Sylvia & Matt's Intimate Toronto Wedding

“As soon as you’re engaged there will be friends and family hoping you’ll take their advice based on how they’ve seen weddings done. Everyone is well-meaning but all the advice and “inspiration” from wedding blogs, Pinterest and trade shows can get overwhelming. On the one day that you’re celebrating your love, don’t feel like you have to conform to some standard.

We just couldn’t picture ourselves in the center of so much pomp and circumstance and wanted to keep things intimate. Doing things our way meant getting ready together over some wine and cheese and then taking the subway to Toronto City Hall where we were married in front of our 8 closest family members. Midway through our photo session together, we got thirsty and stopped in for a beer at a nearby patio! It all felt like a normal summer day in the city for us; we just happened to have scheduled our marriage in the middle of it.
That night, we had an amazing family style meal at a local restaurant and just dined on the patio with all the other customers. Both of our moms had originally wanted us to have a more traditional wedding celebration so they could invite extended family. But by the end of the night, they both realized that they were able to talk with us all day and really absorb what the day was about. They warmed up to the intimacy of the event and gushed that it really was “us”.

There are so many traditions surrounding weddings and just doing them for the sake of it never made sense to us. My advice is to really think about traditions and consider whether you really value them. We wanted to put our budget towards the things that mattered and dropped everything else. For us, that meant getting the best photographer we could (we booked our date based on Jennifer’s availability), the most beautiful bouquet (from Coriander Girl) and an amazing family style meal (at Fat Pasha).

So do you. Make your own new traditions.