Elegant SAIT Wedding – Calgary Wedding Photographer Nicole Sarah
This elegant wedding at SAIT was such a fun day! As a Calgary wedding photographer, I love capturing weddings at really unique venues and this certainly fits the bill! SAIT offers so many diverse locations that you could spend an entire day there and have so many different looks. Kathryn and Robert were such a joy to work with on their day. Their family and friends were so sweet. Every time I turned around, someone was trying to feed me! (No complaints here! haha). Read on for their love story and catch a glimpse into their beautiful Calgary wedding.
How They Met
Kathryn and Robert matched on Bumble! Instead of standard softball questions, Kathryn started off strong, requesting a series of short essays to prove intellectual capacity: “Hi Robert, so what inspires you in life and motivates you to get up every morning?” Luckily, Robert somehow managed to pass this screening but likes to joke that his odds still weren’t great, because Kathryn wouldn’t give him her number until they met and she put off their first date for 3 weeks.
Engagement Story
After successfully passing a two-hour interview with Kathryn’s father, Frank, Robert got his blessing to propose to Kathryn. Robert’s very first plan was to propose in Cabo San Lucas in the spring of 2020. Both families were supposed to go on vacation together, but the trip got cancelled due to COVID-19.
Robert then planned to propose to Kathryn during a summer getaway to Kelowna before he left to complete his Masters degree at MIT. However, the ring didn’t make it in time! Undaunted, he moved to Plan C.
Surprising a devout planner like Kathryn was one of the most challenging tasks Robert has ever had to face so he needed help to pull it off. First, he booked a weekend trip to Banff and arranged for Kathryn’s friend, Alisha, to suggest going for a hike by Canmore. In reality, this was to throw her off since Kathryn would be unlikely to suspect that Robert would propose during someone else’s plan. Next, he planned a full list of activities the day before, culminating in a romantic dinner at the top of Sulphur Mountain. When Robert didn’t propose that night, he figured she would be annoyed since she’d been not-so-patiently waiting for over half a year but most importantly, caught off guard when the hike was revealed to be an illusion. Instead, Robert drove Kathryn to a heliport and they took a romantic tour of the mountains. Nervously, he passed her a handwritten note that he made to avoid any awkwardness with the pilot. On it was his proposal speech. Despite not actually going down on one knee, Kathryn accepted anyways and the two were finally engaged!
The Wedding Day
We wanted our wedding day to be classy, elegant and formal without being stuffy. Kathryn had a lot of fun being our wedding planner: saving hundreds of ideas on Pinterest, scouring Facebook for décor, and enlisting Robert’s help to complete various DIY projects (they’re both spray paint pros now). We both naturally gravitate towards the colours grey and navy blue so this became the primary colour scheme accented by gold and purple.
We chose to have our ceremony at SAIT in the Irene Lewis Atrium because of the architectural setting – the “altar” looked like a historic building outside. We loved the venue was inside though, and we didn’t have to worry about the weather. Kathryn’s favourite pictures are the ones taken in the SAIT parking garage, which she thought would suit our modern aesthetic.
Our officiant was Kathryn’s “godmother”, Rosina Smith; her and her husband, Ray Smith, built Kathryn parents’ family home 30 years ago and have been involved in Kathryn’s life ever since. Rosina marrying us was the perfectly beautiful way for us to personalize our ceremony – we wrote the whole thing ourselves.
We hosted almost 140 guests at Hotel Arts and their team is fantastic. They were easy to work with from the beginning, accommodating to most of our requests and wonderfully helpful in the days leading up to and on our wedding day: setting up and taking down décor, troubleshooting décor rentals, storing the cake, etc. We’re both “foodies” and the food provided by Hotel Arts did not disappoint! We added personal touches by opting to add the pasta course (a nod to Robert’s favourite cuisine), late night dim sum snack (Robert and Kathryn are both Chinese and love dim sum), and Kathryn’s mom, Cindy, baked a dessert bar in lieu of a candy bar. She included Robert and Kathryn’s favourite “cookies” (praline square and peanut butter cup cookie) from her special Christmas baking repertoire. Rosina made the jelly favours from apricots grown in her Osoyoos garden.
Our whole wedding day was incredible, so it’s hard to choose favourite moments. Some of our top moments include:
- Walking into the ceremony. Kathryn loved seeing everything she envisioned come together. It was truly beautiful and also special to see everyone they love, together in one place.
- Our spontaneous trip to Village Ice Cream
- Robert loved that the first dance was one of the first things they did together as husband and wife. Hopefully nobody could tell, but Robert and Kathryn choreographed their first dance the night before for about an hour then practiced a couple times in their suite during cocktail hour.
- Pez Productions was great. Josue was amazing! He blended Robert and Kathryn’s dance music tastes (EDM and throwback hits) perfectly. Everyone raved about how they couldn’t leave the dance floor because they were having too much fun.
- Nicole Sarah Photography – We loved looking at all the photos of our special day afterwards. It not only took us back but showed us moments and/or other perspectives we didn’t see the day of!
Overall, we had the most phenomenal wedding day. We feel so blessed to have been able to have the wedding of our dreams and be surrounded by such supportive, loving family and friends who helped make it possible.
The Honeymoon
We’re planning to go on our honeymoon in March or April 2023 to South Korea and Japan. Kathryn’s spring break aligns perfectly with cherry blossom season. Our first international trip together was to Thailand and Singapore where we had an awesome time, so we really look forward to returning to Asia.
