This bride wore 5 outfits on her wedding day, including a Christmas-themed dress — and it even lights up

• Victoria Ann Lim wore five gowns on her wedding day.
• One of the gowns was an extravagant Christmas-themed dress.

Victoria Ann Lim met her now-husband in 2015 on Christmas Day, so it was only right that she would have a Christmas-themed wedding dress.

Actually, Lim's Christmas-themed gown was just one of five designs she wore that day, but this particular dress went viral after her designer, Rusly Tjohnardi, posted her reaction on Instagram in August of 2023. It has over 220,000 likes.

Lim told Insider that she invited Tjohnardi to the wedding as a guest, and he hand-carried the gown from Jakarta to the wedding himself in Singapore.

"He actually came to my villa to show it to me the evening before the wedding," Lim told Insider.

A slow courtship leads to a massive wedding

Lim was out in Singapore on Christmas Eve with friends when her now-husband, Bryan, approached her from across the room, Lim told Insider.

Lim said it took Bryan one month to ask her out, and when he did, it was to a driving theory lesson, a general road safety exam taken before a practical driving test in some parts of the world, including Singapore.

The pair dated for nine months, but faced a choice when Bryan moved to the UK to pursue his Bachelor's degree while Lim was pursuing hers in Singapore. They stayed together, leading to a four-year long-distance relationship.

It all worked out in the end. Over seven years after they first met, Lim married Bryan in an extravagant ceremony at the Capella Hotel in Singapore on March 25, 2023, that would put some Hollywood weddings to shame.

A Singapore bride, an Indonesian dress

Lim's mother-in-law was the one who found the Indonesian designer on Instagram, Lim said.

"I ended up falling in love with the creations he posted. I didn't even have to take a look at other designers after that," Lim said.

With Lim based in Singapore and Tjohnardi based in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lim made multiple trips to see the gown and get her fittings. Thankfully, her in-laws were based in Jakarta, giving her a place to stay for the appointments.

Because Tjohnardi's designs are custom, Lim told Insider he requested she bring some inspirational pictures and references to aid his design process.

During the first appointment, Tjohnardi made a rough sketch of how the final gown silhouette would look, Lim told Insider. When Lim brought up including Christmas elements and her pet dog, Morrie, on her dress, she said the designer was supportive of her choice.

"Christmas holds a very important place in my heart as I first met my husband on Christmas of 2015, and our dog, Morrie's birthday also falls on Christmas Day," Lim told Insider. She added that Morrie, a Maltese and Yorkshire terrier mix, was significant in making the couple feel like a family.

Lim told Insider the bodice of her dress included all of her favorite things: Christmas trees, Christmas presents, martini glasses, and Morrie. These appliques were custom-made through a fine stitching technique signature to Tjohnardi, the designer told Insider.

The bodice of the dress was even designed to light up.

The designer added that they use a reference picture to mimic colors and textures as close to the real thing as possible. The artisans draw and trace the subject, and then this is embroidered onto a piece of fabric, cut out, and hand-sewn onto the bodice with other beading, Tjohnardi added.

Multiple traditions and locations meant multiple gowns

Lim told Insider their wedding had over 400 guests and that the event for her was around 21 hours long, with her makeup process starting at 3 a.m., and the day ending at 12 a.m.

Lim told Insider she had a total of five outfit changes on the wedding day, with the finale being the custom Tjohnardi gown.

Lim first wore her mermaid-cut white wedding gown for her first look with Bryan at the initial ceremony of the wedding day. From there, Lim said they went to Bryan's paternal grandparents' house to pay their respects while being escorted by her parents. At this event, Lim changed into a traditional Chinese Kwa — a style of jacket and skirt that's commonly red as a symbol of good luck.

But the day was far from over. The couple next attended a tea ceremony at Bryan's parents' house, where Lim changed into outfit three — a cheongsam, a traditional Chinese dress with an asymmetrical collar, side slits, and short sleeves.

Lim then returned to the Capella Singapore to begin her second makeup look and change back into her initial mermaid-cut white gown for the tea ceremony with her own family, and the solemnization ceremony; an exchanging of vows, she added.

Finally, it was time for their banquet, or reception. Lim made a grand entrance in a dramatic ballgown, before later changing into her couture Christmas gown that was a crowd-pleaser.

The wedding dress designer said that it's his mission to give brides the wedding looks of their dreams

Tjohnardi told Insider that dress designers like him become a safe haven for brides to discuss their stories and dreams for their wedding look, such as Lim's Christmas-themed gown.

He added that he encourages brides to speak their minds, but nowadays, most brides are well-informed about the design process and also are adventurous when it comes to personal style.

Tjohnardi told Insider that his customized gowns range in price, but start from around $3,000 and are produced in Jakarta by their in-house artisans. He added that because the pieces are handmade, the production time significantly varies depending on how intricate the work is.

Lim told Insider the entire process for her took place from the first appointment on December 6, 2022, to the wedding day on March 25, 2023, when Tjohnardi was still adding the final stitches to the dress right before Lim wore it for her grand entrance. Lim added that she didn't even realize he was making extra stitches until she watched the wedding video back.

"What I hold very dear to my heart was reflected on my wedding gown," Lim told Insider. "It just made me feel like everything had come full circle."