Vintage Canadian Wedding

From England moving back to our continent, this Canadian wedding sent by Anna of Cineart Photography is just a glimpse of how great the weddings this Fall are looking to be. Elise’s vintage inspired wedding dress is a heaven sent to vintage brides and is certainly going to our wedding dress hall of fame.

Kevin and I, like most readers of Ruffled, love all things vintage! We decided to channel the late 50s-early 60s specifically for the slim suits and the full, ballerina-length skirts. Overall, we wanted our day to be fun, light-hearted and basically a dance party with our family and friends.

The procession and recessional were the musical stylings of Brendan McGuigan. For our first dance we chose Hey Jude by the Beatles. It was a perfect choice because it allowed Kevin and I have our moment but then, part-way through the song, our friends and family rushed onto the dance floor and everyone danced and sang along loudly. It was such an amazing moment and it was the perfect way to kick off the dancing.

We didn’t really have ‘a colour’ but more of a colour palette. After we decided on the 50s-60s as a reference, I started looking around for vintage-inspired fabric for table runners. My mom, my mother-in-law and I found some awesome material at Jo-Ann Crafts in Ontario, California with blue, green, brown, ivory and taupe tones. As all of the decorating was essentially DIY, having the fabric was very helpful as it informed all of my other décor choices. After selecting the fabric, Kevin and I started hitting up thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, and antique stores for various vintage pieces to adorn the reception location (and later our home). Some of the items that we found were, a globe, a 50s food scale, suitcases, a fan, typewriter, and a rotary phone. The other major elements in our décor were birds and birdcages. Initially, we had only planned to have a few birdcages and a few birds here and there but there more we found- the more we had to rescue!

The seating board was made using a large wooden frame that was on sale at Michael’s and vintage maps that I found in thrift stores. Kevin is from California and I am from Alberta, Canada so using old maps of our respective home state and province as the background was a fun way to reference where we grew up.

The centerpieces consisted of cut flowers in milk glass vases, various bird figurines, vintage books, and the Tolsby photo frames from IKEA which were featured on Ruffled earlier in the year.

For dessert we served a variety of cakes made by my lovely friend and bridesmaid, Nicole, who is a trained baker and pastry cook. We also served cupcakes made by my friend Ashley who just started culinary school.

See Also

Monogram Magic In This Textural & Earthy Wedding With Elevated North Carolina Flair

One thing that was special about the desserts is that we had a small memorial cake for my grandmother, Bubba, who passed away in January. Bubba’s big thing at weddings was making the traditional fruit cake with royal icing. My wedding was the first family wedding in which she wasn’t there to make her cake so it was important to me to have her there in some way.

Any advice for brides planning their weddings now? When Kevin and I started planning our wedding, we sat down together and wrote a top 10 list of the most important things that we wanted for our day. I really recommend doing this because if your family is anything like mine (large, opinionated and likes to be involved) then you are likely to be bombarded with suggestions which can cause you to loose sight of your vision. By identifying what was the most important to us, Kevin and I were thankfully able to stick to our guns and not get pushed into every imaginable cheesy bridal cliché.

Wedding Vendors (Calgary, Alberta, Canada):

Gown: Justin Alexander (style 8465) / Birdcage Veil: Something Bold / Bridesmaid Dress: Le Chateau / Cake: Nicole Dore’ (bridesmaid) / Cupcakes: Ashley Rogers (friend of bride) / Flowers: Elegant Expressions / Hair: Cabella Salon (Bride’s hair by Lindsey Buro) / Makeup: Makeup By Jackie / Reception location: Newport Grill on Lake Bonavista / Photography: Cineart Photography / Transportation: Blue Sky Limos / Invitations: Hello! Lucky / Ceremony and Reception Music: Beautiful Unicorn