I can’t believe how quickly your wedding era goes by. Mind you, not everyone chooses to plan their wedding in 10 months like I did. Even though I’m two months out from our big day, I still am reminiscing about it and I just got all my wedding photos back which has sent me on a nostalgia rollercoaster. So I thought it would be fun to share some details of my wedding day. Yes, I know this is a travel blog, and my wedding is very far from anything to do with travel. However, I also spent most of this year planning one of the best days of my life, obsessing over little details, and researching the heck out of vendors, it just wouldn’t feel right not reminiscing and documenting our special day. I also hope this gives some perspective and ideas to other brides who are in the trenches planning their weddings. 👰🏼♀️🤵
The Vibe
Let’s start with the vibe and theme for the day. I wanted my wedding to feel intimate. I knew we weren’t going to have a large wedding (we had about 84 guests) and I knew that one thing I loved about smaller weddings was how intimate they felt. When attending smaller weddings as a guest I felt I was truly a part of the couple’s special day, and could feel the love radiate from them and their guests. You also get to spend more time with the bride and groom than at big weddings and I wanted to be able to talk to every person that made the effort to attend our big day.
This also came alive in the venue (Hotel Ocho) we chose which was a historic building in downtown Toronto built in 1902 and was located just north of Queen St. West on Spadina Ave. The entire building was ours. They even had 12 hotel rooms upstairs that we filled with our immediate family. The open concept of the two floors that separated our dinner from our ceremony, and later our party space, felt homey and warm. I also am a sucker for old, historic buildings in Toronto. It’s one of my favourite things about the city. It was perfect.
The next thing that was important to me was the personal touches. I tried to avoid just buying all the things and doing all the things just because TikTok told me I should. Instead, I tried to be mindful of the things I wanted to incorporate into my wedding and thought more about the value (if any) it would add to my day and/or our guests’ experience. Looking back now, I do feel that the things I spent money on for our wedding day were all worth it, and there is nothing (or very few things) I would do differently.
So let’s get into the day of (and before) our wedding…
The Night Before
When thinking about hosting a rehearsal dinner, I have to admit, it was a little overwhelming. I was already planning this massive event and now I have to plan a second one? We also set a budget for our wedding, and although I think it’s normal to go over it by a bit, bringing everyone out for dinner in Toronto the night before was just off the table for a rehearsal.
We had our immediate family join us for our rehearsal, as well as our bridal party. Between just those people, we still had a guest count of close to 30 (now you can see why going to a restaurant was off the table).
Instead, we opted to host our rehearsal in our friend’s party room at her condo. She lives in a rather new building, so the room was quite beautiful on its own without having to decorate. It also allowed for a more casual rehearsal dinner. We had my stepmom and dad take care of the “bar” and they just brought coolers of beer and wine, and then we catered dinner from Greek & Co. for dinner. My husband’s mom also made dessert for the evening.
Our rehearsal dinner was also very important to us because our families hadn’t met yet. Most of my family lives in Northern Ontario, and Scott’s are in Montreal. It just hasn’t been realistic in the last 5 years of our dating to get everyone in one place for dinner. We kept this night pretty informal, and short, as there were lots that I needed to get done the night before our wedding day, but it was still a great way to kick off our wedding weekend.
The Morning Of ☀️
I know most people probably don’t choose to plan their wedding in less than a year, but for me, it felt like the morning of our wedding arrived so quickly. Since I didn’t know it any other way, I find it hard to imagine people who have more than a year to plan their wedding. I can’t tell if I’d go crazy from thinking about it that long, or if it would be more chill because you have more time. Someone let me know if you’re reading this! 😂
Anyway, I had full hope that I would be able to get a good night’s sleep the night before, but not the CBD gummies or melatonin would knock me out. I probably had no more than a couple of hours of sleep. Before I knew it my alarm was going off bright and early, and it was time to kick Scott out of the house (yes, we spent the night before together because we knew if there was any chance of sleeping it be higher if we were together), and welcome our hair stylist, and bridal party for 7 am.
If there was one thing I knew I needed to have for the morning, it was food. I have been to weddings before where this is often an afterthought, and since I knew I’d have a hard time eating, I just provided a bit of everything. I also, of course, made sure there were mimosas, and lots of coffee to help get us going bright and early for a long day.
For my bridesmaids, I gifted them all a personalized basket I ordered off Etsy which I filled with:
- Getting ready outfits: I opted for this essential shirt from Aerie because I own it in multiple colours and wear it all the time. It’s also a great beach cover-up! I got them the matching shorts to go with it. I wanted something they could wear again and repurpose.
- Survival kit: I also got them black wristlets from Shein that I filled with essentials for the day. They could use these purses for the day if they wanted to. Inside I put things like hand sanitiser, Bandaids, makeup remover, Kleenex, Advil, and a shot of Fireball (just in case we need some liquid confidence).
- Goodies: On top of the above, I included a few treats. I got them all some AWAKE Chocolate which is loaded with caffeine, and some “Wine O’Clock” gummies from Squished for fun.
All of my bridesmaids opted to get their hair and makeup done so I had two make-up artists, and a hair stylist that arrived pretty early to get the production line going. I booked my make-up and hair services through Victoria Barrett MUA.
For the most part, the morning FLEW by. Before we knew it, we were all getting into our dresses, my photographer, Stephanie Ironside, had arrived, and we were getting ready to leave to go to the venue. My Dad picked some of us up, and we reserved a Lyft for the rest of us and headed over to the venue when my photographer told us they were ready for us (so she could set the scene for the first look).
I will say I LOVED the fact that I got ready in our apartment. Not only did it help me relax being at home, but I also had access to anything I could need for the morning and didn’t have to think as much about making sure everything was packed. I also think it’s something I’ll look back on as being so special that we got ready in the first apartment Scott and I ever lived in.
The First Look & Registry Signing ✍️
Next, we headed to the venue, Hotel Ocho, where the boys had been getting ready. Our photographer arranged for Scott and I to do our first look outside the venue on the patio. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the perfect temperature. I seriously couldn’t have asked for better weather! Even though our entire wedding was inside, there was a patio at our venue our guests could use, and I wanted outdoor photos beforehand.
At this point, I got a hold of my flowers for the first time. My bouquet was garden-inspired by Blooming Floral Design. I was seriously obsessed with it. It was full of unique, fun flowers in a variety of colours and textures and was the perfect pop of colour for our fall wedding.
Having the first look was, logistically, the best option for us. We wanted to not miss our cocktail hour, and we also wanted to get ALL our photos out of the way before our wedding so we could just be present and enjoy the night. After our first look, we went to sign our registry with our officiant (Helen Sweet) inside our venue. In Ontario, a friend or family member can’t legally marry you unless they are a registered officiant. Since we wanted Scott’s sister, Jill, to do our ceremony, we had to hire a registered officiant to get the legal stuff out of the way before our ceremony. Some people do this during the ceremony (the signing of the papers), but we just wanted to get it out of the way so the ceremony would be entirely personal without any of the legal stuff.
This was such a quick process. I remember saying: “It’s weirdly easy to get legally married”. It took maybe 10 minutes max, and we were “officially” married. However, it didn’t feel real until I walked down the aisle with my friends and family.
Photo Taking Time 📷
After our first look and signing of papers, we were off to take photos. To me, the photos were fun, but it was exhausting. I LOVED our photographer. She was so patient with all of us and easy to work with. However, no one is used to taking this many professional photos in their life, let alone in a few hours, so when we were done, I needed a 20-minute break to just recalibrate before the actual wedding started. Hot tip! Make sure you add time for that in your timelines for the day.
Since it was such a beautiful day, we took mostly all our photos outside. We walked around Chinatown, and the side, residential streets near our venue. Looking at my photos now, I love the mix of city shots that we got, combined with some magical other spots we found around the neighbourhood. Like the below picture where we look like we’re in an enchanted forest (spoiler alert: this was just off Spadina Ave.). I was also so surprised at how nice Torontonians were to us as we walked through busy streets and traffic. People would stop to let us get the shot before they kept walking, and we had non-stop people honking or congratulating us.
After taking photos with our bridal party, we sent them off to hang out in our bridal suite at our venue while Scott and I went with our photographer and our content creator, Lexie, to take some solo photos/videos just the two of us.
I opted out of hiring a videographer for our wedding because I just didn’t want a highly produced video from our day. Instead, I hired a content creator, a colleague of mine, Lexie, who captured raw video and photos on her iPhone all day. This was perfect for me because I loved the instant dopamine hit it gave me later that weekend when I received all the content to go through, and I also didn’t once look at or worry about my phone all day.
Outside of the content creator and photographer, I saw this idea on TikTok earlier in the year that I knew I immediately wanted for our day. It was using a vintage camcorder that you handed around to your guests or bridal party to capture your day just like they used to (before these highly produced wedding films were a thing). I always LOVED home videos from our childhood. I love how raw they are, how they cut from one scene to another with no smooth transitions, and they just feel authentic.
So I picked up a Sony Handycam from Facebook Marketplace and had one of my bridesmaids in charge of it when getting ready, a groomsman in charge of it for most of the day and evening, and during the ceremony, I reserved a seat for one of my friends close to the front of our ceremony space for her to film.
I honestly went into it thinking that this video footage was either going to be great, or not turn out at all, and I was thankful it was great. I now have 3+ hours of footage from our day, including all our speeches and the full ceremony. It’s beautiful, it’s real, and when I watch it I’m instantly transported to every moment of our wedding. It is seriously one of my favourite parts of the day. I will also say, that when I watched it back, I didn’t realize how many things I just kind of blacked out during the day. Not because I had been drinking but just because the day was such a whirlwind and felt like a blur, so I loved watching it back!
If you do plan to do something like this instead of traditional videography, my biggest tips are:
- Make sure you assign people (or a person) to be responsible for different parts of your day and ensure they know what you want captured.
- Purchase extra batteries and SD cards for the camera so they can easily swap them out if need be throughout the day without having to sit and wait for it to charge. The Sony Handycam had SO much internal storage which was great.
The Ceremony
At around 5:30 pm, our guests started to arrive. Since we had hotel rooms upstairs, we could watch them trickle in. This is when all of a sudden it got real! I feel like from here, the day felt like a blur. When people say it goes by so quickly, they aren’t kidding.
Our ceremony space needed very little by way of decor. I loved the venue on its own without any decor. This is a great tip when you’re looking for venues if you want to save money on decorations – make sure you book a venue that is beautiful on its own!
We did add wooden pillars at the top of our aisle that my dad built. Our florist added florals to my thrifted vases and we sprinkled candles throughout to set a romantic scene.
While guests were getting settled downstairs, we were one floor up. This is one of my favourite parts of the day. We were waiting, not so patiently, anxious about what was to come, and simultaneously all the bridesmaids (and me) kept bursting into tears. Finally, the music started. My bridal party walked down the aisle to “Enchanted (The Wedding Violin Version)” by Ana Done. Then it was my turn.
I was so nervous leading up to our wedding because part of the aisle included stairs that I had to walk down, like 12+ stairs. It’s funny because once in the moment the thought didn’t even cross my mind that I was going down a flight of stairs. I walked down the aisle to “You’re In Love” by Taylor Swift. I cut the song to around 3:06 minutes in because this part of the song is so hauntingly beautiful. I walked down the stairs with my Mom, then my Dad joined us at the bottom and walked me down the rest of the way.
Scott officiated his sister Jill’s wedding, and so naturally, we got her to return the favour by being our officiant. We wanted our ceremony to feel unique, and personal, and not just be the “repeat-after-me” format. Jill did an amazing job. We laughed, we cried, and we said our vows. The ceremony was a surprise to us because we didn’t want to hear what she had planned until the day of. We also wrote our vows to each other which were also a surprise for the day of. Funnily enough, Scott & I’s vows had a lot of similarities without even planning it.
We were pronounced husband and wife, and now it was time to party! 🍾
Cocktail Hour 🍸
Immediately following our ceremony, our ceremony space turned into our cocktail hour space. Guests could grab a drink on the opposite side of the room at the bar and bring it onto the patio if they wanted. We had 3 speciality drink offerings – we made one called “Blushing Bride” which was a vodka soda with a splash of grapefruit juice and a “Brayne Fog” which was a rum and pineapple with a splash of soda. People raved about these and to be honest, we made them up without even trying them until the day of.
We also served our brother-in-law’s beer at our bar (Underground Brewery). This was something I didn’t expect our venue to allow but since the brewery is available in the LCBO in Northern Ontario, a restaurant can order with him to stock his beer. This was a fun addition because most of my friends and Scott’s family would never get to try his beer otherwise since it’s only available up north.
The cocktail hour sped by and was a great way to say hi and talk to as many people as we could who came out for our wedding. I can’t imagine skipping this for photos!
Reception
After a while, it was time for dinner. Guests were ushered upstairs where they would take their seat at one of the six harvest tables. Our seating chart was made with a vintage mirror I found on Facebook Marketplace that my maid of honour and I added the Cricut decal to. I loved this mirror and now that our wedding is done, I’ve removed the decal and have it in storage for our future home.
The dinner space had Edison bulbs strung from the ceiling (included in the venue) and felt very intimate since we only had six tables. At each place setting, we had the place cards that we made with the Cricut, menus which I felt added a pop of colour (printed on Vistaprint), and a handwritten letter to each of our guests.
I saw the idea of writing letters to each of our guests online and immediately fell in love with this personal touch that I hadn’t ever seen at any wedding I’d been to. I find traditional wedding favours are often left behind and wasteful, so this was what we did in place of them. Writing these did take months of work because we wrote personal anecdotes within each letter (vs. a generic message) but almost all our guests brought these home with them at the end of the night.
Each table also had a disposable camera because, if you know me, I’ve been using film cameras for fun for the last few years and I LOVE the vibe of how these turn out. I will say, I have some very specific tips if you want to do the same at your wedding:
- You want to get the Fujifilm Disposable Cameras. They sell them in bulk on Amazon. These are the ones that work the best. Do not opt for a cheaper brand or they will not turn out. Trust me.
- You need to make sure your guests know how to turn on the flash and that they are constantly reminded that photos, even if it’s bright, daytime or outdoors, will not turn out unless the flash is on. We printed stickers for the back of each camera and had our MC announce this, and most of the photos turned out great!
Our florals matched the garden vibe of my bouquet and added a pop of colour to our tables. They were also in thrifted vases I collected from thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace in the months leading up to our day. Many florists will provide the vases that you return at the end of your event, but I wanted to be able to take all the flowers home with me so it was just easier to provide them with the vases instead.
Another untraditional thing I did for our dinner was sit our bridal party with their significant others at our head table. I always hate attending a wedding that my partner is in and you don’t get to be with them for a good chunk of the event, so this was a great solution to make everyone happy and comfortable with who they were sitting with.
As Scott and I were announced into the reception space by our MC, who was Scott’s sister, Jess, we immediately went into our first dance. We danced to the song “And Then Some (Acoustic)” by Arkells. We landed on this song because Arkells were the first concert we ever went to together and it was the summer when everything opened up after the pandemic. We were there with a ton of friends (many who were at our wedding too), and everyone was crying with happiness because life finally felt normal again. It just seemed like an artist that was perfect for our first dance since we didn’t have “a song” before this point.
The rest of the dinner was a great time of hearing our loved one’s speeches, and enjoying having all the people we love in one room together for the first (and probably only) time ever. Our dinner was delicious. We started with butternut squash soup, followed by a choice of steak, chicken marsala or risotto, and ended with this delicious dessert of chocolate budino. I ate maybe one bite of each course because I had no appetite all day.
We ended dinner with a speech from the two of us. I couldn’t control when and where I would randomly burst into tears throughout this day. I’ve never felt so not in control of my emotions.
Party Time 🎉
Our guests were then encouraged to head back downstairs for our first dance with our parents, dessert/cake, and the party!
We decided to do our parent dances together to the song “Days Like This” by Van Morrison. It’s shockingly hard to find a song for this that isn’t super cheesy and works for both parents. As soon as our first dance was done and the party opened up, I knew that we had one thing left on our “to-do” list as bride and groom, and that was to cut our cake.
Our cake and dessert table was simple. We got a small cake that only really served about 8-10 people. It was vintage-inspired and so cute. Our venue forgot to serve the cake after we cut it so we ended up with the whole cake the next day. Thankful we didn’t opt for something any bigger!
Our cake was from KWENTO in Toronto which is a cute, locally owned bakery. It was an olive oil citrus cake, and was so good! To go with the cake, we also had vintage platters of Krispy Kreme doughnuts (Scott’s fav). People gobbled those up until there were none left!
Now that all my bride duties had come to an end, it was time to let loose and just party! We had a mix of our guests that were on the dance floor, and enjoying the nice weather outside on the patio throughout the night.
Late Night
Finally, we had some late-night pizza to fuel us through until the end of the night and absorb some of the alcohol. The first conversation Scott and I had on Bumble was about pizza, so we got custom-made napkins that displayed those initial messages to go with the pizza (printed with Vistaprint). I will say, this was probably a bit of a waste of money because at this point they kind of went unused and unnoticed by the majority of guests. I now have about 200 of these napkins to use in my house following the wedding.
Guests slowly started to trickle out as the night got late, but there were a number of us who danced all night on the dance floor until the music had to stop (around 2:30 am). We headed back up to the bridal suite where we spent the night.
It is wild how quickly the day goes by! Everyone tells you that but you don’t fully believe it until you’re in it. Before you know it, it’s over. Although I have immense relief that I’m no longer planning a wedding, you go from the ultimate high to some post-wedding blues when it’s all over. However, all the planning is 100% worth it. It was seriously the best day of my life that I wish I could go back and live again, and again. 💕
Vendor Recap:
Venue: Hotel Ocho (shout-out to Rish, our events coordinator)
Hair & Make-Up: Victoria Barrett MUA
Legal Officiant: Helen Sweet
DJ: DJ Earl Oliveras
Photography: Stephanie Ironside (of Iron&co.)
Content Creation: Lexie Laus Photography
Cake: KWENTO Bakery
Flowers: Blooming Floral Design
Printing:
Menus & Custom Napkins: VistaPrint
Other Printing (such as signs): The Printing House
Other Food:
Donuts: Krispie Kreme
Late Night Pizza: Domino’s
Outfit(s):
Dress: Becker’s Bridal
Rehearsal Dress: Lulu’s
Shoes: Naturalizer (best shoes ever – kept them on all day with no blisters)
Earrings: Mejuri
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