Interior Designer Jacquelyn Clark’s Wedding at Colette Cafe in Toronto

Melissa Baran
January 21, 2019
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

This beauty right here, she is one of my very favorite people (and quite unbelievably, we’ve never officially met in person). Jacquelyn and I began working at Style Me Pretty just months apart. In the six years since, she’s had in me in awe in more ways that I can count—from her incredible editorial contribution in launching SMP Living to her gorgeous blog, Lark & Linen to starting her own interior design firm. She does everything with care, kindness and a sense of style that will draw you in; I knew her very own wedding would be graced with that same air. Today, I have the honor of sharing her breathtaking celebration with you all—thanks to the photography genius of Will Reid—and I couldn’t be more happy seeing my smiling friend as the prettiest Bride ever, marrying her forever.

From the Bride, Jacquelyn of Lark & Linen… To be completely honest, I’ve never really been much of the bridal-type. As an interior designer by trade, looking back, it’s no surprise to me that most of my childhood daydreams revolved around renovating houses (usually complete with drawbridges and epic spots for hide and seek). I always hoped that getting married and raising lots of babies was going to be in my future, but I never really imagined a wedding of my own.

So when my now husband, Justin, proposed back in February 2017 after just over ten years together, I was of course thrilled. But, despite working under the Style Me Pretty umbrella for years, the whole wedding planning process immediately felt daunting for both of us.

Neither of us are the type who like a lot of attention, and if it were up to us at the time, we would have happily eloped and exchanged our vows on the peak of a mountain somewhere magical, and far away.

But with a massive extended family on both sides, of whom we obviously love and adore, it just didn’t feel right to leave them out of such a pivotal moment in our lives. So we ultimately decided that a simple wedding at home, surrounded by only our closest friends and family, was going to be the name of our game. The only caveat: we were going to do it our way.

We quickly got to work planning a day that suited us as a couple best. We really questioned almost every wedding tradition we had heard of, or experienced, in the past, and truly only partook in the ones that felt most like “us”. We began crafting our picture perfect day with a focus on a lot of small, personal details – like signature cocktails, homemade vow books, and a custom monogram we sprinkled virtually everywhere we could think of.

Our resulting wedding day ended up being an intimate event with our nearest and dearest, complete with cocktails and champagne aplenty, and tons of food (and fabulous fixed food stations) being passed around all evening. And, perhaps my favourite moment of the night, was when a delivery man showed up in the wee hours with bags overflowing with Big Macs and Junior Chickens – dare I say the best way to wrap up an elegant evening? Months later, our friends still talk about it (which, to me, is a wedding win, as far as I’m concerned).

In addition to omitting a sit down dinner, the bouquet toss, and speeches, we decided to skip the traditional “first dance”. I actually adore the first dance tradition for other brides – it’s one of my very favourite moments. But knowing full well that a room full of people staring at me while I dance would be the quickest way to take me right out of the moment, I really didn’t want to participate. Instead, without telling a soul, we asked our DJ to play our song the moment she saw us both nearby. It was our cue to hop on the dance floor, surrounded by our favourite people, and partake in a secret first dance that only the two of us were in on. And while there are so many wonderful memories from that day back in July that are burned into my memory for the rest of time, this particular moment, in the arms of my husband, literally on cloud nine, is one that I’ll truly cherish forever. It makes me almost weepy just thinking about it.

And while our intimate cocktail party in the heat of the summer downtown Toronto was anything but a mountaintop with no soul in sight, it was perfect in every sense of the word. It truly was everything we could have imagined and more. Although I used to be a bit of a skeptic, I can say with confidence that our wedding day really was the best day of our entire lives. It was an impeccable way to kick off this next phase of our lives, and I’m forever grateful for the entire experience.