I’m a big fan of Vancouver ééò I would love to live there for a stint ééò and Stanley Park is one of my favourite spots. I can’t think of a lovelier spot to hold your wedding in, and that’s just what Hannah & Rob chose to do after failing to find anything else in the city that met their needs. Local photographer MATHIAS FAST was alongside them for the day documenting it all and amazing florist CELSIA FLORISTS created some gorgeous bouquets for the girls.
ééòThe Stanley Park Pavilion was the ultimate Vancouver location: surrounded by beautiful grounds, with an unpretentious atmosphere. Plus, it’s the original home of entertainment in our fair city! We chose our parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, for our ceremony. It is the church and school where Rob and I first met, and we even convinced the priest who had been there when we met to fly from Arizona to perform the ceremony.ééò
Before I met Rob, I (thought I) had a very definite idea of what I wanted my wedding to be. I was the girl who was picking bridesmaids and centerpieces at age nine. However, when Rob popped the question and we started planning this wedding, I was all over the map! Rob patiently accompanied me to venue after venue as our theme shifted from Estate Wedding, to Garden Party Wedding, to Rustic Barn Wedding, to Industrial Wedding, to Art Deco Wedding, to Should We-Just-Elope-To-Palm-Springs? We thought each one was IT but they just didn’t feel right in person.ééò
Once the venue was set, everything started to fall into place. We both realized that above all, we wanted our wedding to feel personal and truly reflect us as a couple. We also decided that we not only wanted our wedding to be a celebration of our love, but also an opportunity to honour and celebrate all the wonderful people in our lives. We wanted it to be just as much about our family and friends, as it would be about Rob and I.
With this thought in mind, we relied heavily on the creativity and generosity of our loved ones. Rob handpicked all the music for our ceremony and reception. My father-in-law played the trumpet as I walked down the aisle, and as we left the church (he played the trumpet in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for 40 years). Two students from the school where Rob and I met sang a song during the ceremony. Our friend Jen designed the beautiful map that was included in our invitation suite, as well as our temporary tattoo bar and cocktail hour signage. My lovely friends and bridesmaids made endless batches of homemade marshmallows and packaged chips for our favours (my favorite “something sweet” and Rob’s favorite “something salty”). My sister put together the wonderful goodie bags for our younger guests, and many friends pitched in to help set up decorations and flowers on the day. Our friends Mark and Johanna created an amazing wedding slideshow and Rob’s brother sang our first song.
We also tried to incorporate as many DIY and handmade details as possible. I collected brass candlesticks from thrift stores all year for the tables. We DIY-ed the programs and some of the invitation suite, as well as the menu sign, table numbers, and place tags. We had a stamp custom made with our initials that we used for several paper items, and for our personalized wine bottle labels. We wanted a woodsy, natural look for the flowers, and ended up having the bouquets and centerpieces made, and DIY-ing the rest, including the pew bunches and the 24-foot greenery garland on the head table (once again, my long-suffering friends and sisters were called into action!).
Luckily for us, we ended up being the perfect wedding-planning team. While Rob’s all about the overall tone, my heart is in the details. So, as I agonized over what colour thread to use to tie the programs, he made sure our wedding not only LOOKED good, but was FUN too. He chose amazing music, a kick-ass live band, and an absolutely killer photographer. As cheesy as it sounds, our photographer, Mathias, always seemed to be in the perfect spot to capture priceless moments of joy, tears, and sheer elation. He worked tirelessly, and we mean this literally. He put in at least fourteen hours that day and this allowed him to capture the irreproducible moments at 11am in Rob’s apartment when his father tied his son’s tie or at 11pm when shirts came off on the dance floor. Thanks to Mathias, we have an amazingly beautiful collection of memories that will allow us to relive this day for the rest of our lives. All in all, we were so pleased with how our wedding turned out. It truly was the best day of our lives, and we couldn’t have asked for anything more!
Photography MATHIAS FAST / Venue + Catering STANLEY PARK PAVILION / Florals CELSIA FLORISTS / Band THE PHONIX / Hair & make-up ML MAKEUP / Gown REEM ACRA / Shoes JIMMY CHOO
