We met 14 years ago in my first year of college. Mark was my instructor in my first year painting class. Nothing untoward happened while I was attending school and we didn’t see each other again until I was 25 and we bumped into one another at a lounge one evening. We chatted for a long time catching up that night and he even invited me to go to France with him the following summer. Needless to say we quickly began dating and I ended up joining him on that amazing trip.

Since we already had a house and a child (with another on the way) the decision to get married was a mutual one. We chose the rings we wanted and had them custom made by two small businesses, one in Canada and one in the US. Mark officially asked me to marry him on Louise Head Beach on the southern shores of Nova Scotia where we were staying for a family vacation. The location has since become one of our favourite places on earth and we’ll be back many more times.

We didn’t want a traditional wedding, we wanted something very small, intimate and stress free. We didn’t even want the traditional wedding gown/tux so we infused the whole day with our own personalities. We had our family and closest friends, some of whom we have known for over 20 years join us in our backyard for the ceremony where we exchanged vows we had written to each other. It was wonderful to have our children and even our little dogs with us during the ceremony and the memory is something I will always treasure.

Our reception took place at Teatro where we shared dinner and drinks with some of our favourite people in the world. The whole thing was very laid back and unstructured, which was just how we wanted it!

Anyone who has small children will appreciate the fact that after the wedding it was back to life as normal! We do however plan to have a “honey afternoon-moon” where we will go for massages and lunch.