Intimate Peterborough city hall wedding

Intimate Peterborough city hall wedding

Danika & Steve

How we met: Well it turns out you can still meet people in bars… who knew? I think Steve’s shorter friend was hitting on my shorter friend so we two tall freaks got caught in the crossfire at the Grizzly Grill in Kingston. We knew each other for a few years before we took the formal dating plunge, though, and we generally attribute the success of our relationship to Steve’s big, bold and persistent personality. Things moved quickly from there once we realized what we had been missing. Within the year we had moved in together and adopted our beagle, Daisy. Now we are expecting our first spawn in October! Wish us luck.  

How we ended up having the wedding we did: Our general plan all along was to “Live in Sin” (as my Nana would say) for the rest of our lives and never really make anything official in terms of a wedding or marriage. Steve surprised me though by proposing one December day when I was battling a particularly difficult hangover. We went for some fresh air at a look out (on the lake we have since purchased a cottage on) and Steve popped the question. I was surprised and excited… and then extremely stressed about planning a wedding. We of course would have loved to share our moment with all our friends and family but the stress of planning, plus the cost, was making us crazy. We were on the verge of eloping when we realized our Moms would be sad if we did that… so we ended up having a quick and dirty ceremony at Peterborough City Hall (Kendra, our officiant, was awesome) with 11 members of our immediate family in attendance. The 11 of us had cocktails and an amazing meal at our house after, and danced the night away in our living room. We have since been able to visit friends and family that are close to us and celebrate with them on our own time. People were really understanding of our choice not to have a big wedding. I guess that’s why we are friends!  

Vows… yikes, we probably should have kept these but we just went with one of the generic ceremonies from the city hall wedding options. It was called the “romantic” ceremony so that’s worth something, right? 

Where did we buy everything?  

Dress: Nordstrom. In all its stretchy and sequin-y glory! The most comfortable wedding dress.  

Shoes: this was tough because I love shoes, but the dress was so Vegas-y that I felt something neutral would be best. After trying on and looking at about 50 designer pairs, a pair of trusty Steve Maddens won the battle.  

Steve’s Suit: I’m not sure if this should go on the internet but… we have a “suit guy” in Ottawa that sells suits out of a tiny shop in Little Italy (I think, this location remains a mystery to me) and is only referred to as “Jimmy Suits.” Steve describes the interaction as such, “He felt my shoulders for an uncomfortable amount of time, said “You’re going to be tough to fit” and disappeared in to the back. I bought the first suit I tried on.” (If I get whacked for this, it’s my own fault.) 

Hair and Make Up: Dani at Kouture! 

Steve’s Shave and Hair Cut: Henry’s Barber Shop.  

Flowers: East City Flower Shop.

Caterer: I cannot say enough good things about our caterer, Cathryn Thompson and her assistant Kelly from Mackenchie House in Cobourg. We had previously had some of her food at a wedding and we loved it, so it was a no brainer for us. Plus she was great to work with. There was a ton of choice for hors d’oeuvres and for our main we had beef that was cooked perfectly (in our tiny, hot kitchen) and strawberry short cake for dessert. We love food so it was important for us to have good food and good wine!  

Photographer: the BEST! 

In conclusion, if we could do it over… I don’t think we would change anything. I may have been stricter about Steve not having a sunglasses tan but hey, it’s over a year later and we are still married… win!