Elegant Ontario Wedding
This is a day that starts out with a pair of gorgeous glittery gold peep toes and just never stops being fabulous. From the stunning fuchsia dotted blooms from Flowers Talk to the exquisite stylings of Dahlia Decor to the non-stop awesomeness captured by Joel Bedford Photography, it's a wedding that perfectly mixes traditional details with rustic stylings and everything in between. See it all here.
From The Bride... Saeed and I got married on the first day of the most beautiful summer. I have to say I’m a little biased... and even though our wedding has come and gone, I truly feel as though it will always remain our “best day ever.”
During the initial stages of planning, we knew a few things for certain: Who we wanted to photograph our wedding, and where we wanted to have it. The rest fell into place over the next year of planning (and countless hours on pinterest..duh!)
My main inspiration for the wedding came from our trip to Cinque Terre, Italy, where Saeed had proposed a year earlier. The colors, the smells, the people, the history...everything about cinque terre was a surreal dream. I wanted to bring a little bit of that back and pay homage to it on our special day. Our dessert table was reflective of this. I gave Lidia of Petite Event Co and Catherine of Catherine’s cakery my vision and they brought it to life!
Our wedding incorporated a little bit of our cultures, and since Saeed and I grew up in Canada, we wanted to modernize it as well as include parts of our traditions that we felt represented us. The Persian table ceremony (sofreh Aghd) took place on the roof overlooking the beautiful chateau laurier and the canal. The design and execution of the ceremony table was the most challenging aspect of planning our wedding, mainly because I had to educate myself on the custom, source all supplies, and of course, make it my own!
We designed and printed our own invitations, this I have to credit to Saeed for the endless hours he spent creating them. The invitations sparked our love for blackboards which we used quite a bit at the wedding! (Despite our parents telling us they looked like invitations to a funeral.) We further personalized them by adding our own envelope liners. There were a lot of DIY elements to our wedding as well. The centerpiece birch boxes with gold glitter, the gold vases on the buffet table, the place cards and personalized thank you cards were all made with love. Instead of a sign-in book for the guests, we wanted to do something a little different, something that represents our love for travel. We had our guests sign a beautiful map of the world which we framed in a frame we hand painted gold to match our color scheme. This would serve as piece we could include in our home as a beautiful memory of our friends and family. In and around as well as outside our tent, on cruiser tables and orchard boxes, we also had several frames with our favorite love quotes. I chose quotes that best signified my feelings for Saeed.
We wanted to make sure our guests were going to have an unforgettable night, as well. We did this with some of our favorite things. First, we hired a sushi chef to make sushi on the spot for our guests during cocktail hour; this is how Saeed and I met... you could say we love sushi, A LOT. Second, we rented an old school carnival popcorn machine. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but put a bag of popcorn in front of me, and I will devour it! Lastly, we hired a caricature artist. It was completely unexpected, and people had so much fun with it! Not to mention, they each received a unique keepsake that they took home at the end of the night.
There were so many incredible moments during our day. Saeed and I had our first look earlier on, along with only our photographers and two best friends. I wouldn’t change this for the world! I managed to get most of my messy crying out of the way (Phew!!!). It was also important for me to have a first look with my dad, and I’m grateful for the moment we had together when it seemed like no one was watching.
Our first dance was emotional, but it was the last dance that really made me realize just how crazy lucky we were. At that point most of the guests had gone home, and the only people left were our closest and bestest friends. Saeed and I were slow dancing to Aladdin’s “A Whole New World”... obviously our favorite movie. Before I knew it our friends were all dancing in a closed circle around us singing a whole new world to us in sync and yet so out of tune. It was truly the most amazing moment of the night!!!
The day could not have gone so perfectly without our incredibly talented vendors, some of which went above and beyond what was asked for, and we will forever be grateful to them! Joel and Justyna of Joel Bedford Photography are a mind-blowingly talented team that has a way of making you feel so comfortable even when you’re out of your element. We had SO much fun with them taking pictures that I didn’t care that my dress got so dirty before I even walked down the aisle! Lidia of Petite Event Co. masterfully created our beautiful dessert table, as well as some other décor aspects of our wedding. She is so talented, yet remains so humble. My hair and makeup team were superstars!
Everyone came together that day to help out in any way they could. You truly feel like the luckiest person. One of the best feelings in the world (besides eating a huge bucket of popcorn) is to be surrounded by people who are willing to travel near and far to be by your side, to watch you commit to the love of your life. We are so darn lucky!
During the initial stages of planning, we knew a few things for certain: Who we wanted to photograph our wedding, and where we wanted to have it. The rest fell into place over the next year of planning (and countless hours on pinterest..duh!)
My main inspiration for the wedding came from our trip to Cinque Terre, Italy, where Saeed had proposed a year earlier. The colors, the smells, the people, the history...everything about cinque terre was a surreal dream. I wanted to bring a little bit of that back and pay homage to it on our special day. Our dessert table was reflective of this. I gave Lidia of Petite Event Co and Catherine of Catherine’s cakery my vision and they brought it to life!
Our wedding incorporated a little bit of our cultures, and since Saeed and I grew up in Canada, we wanted to modernize it as well as include parts of our traditions that we felt represented us. The Persian table ceremony (sofreh Aghd) took place on the roof overlooking the beautiful chateau laurier and the canal. The design and execution of the ceremony table was the most challenging aspect of planning our wedding, mainly because I had to educate myself on the custom, source all supplies, and of course, make it my own!
We designed and printed our own invitations, this I have to credit to Saeed for the endless hours he spent creating them. The invitations sparked our love for blackboards which we used quite a bit at the wedding! (Despite our parents telling us they looked like invitations to a funeral.) We further personalized them by adding our own envelope liners. There were a lot of DIY elements to our wedding as well. The centerpiece birch boxes with gold glitter, the gold vases on the buffet table, the place cards and personalized thank you cards were all made with love. Instead of a sign-in book for the guests, we wanted to do something a little different, something that represents our love for travel. We had our guests sign a beautiful map of the world which we framed in a frame we hand painted gold to match our color scheme. This would serve as piece we could include in our home as a beautiful memory of our friends and family. In and around as well as outside our tent, on cruiser tables and orchard boxes, we also had several frames with our favorite love quotes. I chose quotes that best signified my feelings for Saeed.
We wanted to make sure our guests were going to have an unforgettable night, as well. We did this with some of our favorite things. First, we hired a sushi chef to make sushi on the spot for our guests during cocktail hour; this is how Saeed and I met... you could say we love sushi, A LOT. Second, we rented an old school carnival popcorn machine. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but put a bag of popcorn in front of me, and I will devour it! Lastly, we hired a caricature artist. It was completely unexpected, and people had so much fun with it! Not to mention, they each received a unique keepsake that they took home at the end of the night.
There were so many incredible moments during our day. Saeed and I had our first look earlier on, along with only our photographers and two best friends. I wouldn’t change this for the world! I managed to get most of my messy crying out of the way (Phew!!!). It was also important for me to have a first look with my dad, and I’m grateful for the moment we had together when it seemed like no one was watching.
Our first dance was emotional, but it was the last dance that really made me realize just how crazy lucky we were. At that point most of the guests had gone home, and the only people left were our closest and bestest friends. Saeed and I were slow dancing to Aladdin’s “A Whole New World”... obviously our favorite movie. Before I knew it our friends were all dancing in a closed circle around us singing a whole new world to us in sync and yet so out of tune. It was truly the most amazing moment of the night!!!
The day could not have gone so perfectly without our incredibly talented vendors, some of which went above and beyond what was asked for, and we will forever be grateful to them! Joel and Justyna of Joel Bedford Photography are a mind-blowingly talented team that has a way of making you feel so comfortable even when you’re out of your element. We had SO much fun with them taking pictures that I didn’t care that my dress got so dirty before I even walked down the aisle! Lidia of Petite Event Co. masterfully created our beautiful dessert table, as well as some other décor aspects of our wedding. She is so talented, yet remains so humble. My hair and makeup team were superstars!
Everyone came together that day to help out in any way they could. You truly feel like the luckiest person. One of the best feelings in the world (besides eating a huge bucket of popcorn) is to be surrounded by people who are willing to travel near and far to be by your side, to watch you commit to the love of your life. We are so darn lucky!