{"id":193616,"date":"2015-01-14T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T02:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.easyweddings.com\/au\/real-weddings\/technology-opens-gates-for-outdoor-wedding-of-xiaowen-stephen\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T16:24:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T05:24:35","slug":"technology-opens-gates-for-outdoor-wedding-of-xiaowen-stephen","status":"publish","type":"au-real-wedding","link":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/real-weddings\/technology-opens-gates-for-outdoor-wedding-of-xiaowen-stephen\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology opens gates for outdoor wedding of Xiaowen & Stephen"},"content":{"rendered":"
Separated by thousands of kilometres, it was 500 emails that brought together Xiaowen Lei and Stephen Cox.<\/p>\n
They met through a mutual friends and built a connection over a few years while Xiaowen was living in China and Stephen, Australia. Communication wasn\u2019t easy to begin with, however!\u2019 \u201cStephen sent me a birthday wish over Facebook,\u201d explains Xiaowen, 38. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t reply to the message because China blocks Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
But emails began and then after Stephen, 43, paid Xiaowen a visit in China, they began using a web chat application. \u201cWe exchanged photos to show our daily life, voice messages and later on, video calls,\u201d the bride says.<\/p>\n
After meeting her family and friends at a later date, Stephen popped the question! \u201cIn June, 2014 Stephen came to China to collect me. He passed drinking tests set by my friends,\u201d Xiaowen laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a Chinese tradition that a man has to pass a drinking test to be able to take his bride away.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were married with an outdoor wedding on October 26, 2014 in Brisbane\u2019s Newstead Park. \u201cChampagne gold sashes used for both ceremony and reception connected the two venues,\u201d says Xiaowen.<\/p>\n
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Xiaowen’s gown was a gift from a close friend.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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“It was a pleasant sunny – but windy – day in Brisbane when we married,” says Xiaowen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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The colour theme was purple and white, fitting for the surrounding Jacaranda trees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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