I don’t mention my husband on the blog much, partially because up to now it’s just been a blog about my soapmaking, cooking, or crafting….and he doesn’t have much to do with those things (other than supporting me, and eating/using the things I make), and partially because I try to respect his privacy; this is my blog – not his, and he’s just not that into sharing.
But, because our 10th anniversary (of the day we met) just passed, I’m feeling a little sappy, and figured I’d share a little peek into our wedding.
Also: Here’s a teaser video from the day!
My husband and I got married on August 31, 2013. We had already been together almost 7 years at that point. I’m not sure what shifted, but after a long time together, he decided that it was finally time (I took a little convincing – he had to ask me a grand total of 3 times before I said yes!) to “make it official”. I am so glad he did. Throughout our relationship, I’ve always felt extremely lucky, because we really are best friends. I know that sounds cliche, and I gagged a little writing that, but for us it’s true. He is my favourite person (most days), and I think our personalities work well together.
We have hard days of course (in addition to “normal” difficulties all couples face, we also struggle with infertility – I’ll write about that more another time), but the love between us is very strong. He is my family. My friend. And my love. ❤
This might surprise some, but the “traditional” (big white dress, hotel reception, 150+ guests) wedding was not our first choice, at all.
We originally planned on a destination wedding in Cuba, and had booked the dates, bought the decorations, had invitations sent out, paid deposits, etc. (Our invitations were amazing, and are pictured below. They were designed by our good friend Christine at Designs That Fly)
I had even visited the hotel (Melia/Tryp Peninsula, Varadero) that we were going to get married at in Cuba, to meet with the event coordinator before our wedding, and to tour the grounds and get information about options for the decor, ceremony, photography, etc. (it was a beautiful hotel – I’ll see if I can find some photos I took while I was there)
…………..and then the travel company (Transat) backed out on us. For whatever reason, they decided that they would cancel flights for over half of our guests. I think at one point, we had close to 75 confirmed travelers. I was devastated. We lost a bunch of money, and my heart seriously broke. I actually joined twitter just so I could tell Transat how I felt. (I haven’t posted anything from that account since, ha ha) They didn’t even respond.
All of a sudden, we were back at square one. Months of work and research (and money) were wasted, and I lost the motivation to keep planning for a while. My husband helped me through, by suggesting we renew our vows in Cuba on a future milestone anniversary, so I could still one day have the dream wedding I’d always wanted. Have I mentioned I love him? 🙂
Knowing I’d eventually get the wedding I always wanted, I decided to plan my backup wedding a little closer to home, at the NorWester Hotel in Thunder Bay Ontario.
Our lovely and talented friend Christine made our second invitations too. She did an amazing job, and we ended up loving our second set of invites even more than the first ones! (the top is the outside, bottom is the inside – they have 4 folds sort of like a brochure, which is probably a bit hard to visualize, but they ended up being square)
We decided on a travel theme, because we love to travel and had wanted to travel for the first wedding. I got my husband some cuff links made from vintage Cuban coins as a wedding gift, to pay homage to the wedding we originally planned, and to bring a little bit of the country we both love so much into our special day.
Our centerpieces were fresh flowers in vintage-looking paper suitcases (spray-painted gray), and instead of table numbers we made postcards of countries we’d like to visit.
Our guests received tickets (made by us) upon entering the reception, which listed the country on the postcards at their tables. On the back of each ticket, we asked for marriage advice, and had a vintage postal box to collect the responses. We got some HILARIOUS (and inappropriate) tips that we still laugh at today.
Our guest book was inspired by the movie “UP” by Disney/Pixar. Even though it’s a children’s movie, we related to the couple because they also struggled with loss and infertility. They had an adventure book, and so did we!
Our cake was made by a woman in Thunder Bay (I can’t find her on Facebook anymore, so I’m guessing she no longer does this). I just wanted something simple, because I was more concerned that it be tasty, than fancy. We put the cake on some vintage suitcases that we spray-painted gray to match our colours, and put some cool old travel stickers on them.
We also had five different kinds of cupcakes which were all amazingly delicious (I had a bite of all of them around 2 in the morning, lol). We had 2 gluten-free options: Chocolate and Vanilla, and 3 “normal” varieties: Chocolate-Espresso, French Vanilla, and Butter-Pecan. We made heart toppers for the cupcakes out of maps, to incorporate the travel theme.
We also made menus with a map theme and a vintage hot air balloon graphic inspired by our invitations, to put at each place setting. For favours, we made seed packets (full of mint seeds) with a recipe for an authentic Cuban Mojito (I learned how to make these on a trip to Havana) on each one.
It’s amazing how many fun little DIY touches we had.
We also had a photo booth, which our guests absolutely loved….and the photo printouts had the logo we had created which was inspired by our invitations.
One of my favourite things about the wedding, was that we had our own little table. I planned it so that our wedding party and their guests would be seated at two large tables, with us at a private table behind. I was never a fan of the long head table, and I was stoked that I was able to do this instead. I had Glamour & Glow Events put it all together for me.
I think that’s all I have for photos that showed the details….the rest are just “normal” wedding photos from the best. day. ever. 🙂
I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me. I know I have.
GLA:D 