The Toronto Reference Library was the perfect backdrop for Paula and Alex’s wedding day. Rachel & Co. Wedding and Event Décor brought their vision to life with dreamy twinkle lights and gorgeous centrepieces…

Bride & Groom: Paula and Alex Kimpton

Wedding Date: 22 September 2018

Ceremony & Reception Locations: St. Monica’s Church and Toronto Reference Library (torontopubliclibrary.ca) “For our reception we wanted to do something different than the regular banquet hall. We looked at a number of venues, from warehouses to restaurants and even the Botanical Gardens. Ultimately the venue spoke to us. We both love reading, I worked in a library all throughout university and the Toronto Reference Library was both architecturally gorgeous, but the venue space was perfect as is, it barely needed décor to enhance it.” – P&A

Colour Palette: Burgundy and Rose Gold

Theme: “For the design theme we wanted it to be “Natural and Earthy” and for the rest we took inspiration from the Sound of Music song “My Favourite Things.”  The venue space was already very natural, wood and cream white tones, the perfect blank canvas. It came with two balconies as well, so we just added a ton of greenery and twinkly lights to it. The “My Favourite Things” came across in almost every other decision we made, the food was our favourite dishes, the dessert was our favourite, the music, the flowers, the games, etc.” – P&A

Flowers: “Mariana Harling from Bridal Blossom Enterprises Inc. (bridalblossom.com) did our bouquets and arrangements at the church. The bridal bouquet had Black Baccara (burgundy) roses, blush roses, baby’s breath, Italian ruskus and silver dollar eucalyptus. The flower girl and bridesmaids had baby’s breath, Italian ruskus and silver dollar eucalyptus. The big arrangements had Hydrangeas, white glads, greenery.

At the reception and for the grooms we actually ordered flowers through Costco.ca and they delivered it two days before the wedding. It was amazingly fresh and we were so surprised and guests took home flowers at the end of the night – four weeks later guests were calling and asking where we got them because they stayed fresh for so long!” – P

Décor: “Rachel & Co. (rachelandco.ca) did the decorating for our venue. She brought all the little details to life at the library. From pictures and candles down the hallway entrance, to the big divider/photo wall between the cocktail reception and dining hall, the head table trellis, linens and place settings.

My mom wanted to hand make the center pieces so those were a collaborative effort between the two of them, using succulents and abstract vases on top of wood slabs with candles.” – P

Chairs: Chairs Galore (chairsgalore.ca)

Fav decor element: “One of my favourite elements was actually this charitable project that the library does. For a small donation to the library, they pull old/antique books and add them to each table. We decided to use them for table names and so we borrowed a bunch of scrabble games and made table name stands on a stack of antique books.” – P&A

DIY: “We took on many projects, but our two favourite projects were making the table name stands from scrabble pieces and designing the invitations with help from family.” – P&A

“Our first date was in a board games café, so we wanted to add an element of fun and games to the night.”

Invitations/stationery: “Created by Sonia Kimpton (Alex’s sister) we did a large invitation and a small business card size with directions and map. Bought the barn paper envelopes at Michaels and added metallic tape to them in abstract lines.” – A&P

Cake: “Allison Bishop local Kitchener baker. Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. Semi-Naked cake with fresh greenery.” – A&P

Wedding favours: “Personalized Tea Bags and Unique Professor Puzzle “Matchbox Games”” – A&P

Groomsmen and Groom’s attire: Moore’s clothing for men (mooresclothing.com)

Bridesmaids attire and accessories: Jacqueline’s Bridal (jacquelinbridals.ca)

Bride’s dress and accessories: “Pronovias Odine. It had satin, crepe and Lace and I added a belt. My shoes were from Le Chateau and my jewelry was from David’s Bridal.” – P

DJ: DJ Ouu (djouu.com)

Hair: Salon M Squared (salonmsquared.ca)

Catering: En Ville (enville.com) and Bukhara Grill (bukharagrillbrampton.com)

Photographer: Kayla Beth Photography (kaylabethphotography.com)”Our photographer was a friend who I met back in university. I always loved her work with people out doors, very natural and captures light in a very peaceful way.  She did our engagement photos, blessing ceremony and wedding day. She was amazing, she was always coming up with cool shots and let me suggest shots of my own that meant something to us. The guys never really like the photo part so I loved that all of us were involved and that it wasn’t some long drawn out boring photo session, everyone had fun and the result was amazing.” – A&P

Biggest challenge: “Probably the food, Alex is Italian and British and I’m Indian. Bringing those cultures together from a catering perspective was hard because there wasn’t a lot of fusion cooking chefs or ability to customize things in a way that wasn’t too expensive. At one point we thought maybe we just pick one culture over the other to save us the trouble, but ultimately we added in a late night station with Indian food to balance it out.” – P

What is the best memory of your wedding? Most people won’t say this, but the speeches were truly amazing. We only had three, bride’s dad, best man and maid of honor. They were all so heartfelt and amazing. Then we decided to give ours together and keep it light so overall the speeches during dinner (not before) were so memorable for people.

Advice from one couple to another: “Your wedding day is about you two, so pick your favourite things. It’s the biggest party you will ever throw for yourself. Everyone has opinions but you will have the most fun if your party and your day represent who you are.” – P&A

MORE ABOUT RACHEL & CO. | London wedding decorating company, Rachel & Co., offers wedding décor packages and the service to go with them  (more details in their review in The Ring, here). To find out more, email Rachel & Co. directly using the form below. 🙂