When you have a penchant for traveling the world with your honey, it seems like a no-brainer that this would make the perfect theme for your wedding. So, when Angela and David (the fabulous couple behind these nups) began planning their big day, they knew they wanted it to be vintage and they wanted to incorporate their globe trotting ways. The result is all kinds of fantastic. Between the old maps, the perfectly worn in luggage, the killer photography by Sakura and the handmade paper goods by the bride herself, we are drooling all over our keyboards. Literally. See even more of this vintage travel wedding in the gallery.
see every last pretty detail in the gallery!
From the Bride:
David and I met and fell in love at Simon Fraser University in Canada as graduate students completing our master’s degrees. He was from Portland, Oregon, but with a huge contingent of family in Canon City, Colorado, so much fun was had visiting relatives and friends in the U.S. over our two year courtship. We’ve been fortunate enough to be able travel quite a bit over the last couple of years, including Oregon, Colorado, California and Illinois, as well as farther afield to the U.K., France and Thailand. In March of 2009, David took me shopping and bought me a pretty dress, and then took me out to a delicious dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, where he popped the question. And so began our somewhat protracted wedding celebration...This Vancouver wedding was actually our second ceremony, as we had, the previous year, gone to Thailand to have a traditional Buddhist ceremony (my mother is from Thailand). We wanted to have a ceremony so that my 94-year-old grandmother could be there. We held it on May 29th, my grandmother’s birthday, and she was able to attend and actually perform some of the ceremony.
We both knew we didn’t want a huge wedding—something sweet and intimate, perhaps around 80 people. Anyone who knows me will know that I’m a somewhat obsessive planner and researcher, particularly for things involving travel, so I knew I would be taking the reins with regards to planning the wedding. It was one crazy year, as both David and I wrote and defended our MA theses leading up to the big day, but it was all worth it in the end. David and I established what was particularly important to us: food (we are food fiends), photography, location and my dress. I’m not sure if we just knew what we wanted when we saw it, or if I’d done enough eliminating via research on the internet, but most of our vendors were the first ones we saw. Our photographers, the fabulous Sakura Photography, had a beautiful and fun portfolio, and were easygoing people who we felt would be comfortable to work with. We only saw one venue for the ceremony, the Celebration Pavilion in Queen Elizabeth Park. We loved the intimate space, as well as its proximity to beautiful gardens and some pretty spectacular views of the city. Our reception space was also the first place we went to, Monk McQueen’s restaurant. The upstairs would be all to ourselves, with windows on all sides looking out onto downtown Vancouver. We liked that they were personable and helpful, and didn’t have a ton of restrictions and extra fees, and that everything could be handled in house (food, table settings, etc.). Even my dress, from the Bridal Gallery, was the first one I tried on—I did attempt to try a bunch of other dresses, but in the end, I had to go back to the first one. When you know, you know! The beauty stuff was fairly simple. My hairdresser that I’d had for over 7 years did the hair for me, my bridesmaids, my mother and my sister. I had gone to make-up school before I started university, so I did our make-up on the day. It was good to actually have a task to do the morning of—kept me busy!
Overall, we just wanted everyone to have fun and feel like there was a sense of thoughtfulness and time put into planning the event. On the day, other than a bit of rain during the ceremony, everything went wonderfully. After the ceremony, we went and caught a little ferry boat near Monk McQueens to take us to Granville Island to take our pictures. The ferry ride back made for a fun entrance, as the guests lined the restaurant deck and waved to us. In the end, we were all so happy with how everything turned out, and the friends and family who came (many from out-of-town) made all the work worthwhile.
Photography: Sakura Photography / Ceremony Location: Celebration Pavilion at Queen Elizabeth Park / Reception Location: Monk McQueens Fresh Seafood & Oyster Bar / Flowers & linens: Bridal Beginnings