Jan 23

Our Wedding: The Ceremony & Party

Our Wedding | lark & linen

When it came to the actual wedding ceremony and reception itself, our main focus was simply to have fun. And while we actually exchanged our vows privately (which I also secretly recommend – they’re just so intimate, we really wanted to keep them between us), we still worked closely with our wonderful officiant to craft a personal ceremony perfectly tailored to us as a couple. Because we started our ceremony later into the evening, we kept it quite short, sweet, and succinct, which I feel like our guests really appreciated.
From there, Justin and I immediately snuck away to our hotel room for a few minutes. We stayed at the Thompson, which was literally a step away from our venue. For all of my future bride-friends, I highly recommend booking a hotel room as close to your venue as possible so you can sneak away post-ceremony for a few. It was so nice to have that moment to ourselves to soak in what had just happened. It also meant we could FaceTime with Justins sister, who devastatingly wasn’t able to attend due to giving birth to our niece the day prior. Ultimately, that also ended up being a really wonderful memory for us. It was nice to have that brief moment with her alone – something we didn’t get much of with anyone else who was actually physically present! And because we had done all of our photos beforehand, it meant that once we had our moment alone, we could join in on our cocktail party without missing a beat.

We had a quartet, complete with a cellist (my all time favourite instrument) for the ceremony and cocktail hour, and then an incredible DJ to take over from there. And while a lot of the little details were super important to me, the food was one that we took particularly seriously. We knew that we didn’t want the formality of a sit down dinner, so we opted to have passed canapés coming out all night long, as well as strategically placed food stations to ensure that NOBODY was hungry (a big concern of mine). In addition, we had McDonald’s deliver bags of late night burgers, which was such a huge hit (another moment I highhhhly recommend, if you’re interested!)

Our guests ranged from Michelin star chefs and foodies to super picky eaters, to everything in between, which proved to be a little challenging. But in retrospect I feel confident that we had a little something for everyone. From tiny sliders, to an oyster bar, to bite sized fried chicken in hot sauce, to endive spears, to lobster risotto and beyond, we really had a lot of fun with the menu. And I love that the smaller bite sized portions allowed us to have tons of options, ensuring we didn’t have to worry about finding a handful of things to please all 120 of our guests.

And while we made sure the bar was open for everyone from the start (originally we actually wanted everyone to be sipping champagne during our ceremony, but Toronto by-laws came into play when it came to our outdoor venue and that plan had to be nixed), the highlight were our signature cocktails. We had a great friend of ours create a cocktail inspired by each of us. She definitely captured us in cocktail format, and I’ll be sharing the recipes later this week (spoiler: they were a HIT). Here’s a closer peek at the ceremony and party portion of the evening…

Our Wedding Decor | lark & linen Our Wedding | lark & linen