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From the Bride... Matt and I met during our first year of school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. We are both originally from Ontario and after a few years in Vancouver, we decided to make the move back to Ontario to be closer to our families. We were engaged on June 23rd, 2010 and the wedding planning began!
The selection of the location for our wedding was one of the most important aspects of the planning process for us. We knew we wanted to have it in a place that was significant to the both of us and somewhere that we felt reflected us as individuals and as a couple. We decided to choose my family cottage as it is a place where we have shared many unforgettable times with friends and family. As many guests had travelled from far distances, we extended the wedding celebrations over the weekend and held a casual bonfire and BBQ on the Friday night before the wedding. We were lucky to have gorgeous weather and guests enjoyed summertime patio drinks and food including “Smore Love” brown paper bags which contained all the fixings for roasted smores. We really enjoyed this extra time we spent visiting with our guests and it facilitated guests meeting before the actual wedding day.
Matt and I both agreed that we wanted to create an event that was as much “like us” as possible and we wanted all of our guests to genuinely feel our gratitude towards having them there. We decided to DIY as much as we could which included hand making all of the invitations, the programs, the table seating cards, the place cards as well as painting wooden signs that were displayed throughout the cottage property. We made our invitations from scratch and the illustration on the cover was inspired by our cat named Ernie who we had adopted together. The picture of the three of “us” naturally developed into our wedding logo which we incorporated into various other elements such as personalized water bottle labels and stickers that appeared on the guests welcome gifts. Having a “wedding logo” was an amusing way to further personalize our wedding and tie everything together. In keeping with a cottage themed wedding, we made the table seating cards from small pieces of wood that we engraved with a wood burner we had purchased at an art store. Each guests name appeared on one side and the table number they were seated at on the flipside. We also hand painted small rocks with guest’s names that were placed at each place setting together with the menu we had designed and printed ourselves. The wooden signs we made from wood we found on the cottage property and then painted them with various words such as “Ceremony”, “Lake” and “Dancing”. We loved how the wooden signs turned out and felt it was a simple, inexpensive and fun way to add creativity to the event.
Guests were served a signature welcome drink as they arrived and gathered at the ceremony location while upbeat summer music played in the background. My arrival to the wedding ceremony was a bit unconventional and something that my dad and I had been planning since the minute I got engaged! My entire family is passionate about aviation (my dad, my brother and I are all licensed pilots) and with some thoughtful planning my family and I were able to fly-in to the ceremony by floatplane with my brother as the pilot! It was such an incredible experience to see all of our guests below as we flew over and I know it is something we will never forget. Overall, I think we were able to incorporate many aspects into our wedding day that reflected our passions and interests in life which we believe helped to create lasting memories that we (and hopefully our guests!) will never forget. After it was all over, we both reflected and agreed that if our guests had left our wedding with a smile on their face having felt as much sincerity and love as we did that day, then we had truly accomplished what we set out to do in the first place. I know I can safely say that we are still smiling. Thanks to Melissa Samborski of One Fine Day Event Planning & Design Inc. for her professionalism, commitment and incredible attention to detail. Also, thank you to Gillian Williamson and her team from Ikonica for their amazing photography work and to Sinful Treats for creating the delicious cupcakes.
Photography: Gillian Williamson of Ikonica Images / Event Planning: One Fine Day Event Planning & Design Inc. / Ceremony and Reception Location: Muskoka Cottage / Shoes: Oscar de la Renta / Dress: Anne Barge / Bridesmaid Dress: Amsale / Cupcakes: Sinful Treats