February Twenty-Seventh Two Thousand and Fifteen.The day I married my Love.

That day was by far the best day of my life, and a day that I have been waiting on for years. Bryan and I will be together for almost 8 years years. We met in college in our architecture program in London, and hit it off right away. When I say hit it off, I mean we became very good friends. We would share our dating misadventures with each other, hang out between/after classes, and pass notes (This was just before texting came about). Bryan would without fail try and get me to go on a date with him for three years out of those four. I always brushed it off, looking at him as my very handsome friend. It wasn’t until my 21st birthday that I had enough liquid courage in me to give him a call in Calgary. We talked for several months before he moved back home from a co-op, then became boyfriend and girlfriend. Now that you have a brief history lesson, let’s get back to our wedding.

It was everything we ever wanted. We always knew that our wedding day we be a small and intimate time in our life. We would have loved to have all our family and friends there, however we knew deep down that the more intimate our wedding, the more we could really take it all in and enjoy. It was exactly what we expected. Chilly (I think it was -10 deg Celsius) but the sun was shinning down on us the whole day!

We were married at The Cambridge Mill in Cambridge Ontario. Once we visited this venue, we knew instantly that it was where we would get married. So I did what every OCD bride does, create a pro’s and con’s list, compared the several venues that we have reviewed against each other and slept on it. The next day we submitted our deposit and starting planning our wedding that was only 3 months away!

Below are a few photo’s to give you a glance at our wedding, shot by the amazing This Moment Forever Photography out of St. Thomas Ontario.

Venue & Decor

When I had imagined our wedding day I was looking for Modern Rustic Winter Wedding – Our inspirations were navy, ivory, metallic’s with natural elements in our tables, fireplace etc. Down the wedding isle we had lanterns that each of our families members received when my Grandpa McFarlane had passed. I knew that I wanted to incorporate them into our day anyway we could. Once the ceremony was complete they had placed the lanterns on top of the beautiful wood burning fireplace. Gramp’s was with us while we danced the night away.

I tried to have personal elements on my bouquet, I had purchased the McFarlane (my maiden name) tartan to wrap around each of our flowers. This was accompanied by my gold boxer necklace (For Frank) and my lucky horseshoe (Something my Grandpa Simard always was found doing) I loved having a piece of my background with me while I walked down the isle.

Side note: Hydrangea’s do not do well in -10 deg. weather. I ended up taking half of my bouquet apart minutes before I had to walk down the isle. We chose to do all our wedding pictures before the ceremony, which I would do again, but by the time I was ready to walk down the isle they were starting to turn brown/black. Not to worry, you couldn’t even notice that my bouquet was half of its original size.

Our Maids, Men & Little Ones

We kept with the modern minimalist feel with our bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls & ringer bearers.

Aren’t my nieces and nephews the cutest! They all did an amazing job!! They were with us the whole day, and only Jack (Second picture in) had a mini meltdown right before he was to walk down the isle. Thankfully for us, our venue was amazing and had a big bowl of gourmet cookies brought up within minutes. Resulting in a very happy, chocolate covered ring bearer.

I loved how Bryan’s suit popped out from the rest of the guys. He actually had picked this suit out himself and I was not allowed to see it until the day of.

My Dress

I have thought about what I wanted my wedding dress to look like for years.

As it turns out, I didn’t really know what I wanted at all. I went into the dress shopping experience, wanting something with lace sleeves (or bare minimum straps) and an empire waist since that is my comfort zone. With the time restraints I could only look at certain dresses, as this would be a rush order in time to meet our wedding date. My mom and I decided to head to Nicholas and Elizabeth Bridal downtown London to get a feel for what I was looking for. An hour after my appointment I had said yes to the first dress that I tried on. I had tried over several other dresses after “my dress” but nothing compared.

I loved the mocha underlay and the ivory lace. I instantly knew it was mine. I had also purchased a short empire waist gown for the dance portion, unfortunately I didn’t get any photo’s of me wearing it, but I am happy I had that option as the figure hugging dress was not the best for my dance moves.