Behind Jennifer and David's Modern Black and White City Wedding

Tell us about your love story...

We met in grade 7 in middle school, although we didn’t start dating until grade 11. We started spending more time together by eating lunch together. He was also in my English class but missed the class on poetry and iambic pentameter due to a field trip. Since English was one of my favourite subjects at school, I offered to help him catch up after school one day. That day was crazy, because his mom adopted their family dog that day (Leo), AND he asked me to be his girlfriend that evening by texting me on my pink Sony Ericsson phone from his grey Sony Ericsson phone. We’ve been together since 2007, so 17 years. Pretty much half of our lives!

What do you love most about your partner? 

I love that he brings this light-heartedness to life. As an empath who feels everything really intensely and deeply, I can often become overwhelmed by all the negative news, conflict, and suffering around me, but David brings me peace and balance and stability. Even within our own relationship, I cannot remember the last time we argued or fought, because even when we do have conflict, he has a way of diffusing the situation and we just end up laughing about it and moving on. He’s definitely taught me to not take life too seriously. He is so slow to anger, I don’t even remember him ever being angry.

How did your partner propose? Share with us your proposal story! 

Oh man, you are asking the wrong couple! We have the least romantic proposal story, if you can even call it a proposal!

So during 2020, I was working in Canada while David was still in San Francisco. When the pandemic first hit, we realised it would be challenging to cross the border to see each other with all the travel restrictions that were put in place. Since everyone was working remotely, we decided that I would pack up a suitcase, go to San Francisco for 6 months (that’s the maximum time allowed for a Canadian tourist visa to the US).

Towards the end of 6 months, it was clear that the pandemic was not ending anytime soon, so we talked about what our options are. David suggested that we get married so that I could legally stay beyond the 6 months, I said ok, we booked our Zoom wedding for a Wednesday during lunch. Family, co-workers, anyone with a link to our Zoom wedding joined, and we got married in our living room, no rings, no white dress, no suit.

Due to the pandemic, The City of San Francisco wasn’t even doing weddings at that time, so our officiant was actually from the county of Marin. Our wedding certificate doesn’t even say we got married in San Francisco, it says we were married in Marin, which is across the Golden Gate Bridge! 

What was your wedding inspiration and how did you decide on your wedding venue?

I always knew I wanted a timeless but modern black and white themed wedding. I am a huge city girl, and definitely wanted a venue downtown Toronto, our hometown, with bricks and this cool urban feel to it. It was also important that the venue have an outdoor space for the ceremony, and dinner indoors. 

First of all, I want to say that hiring a wedding planner was the best decision we could have made because we were not physically in Toronto throughout the planning process. Kim from Love and Things was the perfect match for us. I was definitely a type B bride. I knew I wanted to enjoy the process and not have this become a source of stress, so I was open to a lot of different ideas and alternatives, and when things didn’t go according to plan or if things were out of our budget, I’d let it go and move on.

Kim matched my energy, so I think the entire planning process was pretty enjoyable. We laughed a lot and remained flexible. The only thing that we (mostly David) was strict about was the budget. I remember most of the planning calls were Kim and I, but David would pop in just to peek at the budget sheet and make sure that we were on track.

The Unexpected: Balling a City Wedding on a Budget...

 

What were some of your biggest challenges you faced during your wedding planning? 

Oh boy, where to start with the challenges? Our original venue was the Berkeley Fieldhouse in downtown Toronto. It was this beautiful rustic venue with this lovely covered patio for the ceremony, and then a whole outdoor portion for guests to mingle that included a small brook, and an air conditioned/heated tree house. Almost exactly a month before the wedding, we found out that our venue had declared bankruptcy. David and I were both shocked and I was devastated. We had lost about $10K in deposits and it was such short notice.

Thankfully, David and Kim were both quite calm about it and I truly believe it was what helped me handle it surprisingly well. After processing what had happened, David said “Of all the bad things that could happen in life, this is nothing. It’s just money.” With this new perspective, David and I proceeded to create a new budget, taking into account the money we lost and Kim immediately started looking for a new venue.

Kim found GEORGE Restaurant, which was perfect. There was an outdoor space to hold the ceremony, and then a beautiful indoor space for the reception. Megan from GEORGE took us under her wing and the entire process was so positive, from the tour to the tasting to the signing of the contract. It felt like they truly cared about our day. At one point, David said he wished we had just gone with GEORGE right off the bat.

We did have to give up a lot of elements that we had originally planned due to the new smaller budget, including my dream of catered bubble tea, a photo booth, a florist, wedding cake, and wedding favours. Kim and I ended up purchasing bulk flowers and she made all the floral arrangements for the ceremony and the reception, while I made all the bouquets and boutonnieres. Instead of a wedding cake and favours, we added on late night gelato and poutine from the GEORGE kitchen.

Our photographer, Eric Cheng, and videographer, Pavel Salva from Salva Agency, both showed us so much compassion and kindness in their attempt to work with our reduced budget due to the venue bankruptcy. We reduced our photography coverage from 8 hours to 6 hours (getting ready, first look, ceremony, reception) and reduced our videography coverage to 3 hours (getting ready, first look, ceremony).

In the end, we made it work. We were able to stick to our reduced budget. Kim did a lot of DIY for us (seating cards, signage, flowers). I know this sounds so cliche, but truly, when I think about my wedding day, I forget that I didn’t have a cake or a photo booth or even my catered bubble tea. I just think about what an amazing day that was and how much fun I had with all my favourite people. ❤️

What made you choose the Saravine gown? 

So before I even saw the Saravine gown, I was in my bow era. I don’t think I’ve ever left my bow era to be honest. I knew I wanted a statement bow on the back and forgo a veil. Again, keeping with the modern, cool, urban vibe. However, my budget was definitely below $1100, and I couldn’t find anything that really spoke to me. I had gone to traditional wedding dress shops, I had browsed BHLDN, Jenny Yoo, etc, and I was on StillWhite.com browsing for second hand dresses.

Did you have a change of outfits? What vibes were you going for? 

What was the most memorable part of your wedding that you love up till today?

Most memorable part of my wedding that I’m still obsessed with was getting ready with my best friends. We had the groomsmen bring us boba from Chicha San Chen, which was so sweet and very fitting since David and I are boba snobs.

Wearing my Bone and Grey gown was very memorable…I never wanted to take it off! Finally, I’ll never forget sitting at the sweetheart table with David and just looking out at all of our friends and family all in one place eating and laughing. I’ll cherish that for the rest of my life.

 

Advice you have for brides-to-be...

Roll with the punches! I promise the whole wedding planning process will be a lot more fun if you can keep an open mind and be flexible.

Find a dress that you feel COMFORTABLE in, a dress that you can put on and not have to worry about throughout the day. The last thing you want is to constantly be pulling your dress up or down. I promise you will enjoy the day way more! 🤍

Wedding Vendors

Wedding Planner/ Coordinator / Decor: Love and Things | @loveandthings.ca

Photography: Eric Cheng Photography | @ericcheng.photography

Videography: Salva Agency | @salvaagency

Make-up and Hair: Ford Beauty | @ford_beauty

Wedding Gown: Bone and Grey | @boneandgrey

Wedding Venue/ Food/ Catering: GEORGE Weddings | @georgeweddingsto

Officiant/MC: @danielkhangmusic