L E S L E Y + M I K E

{ Emma McCormick Creative Planning & Production}

Mike says he first fell in love with Lesley in their high school corridors, but it wasn't until eight years after graduating that the stars aligned, allowing their romance to flourish. The couple married in a stylish garden ceremony and danced the night away to a sentimental playlist curated by the groom.

F R O M T H E B R I D E A N D G R O O M

We first met...

High School, grade 10 - we were in same homeroom. We became best friends who had a long term, secret crush on each other but circumstances did not align to allow us to get together until much later, eight years after we graduated.

We knew it was love...

Groom: I know it sounds cliche or silly, but I first fell in love with her the very first time I saw her in the hallway in high school when I switched schools in 10th grade. Once we finally got together years later I knew the feeling was mutual when she was first to say "I love you" after only a couple of weeks of seeing each other.

The proposal...

February 20th, 2015 on top of Whistler Blackcomb while skiing - this is one of the most special and significant places in the world for us. We are able to do one of the things we love the most (Alpine Skiing) together.

T H E W E D D I N G

Our photographer...

We chose Kelsey Goodwin with KGOODPHOTO. Her photography is so much more than just an image - it's a work of art and that's what we wanted for our wedding photos. Her photography feels dramatic, emotional and she's not afraid to push boundaries - we felt our photography values aligned quite well and were very confident that she would be able to exceed our expectations (Which of course, she did).

Our dream wedding....

From the beginning, we knew we wanted to incorporate our love and admiration of modern, urban design into our wedding. We're big fans of clean lines, neutral colours, asymmetrical balance and industrial metals and our plan was to incorporate those design elements into our decor and theme. Our colours consisted of white, shades of grey (fabrics and metals), walnut (wood), and navy accents. Our wedding coordinator worked with us on design and incorporated our love of cars and urban design by introducing unique metal and acrylic accents (signage, table decor) - there was an element of glam, but it was understated in a good way.

Ceremony location...

Villa Marco Polo in Victoria, BC

Reception venue...

Leonardo Da Vinci Centre, Victoria BC

Pre-wedding celebrations...

We had our rehearsal dinner at Villa Marco Polo and had a beautiful sit down dinner in the gardens of where our ceremony was to be held the next day. Traditionally with Polish weddings, it is more common to have a post-wedding celebration (next day gift opening).

The bridal party...

We had eight each and they were made up of friends and family.

The bridesmaids wore...

The bridesmaids wore Donna Morgan sequin dresses. There were two styles: 'Tiffany' and 'Courtney' and they were in alternating colours of navy, grey ridge and cloud (silver).

The groom and groomsmen wore...

The men wore custom made suits from Rickwood's Menswear LTD.

The dress...

In my opinion, it was a modern twist on a vintage gown. It had a spectacularly low back, was covered top to bottom in intricate beading and had a subtle flare at the bottom. It was my ideal trifecta: sexy + elegance + vogue.

The designer is Theia Couture and I purchased it at Bisou Bridal. Vancouver.My inspiration was modern meets vintage with art deco elements. I wasn't looking to buy a conventional/stereotypical wedding gown.

Wedding flowers...

I had a modern bouquet of white orchids. My mother-in-law and a family friend did our ceremony florals and bouquets as a lovely wedding gift.

Reception décor...

We went for modern, romance and elegance. The venue was simple but it was easily transformable, which is what we wanted. The decorating team draped the walls to create a soft, romantic, and intimate feel. To help create even more intimacy and encourage conversation we did a customised floor plan incorporating both round and long tables... we didn't want it to feel overly formal, but more like a dinner party. The way the tables were placed allowed us to really socialise easily with everyone.

We had walnut chiavari chairs with white cushions. We also had modern crystal candelabras and on the long tables we had rich green garlands with greenery that our florist sourced locally. These were accented with white orchids and other white spray roses throughout. To add height to the room, on the round tables, we had spectacular white floral arrangements sitting on the candelabras. There were hundreds of candles at different heights on all the tables. We had a mix of glass and metal chargers and a mix of metal/acrylic table numbers and place cards.

On the menu...

We had a champagne toast after the ceremony in the back garden of Villa Marco Polo.

We then had signature cocktails and appetizers for our guests as they arrived to our reception venue, which was followed by a sit down meal. We had a dessert and midnight buffet to follow. One of our main focuses was the food and our catering team hit it out of the park.

Appetizers:

Mini Chicken Cordon Bleu, Antipasto Bites, Dungeness Crab & Pea Risotto Croquettes, Albacore Tuna Chopsticks

Main meal:

Choice of Apple, Beet & Goat Cheese Salad or Artisan Greens

Choice of Porcini Crusted Beef Tenderloin or Miso Tamari Marinated Sable Fish

Dessert Buffet:

Lemon Meringue Pie Shots, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookie & Jam Ice Cream Sandwiches, Mini Strawberry Shortcakes

Midnight Buffet:

Traditional Polish Charcuterie and breads, Perogie Grilled Cheese, Kielbasa Prawn Bites,Gołąbki (Cabbage Rolls), Szarlotka (Compressed Apple Cake), Seafood Tiers (Smoked albacore tuna & salmon, prawns, crab claws, marinated shellfish salad)

Bomboniere...

We decided to forgo favours instead focusing that budget line on the fantastic and extensive food and drinks menu; however, we did have custom place cards made with the help of our wedding coordinator. Emma sourced metal from a local metal supermarket and we had each guest's name written on by an artist who works with Emma on hand lettering projects. Many of our guests took these keepsakes home at the end of the night!

Wedding soundtrack...

Groom: Being a DJ, the music selection was of utmost importance to me and I worked on it meticulously for our wedding DJ (up until 1am the night before). Our soundtrack consisted of many of the melodic trance and EDM/House songs, classic oldies and new age indie songs that mean a lot to us and formed the basis of many of memories over the years.

Above and Beyond's acoustic album made up a large part of the slow songs including the first dance, and I pre-recorded mixes inspired by Labelle Mixtapes for our ceremony and cocktail hour.

Songs:

- Above & Beyond Acoustic: Good for Me

- Peter Gabriel: The Book of Love

- You Should Be Dancing: The Bee Gees

- No Diggity vs. Thrift Shop

- Ed Sheeran & Passenger

- La Belle Mixtape: Gamper & Dadoni

- Got to Give It Up: Marvin Gaye

M A R R I E D L I F E

The honeymoon...

Montego Bay, Jamaica for round one. Planning a 1-2 month road trip in Europe once we can get away for that long.

Future plans...

In all avenues of life (love, work, health, adventure, family) we hope to maximise our potentials, grow our expertise, take bold risks, optimise our health so we can continue to thrive in this ever-evolving world and ultimately, build an incredible life for ourselves and future family.

In 40 years you hope to... be in good mental and physical health, have a growing, happy family and meaningful relationships with friends and to never stop exploring the world and learning new things.

W E D D I N G W I S D O M

The engagement...

Remember to live in the present moment during this entire journey. It'll all be over so fast and one of the things that we both wanted more of was simply, time. Never feel bad about saying NO. It's worth having that extra time together than being somewhere or doing something that you don't really NEED to be doing.

Learn to designate days for wedding planning and don't become a member of Weddingholics Anonymous (which was me (Bride)). I went head first into the deep end as SOON as we got engaged. First mistake. Picking one day a week to start is totally good enough - you can't make any final decisions anyways until you have the big things booked and finalised.

Planning...

- Pinterest is your blessing... and your curse. Yes, brilliant and unique ideas come from this incredible website but it's also very easy to get caught up in wanting a wedding that will set you back thousands upon thousands of dollars. It isn't worth putting yourself in debt!

- Having a caterer, and one that is passionate about food, is a must.

- Photos Photos Photos. Just pay the money. It's worth it.

- Brides, hire a day of coordinator - don't be an angry, stressed out mess on your wedding day. It's just not pretty.

On the day...

Number one thing was to take a minute to just talk to your husband/wife and take a couple of minutes of alone time (if you can). There is always so much going on, so many people pulling you in different directions that it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the day and forget what the whole day is actually about - which is committing yourself to another person for life.

Something that was very important to both of us was to circulate around to all our guests especially those from out of town and thank them for coming/attending. We had a lot of relatives traveling from different countries and continents - and we really wanted to make sure we were able to connect with every single guest!

Coordinator/Stylist: Emma McCormick - Creative Planning & Production / Ceremony venue: Villa Marco Polo Inn / Reception venue: Leonardo Da Vinci Centre / Officiant: Chris Synesael, West Village Church / Caterer: Toque Catering / Photographer: KGOODPHOTO / Decorator: Decorate Victoria / Florist: Platinum Floral Designs / Ceremony Flowers and bouquets: handmade by the Mother of the Groom and a family friend / Cake: Ruth & Dean / Makeup Artistry: Makeup by Erica Harris / Hair Stylist: Lauren Coultas - DO Hair Salon, Vancouver BC / Feature lounge: Bash Specialty / Rentals: Scene About Town / Chiavari chairs: A&B Partytime Rentals / On-site Yoga Instruction: Christina Marie Yoga / Dress Boutique: Bisou Bridal / Transportation: LA Limos