Ceremony & Reception Location(s): “Our ceremony was at Cave Spring Retreat (cavespring.ca) and the reception was at Inn on the Twenty (innonthetwenty.com). We were interested in getting married at a winery, and Inn on the Twenty (partnered with Cave Spring Cellars) happened to be one of the first places that we visited. They do a lot of weddings year round, so we knew that they would be able to guide us through the planning process. They also took care of a lot of the wedding basics. The tables, linens, tableware, bar, food, set up, take down, and a day-of-coordinator were all included in their wedding package and there are multiple event coordinators that help you shape your day and answer questions. The food is catered by the award-winning Inn on the Twenty Restaurant (who were also able to deal with all sorts of dietary restrictions), and the wine is all provided through Cave Spring Cellars. Those were the many logical reasons to choose that location, but once we visited and saw the cozy ceremony building, with a giant fireplace, out in the middle of Cave Spring Vineyard, and the beautiful view through the floor to ceiling windows in the reception space, we were sold!” – M&T

Colour Palette: Silver with blush and red accents

Theme: “In general, we wanted our wedding to feel fancy, but warm. Our décor was very sparkly. We had a lot of twinkle lights, light-up signs, and silver glitter on everything! We also told guests to dress as formal as they would like, and since it was winter, a lot of the women liked the excuse to wear long dresses! To make sure that we still had a warm and fun atmosphere, we included table trivia throughout the reception to encourage mingling. We spent a little extra for a great DJ with awesome dance floor lighting. It was also important to us that we showed off the local wineries that we love so much in that area, so we included lots of local wine and beer throughout the event, and provided free tasting vouchers and recommendations for guests to try another day.” – M&T

Photographer: Simply Wedding Photography (simplyweddingphotography.ca). “We ran into Jacqueline and Mikayla at one of The Wedding Ring’s KW Wedding Expos. They were really relaxed and friendly, and of course we liked their pictures. Jacqueline sat down with us before we booked with her to describe her process, show us examples, and go through our package options. We liked that she was very open and honest, and wanted to make sure that we were a good personality fit with her as well. She also described herself as a photography ninja, and we loved that she valued not intruding on any of the big moments, while still getting nice pictures of it all.
We did our engagement photos with Jacqueline in the spring at our house. The whole process only took about an hour (including cat-wrangling time) and we had 20 great photos that she got to us within 24 hours, which only made us more excited to have her at our wedding.

We had both Jacqueline and Mikayla at our wedding for a full 12 hours, and they were absolute champs!They were efficient and thorough, and after looking at the final results, we actually have good pictures of everyone, and every group that we asked for!  They also did a photobooth for a few hours of our reception and our guests commented how much fun that was. Working with Jacqueline and Mikayla was definitely one of our wedding highlights. They are both extremely fun-loving and caring people who want to give you the best possible pictures while having a great time! We really can’t say enough good things about Simply Wedding Photography.” – M&T

Flowers: Our bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres were all done by Sola Flowers Canada (solaflowers.ca). They were made from sola wood, which allowed us to dye our flowers based on paint chips of our colour scheme, and pick them up weeks before the wedding, rather than having to deal with flowers the day before. There were tons of different shape and size options, as well as different greenery and bling options. They will also last forever, which makes for a nice keepsake, and turned out beautifully! She is the only florist in the country to work exclusively with wood flowers, and is conveniently located in Hamilton, Ontario!” – M

Fav décor element: “For both of us, our favourite décor element was all the lighting. Our centrepieces were wine decanters with strings of lights in them, and our DJ did some blush/rose uplighting around the room. The two together looked really nice!” – M

DIY: “Our largest DIY projects were our centrepieces, and a giant wine cork heart. For the centrepieces we visited Value Village almost every weekend until we were able to collect 15 different wine decanters to go on the tables. Then we just washed them, filled the bottom with glitter, and then put a string of lights in each one. The giant heart took a little more time. It was approximately 400 wine corks which we collected from friends and winery tasting rooms, all glued onto a huge cardboard heart. Then we were able to pin pictures of us onto it. Both of these took a lot of time, but we started early and they were totally worth the effort!” – M&T

Invitations/stationery: “We designed all of our stationary, and printed it through VistaPrint. Our programs got a lot of compliments. In addition to the ceremony information, they contained Bitmojis of all of our bridal party, a Catana Comics comic strip (catanacomics.com), and a map with our recommendations of which wineries in the area to visit and why they are our favourites.” – M&T

Wedding favours: “Each guest got a box that contained a bag of potato chips, a tube of M&M minis, and a can of sparkling wine from Between the Lines Winery, with tasting notes! We also put baskets of useful items in each bathroom, put out a couple boxes of Rescue Flats, and handed out glow sticks and shutter shades during the dance portion of the reception. Since our guests all had to travel for our wedding, we made it a priority that they felt appreciated and had a great time.” – M&T

Groomsmen and Groom’s attire: “The groomsmen, bridesmaid, groom, groom’s father and MC all rented tuxes from Collins Formal Wear (collinsformalwear.com) in Kitchener.  They wore charcoal tuxes with black lapels and different ties depending on their role. They also all had different fun socks from The Sock Factory (thesockfactorywaterloo.com) in Waterloo.” – M

Bridesmaids attire and accessories: “The bridesmaids got their dresses from Ballet’s Bridal (balletts.com) in Kitchener and their snuggly-warm wraps from Epiphany in Erin (shopepiphanyapparel.ca). They chose their own accessories and shoes.” – M

Bride’s dress and accessories: “My dress was also from Ballet’s Bridal, altered by the very talented Meghan Bambach (MRB Design and Alterations). I wore silver glitter Kate Spade Keds, and my wrap was also from Epiphany in Erin.” – M

DJ: “DJ Luka from Liquid Entertainment (liquidentertainment.ca) was awesome! He provided us with a bunch of lighting options, including uplighting during dinner that turned to fun dance lighting afterwards. He did a great job of reading the room and playing music that would keep people dancing. We had over a third of our guests dancing right up until the end of the night.” – M&T

Hair & Make-up: Pretty In Pink Mobile Makeup and Hair (prettyinpink-mobilemakeup.com). “They were on time, super-friendly, and most importantly, they made everyone look amazing!”  – M

Transportation: “Almost all of our guests stayed overnight in the area, but in a huge variety of locations, so we created postcards that had a code that allowed them to take an Uber ride from the reception to anywhere (within a radius) on us! It was easy to set up and let people leave at any time throughout the night rather than at one or two designated bus times. (uber.com/events)” – M&T

Biggest challenge: “It was a little challenging to plan a wedding from out of town. We had to be a little more efficient about meeting multiple vendors on a day to reduce driving, or having video meetings. The most challenging task was getting all of the dresses, suits, decor,  and  wedding favours to the venue in one trip. We ended up enlisting some car space from our families and friends, and also assembling our wedding favours at the hotel.” – M&T

Fav wedding memory: “It was a great day, so it’s really hard to choose specific favourites. One of our favourites was our ceremony. We had a really great minister who was funny and entertaining, while still keeping everything meaningful, and focusing on our love and the steps we were taking together. We also had amazing speeches at our reception. They were all super-entertaining, loving, and short! Megan’s sister even sang a mashup of parodies about us!” – T

Advice from one couple to another: “Ask your friends to take pictures and videos and to share them. It is cool to look at the event through your guests eyes, and sometimes those pictures fill in gaps since your photographers can’t be at every table all night. Also, keep organized! There are a lot of things to juggle when planning a wedding, and lots of tools designed to help you, but we primarily used Google Sheets.” – M&T

MORE ABOUT SIMPLY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY | To learn more about Simply Wedding Photography, contact Jaqueline Loft directly by email using the form below. 🙂 You can also visit Simply Wedding Photography online at www.simplyweddingphotography.ca.

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