Why did you decide to get married where you did?
Obviously, when the pandemic first hit we were super optimistic and thankful that we had booked a 2021 date, thinking things would be back to normal by then. However, little did we know things would get worse in Toronto. We remained hopeful throughout the year that we'd be able to have our big wedding at The Symes, which was our original venue. In early March, we were still hopeful that we would d be able to have 50 or 100 people. However, at the end of the month I got a phone call from Myles' mom Pauline, as she was driving to the cottage and heard on the radio a third wave was coming. For whatever reason, in this moment we decided we needed to put our big celebration on hold. At first, we thought we'd maybe have our ceremony it in the fall. However, the more we thought about it, it just made sense to push it out to the following year in hopes of things being more normal. We've since set a new date in May 2022, making May our anniversary month and pretty much a 1-year wedding anniversary celebration on top of redoing our wedding. Next year we’ll still be doing a ceremony, as originally envisioned with our bridal party, as well as reception and party. When we made the call to use The Symes next year, things were still a bit up in the air on where we’d hold our small ceremony this year. At one point we were going to get married at our family Shul. However, as we neared closer Myles’ parents’ backyard just seemed like the perfect place to hold this intimate ceremony, as we weren’t even able to hold a reception. Kiera Caruso Event Company helped us plan our day on this more intimate scale.
How many guests did you have?
We had to scale back our original 300+ guest list down to just 10 guests, which were our immediate family plus our photographer Barb Simkova.
Tell us about your outfits.
When we made the decision to still get married this year and do a wedding party in 2022, I decided that I wanted to save my dress for next year. Especially, since we had this unique scenario to do something a bit different. During the pandemic, my best friend and maid of honour Trilby Gottschalk has been diving into all her creative talents - one of which was starting to make clothes (you can peep her Instagram to see some of the clothes she’s been making). She kind of made a joke to me at one point that she’d make me something for one of the bridal events. We kind of took this idea and went for it with a full suit for the actual wedding day. She worked on it for over two months and was a true labour of love. It really turned out perfect in every way - a major suit moment and brought my vision to life, paired with Stuart Weitzman and Mejuri pearl earrings. It was so special that she was the one who made what I wore that day. Myles wore a beautiful custom suit made my Trilby’s father, a talented tailor - with the help of Trilby on selecting all the details that made it what it is. He matched his suit with Magnanni shoes.
What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?
Given our unique situation and knowing we would still be able to have our dream wedding come to life next year, the most important thing to us was really just that we were still getting married despite the pandemic we were going through in Toronto. We didn't want to put our love on hold at a time when so much was out of our control. We also didn't want to let that day pass but instead honour our love for one another in the most intimate setting. It allowed us to scale everything back to the absolute minimum and truly be able to embrace our love and relationship in this special moment.
Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?
From the beginning, we decided that no matter what we were restricted to, due to the pandemic, we were going to get married and honour our original date of May 23rd, 2021 set back in early 2020 (pre-pandemic). This date also happened to be Myles' parents 32nd wedding anniversary, so it's a big honour to carry on in their footsteps.
Photographer : Barb Simkova @bsimkova | Reveal + Portrait Photo Location : Aga Khan Museum | Ceremony Location : Groom’s Parents House | Planner : Kiera Caruso Event Company @kiera.caruso | Flora : White Brick Florals @whitebrickflorals | MUA : Olena Makeup Art and Beauty @glowbyo.ca | Hair : Virasack Hair @virasack | Brides Suit : Made by Bride's Maid of Honour Trilby Gottschalk @trilbygottschalk | Groom's Suit : Made by MOH's father | Rings : Custom | Bride's Shoes : Stuart Weitzman @stuartweitzman | Groom's Shoes : Magnanni @magnanni | Bride's Earrings : Mejuri @mejuri