Misel + Antony’s Hotel Arts Wedding
Misel + Antony are such a sweet, amazing couple! I had SO much fun with them on their engagement session last winter. Their absolutely stunning Hotel Arts wedding was captured by our Associates Tess and Sarah, and I have to admit – I got pretty misty eyed editing their images. They have so many family and friends and seeing the love surrounding them and all the beautiful tradition was breathtaking. Read below about their love story and wedding day. Grab the tissue folks! xo – Nicole
How did you meet?:
We met about 5 years ago through mutual friends and nothing much happened since then until Antony reached out to me on July 1st of 2016. I was preparing for my usual summer vacation to Croatia when Antony found out about my trip and showed an interest in what my plans were. A few days went by of back and forth chatting and sadly I was on my way to Croatia for 3 weeks. While at the airport waiting for my flight, I found out Antony’s original summer plans fell through and he bought a last minute flight for the following week to go to Croatia as well. While flying and not having cell service, I was eager to land and hear more about his Croatia trip and if there would be a possibility of us meeting up. I was just so excited to hear back from him that I felt like a lil giddy girl. After days of chatting back and forth, we made plans to meet up with each other and a couple of other mutual friends who were there as well from Edmonton. I can still remember how nervous I was that day when he came to pick me up, but the nerves quickly went away as he charmed me with his silly sense of humour. After only a couple of days together, a spark was ignited but I was dreading leaving him. The weekend after Antony got back home to Edmonton, he came down to Calgary for a brief visit, which was the beginning of our long distance relationship. So many endless drives back and forth on the QE2 highway, and many days apart, but I knew from the beginning that it was all worth it and that this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
Engagement story:
Fast forward now to just over two years later. I was stuck at the hospital working over the September long weekend. After three long day shifts in a row, I was exhausted but on my way to a family dinner at the Bow Valley Ranche, or so I thought. As I was walking towards the restaurant, my sister redirected me where to go and as I looked up, I saw Antony standing off to the side in this romantic setting, waiting for me. The tears instantly started flowing as I knew what was about to happen. As I approached Antony, I was shaking from all of the shock, but he just started telling me how much he loves me and simply got down on one knee and proposed.
The Wedding Day!
Our wedding day was filled with so much love, laughter, fun & elegance. The day started with both of us having our closest family and friends at our houses in the morning to start the celebration early followed by Antony, his groomsmen, family and friends arriving to Misel’s house for a Croatian Tradition of “Buying the Bride”. The Croatian band was present and playing Croatian music adding to the fun atmosphere. Then off to the church we went to get married. Our ceremony was a traditional Catholic wedding.
At our reception, we had a receiving line with our parents welcoming all 400 of our guests followed by a shots table for our guests to enjoy a traditional Croatian Brandy. The Croatian band was playing live music during cocktail hour. Once the night started off, the bridal party was introduced followed by Misel and Antony making their grand entrance, which we had our first dance right then, prior to dinner. We chose a Croatian Song (Ruzo Bila – Luka Basi & Marko Skugor) for our first dance, no huge significance to this song other than that we both liked it and felt that the tempo of the music resembled “us”.
We had a 5 course dinner filled with SO much delicious food, which in between we enjoyed hearing speeches from our siblings, maid of honour, and best man. The party was kicked off with live music from the Croatian band – Becari from Calgary. The dance floor was always full with lots of traditional Croatian dancing with our guests full of energy and enjoying the night away. The DJ took over for the last hour and a half of the evening, continuing the party of dancing and everyone having a blast till 2:00am. Throughout the night you could see more bodies on the dance floor than sitting down on their chairs.
While planning our wedding, my main vision was elegance and lots of florals. I wanted everything to be timeless, which is why I chose whites, creams, small hints of light pink for colors and lots of greenery. I want to be able to look back on my photos and for them to never look outdated due to the colors and theme I envisioned.
Our top moments were definitely the morning when Antony came to pick up Misel at her parents’ house. The atmosphere and anticipation to see each other was just so exciting and definitely one that will be memorable forever. There was definitely more excitement than nerves that morning for the both of us. The wedding ceremony was filled with so many top moments, from when Antony saw Misel walking down the aisle, despite having seen her earlier was still breathtaking, to when we vowed to be each others husband and wife, our first kiss as Mr & Mrs, to signing the marriage license and walking out as husband and wife. During our reception we loved that we spent the whole night by each other dancing and celebrating with all of our loved ones.
Honeymoon- We spent 10 lovely days in Maui soaking up the sun, relaxing by the beach and enjoying many cocktails!
