An Earthy Outdoor Wedding in Edmonton, Canada

Tell us more about how you met. 

We met online, after matching on multiple apps and Allyson not replying to Jenya’s messages for two years. When she finally did, she then let her know she wouldn’t be able to meet for a coffee for another three weeks because of the midterms. 

Our first date was just a coffee date and it lasted six hours. It was so long that we had to call our moms to pick us up, because the buses had stopped running for the night. 

After that, we were inseparable. 

We took things slow and moved in together after three years, when we both had finally finished university. And then we got two degus, and then we got two more. 

After four years engaged, six years together, we had an incredible wedding, then a month later brought a house and then three months later got a puppy. 

Tell us about hiring a wedding planner, did it make the wedding planning experience easier?

It helped a tonne. 

We were both working out of a province on shift work, three weeks away and one week home, so honestly had barely any time together to actually sit down and talk about our wedding plans. 

We are pretty good at delegating tasks. If one of us was stressed or busy with work, the other would take on whatever needed to be done at the time. 

How did you decide on a smaller guestlist?

I didn’t want to invite people I hadn’t seen in years. We were very deliberate about the guestlist as we wanted it not too big, but big enough that it would be a party. 

ONly people we felt we would like to invite ‘into’ our love were invited to the wedding. 

If I didn’t feel like they were a big enough part of our lives, then why should they see us in the most intimate moment of our  lives? 

Tell us about your wedding day. 

We stayed on site the night before, so we woke up relaxed at the venue the morning of. We separated and started getting ready with our wedding party. 

We had a magical first look in the yard. I’d never seen her suit, and she’d not seen my dress – and they worked so perfectly together. 

At the ceremony, I had my Mom and Dad walk me down the aisle together, and we each had one sibling in our bridal party and four friends. We had a ring warming ceremony, which was really sweet. 

We danced the night way under our tent.