habibi
Makeup: Irina Stoyan
Style
Ceremony Dress: Phan Huy
Reception Dress: DATT
Shoes & Accessories: Cult Of Coquette, Eliou
Groom Suit: Phan Huy
Wedding & Engagement Ring: Shahla Karimi
