Where do I even begin! Jason and I met just over 8 years ago, at a little bonfire hosted by a mutual friend. I to this day believe it was fate, because I barely knew anybody going and was almost sure leading up to the event that I would not be attending the bonfire. Just by chance, I decided “hey, why not, I have nothing else planned!” and that day changed everything! Sure enough within a few days, I noticed a friend request from Jason on Facebook. At first I was skeptical of his requests to take me out on a date, but soon enough he won me over and we went on our first date, where I could tell he was extremely nervous! The rest is history, we now have two fur babies, a house and we’re married! We started dating July 29, got engaged in beautiful Merrickville by the water 7 years later on July 29, and got married exactly one year later on July 29.
The wedding day was spectacular! Despite having rain for the majority of the summer, July 29 was a beautiful, clear, typical what you would expect, summer day. Getting ready at the Andaz hotel made it even more special; with magnificent views from our suite, peering over the skyline of Ottawa. This hotel is stunning, with marble interior throughout! Every sip of champagne tasted sweeter than the sip before it! I could even keep an eye on our Notre-Dame Cathedral from the window, where the ceremony would be taking place in less than 24 hours.
We decided to opt for an evening, cocktail reception with no dinner, just hors d’oeuvres and drinks (and of course a late night poutine bar) at the Canadian Museum of Nature. At first, we were unsure about the cocktail evening idea; now, however, looking back, I am so glad I went with this plan and would definitely recommend it to any future brides toying with the idea of an evening cocktail reception. It really has the best of all worlds; you still have everything a regular wedding would have, without the sit-down dinner. We felt like this would be a more intimate way of doing a wedding, more personable, and it definitely was! We decided to go with champagne and rose gold colours, with hints of rose gold glitter throughout. White roses and peonies in vases, strewed throughout the reception added a beautiful, elegant touch. Vases with water and floating candles also added a truly fairy-tale-like ambiance!
A few weeks leading up to our wedding, we were reminded about the event La Machine that was taking place throughout the downtown core, the whole weekend of our wedding. We didn’t realize the severity of the event until this time – multiple road closures and minimal parking. Of course, panic set in because our guests needed to park at the Church and then the Museum of Nature! When we got to our rehearsal dinner on the Thursday before our wedding, Long Ma – the spider, was sitting on my Church! This came as quite a surprise and of course I received many comments that day especially considering I don’t like spiders. As we were in the Church for the rehearsal, hordes of people waited outside for the show to begin with Long Ma. It was neat knowing we were hidden away with all this chaos among us outside. Luckily, the day of, we had no issues and our guests were able to travel from ceremony to reception with no spiders or dragons in their way! This came as quite a relief! We were able to see La Machine right from our Suite room, which was very neat! As we were getting ready throughout the day, we just had to glance down at all the people outside watching the large mechanical spider and dragon moving from street to street. This will definitely be a cool memory, and we will never forget that it was a part of our wedding!
We were very happy to have our wedding ceremony at the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The stunning interior made it absolutely breathtaking. The reception was held at the Canadian Museum of Nature, in the East Wing Foyer – we loved this venue and they accommodated our every need, including delicious hors d’oeuvres which were passed along to our guests throughout the night, as well as our earlier mentioned late night poutine bar, this was a great idea, especially to fuel our dancing guests! The grounds of the museum (both inside and out) also made for spectacular photos, which brings me to Mitch Lenet and his team! We cannot say enough good things about them, we were so extremely happy with our photos and couldn’t have been more impressed the day of, it’s like they weren’t even there, stealthily taking shots from all angles. One thing I absolutely wanted for our wedding were outstanding photos, so it took a lot of time and consideration in researching to find the perfect fit which was absolutely Ottawa Wedding Photographer Mitch Lenet and his team.- they did NOT disappoint.
The bridal party got our makeup done by Katherine Innes, who works at MAC in Nordstrom. She can be found on Instagram under “cakefacekatherine” she is seriously talented and considering I am a little bit (okay maybe a lot) picky with my own makeup, she really delivered. She took direction very well and made us all look our absolute best! The amount of compliments we got on our makeup made us feel even more special than we already did! Our bouquets and boutonnieres were provided by Ottawa Flowers and they were exactly what I had envisioned – again, so many compliments! Absolutely beautiful white roses and hydrangeas filled the luscious bouquets. They took my vision and brought it to life – with no disappointments. Delivery of the flowers to the Andaz the morning of the wedding was also very convenient, one less thing I had to worry about, not to mention the delivery was inexpensive! Our hair was done by Yara Ismail who works at L’essence Salon in St. Laurent Shopping Mall. She had done the hair for a previous wedding I was a part of and I was very impressed by her! She takes direction well and really creates a hairstyle you love, making sure to make any changes if there’s something you aren’t sure of!
Everything about the day was magical; we were blessed with beautiful weather, amazing venues, and outstanding vendors! We could not have asked for a better day and we will forever have the fondest memories to talk about for years to come with family and friends, and amazing photos to look back on and one day share with our children..
