Andrew and Shauna's wedding in New Westminster, British Columbia

When the event started we opted-out of the traditional ceremony and went with a quick and simple sand ceremony as our symbolism, before enjoying a cocktail party for the rest of the night. To shake things up and be more inclusive we thought it best to remove the whole "only bridesmaids carry something and it usually involves flowers" thing and went with everyone holding something. It took a while to figure out, but in the end we went with everyone carrying a marque light-up letter that when standing next to each other would spell our married last name of Lawley.

The venue we chose do host all of this was hands-down the best decision we made throughout the whole wedding planning process. The Metro Hall in New Westminster is not only a large breathtakingly unique venue close to public transit, but they are also the caterers, the full functioning licensed bar, the decorators, and even the entertainment providers!

The Metro Hall is beautiful as is, but the venue has almost unlimited decoration and layout options to fit any need and conform to various themes. The stage was an ideal place to do the sand ceremony as there were backdrop options to help enhance the feel of the room, and made a great backdrop for photos later on in the evening.

As The Metro also has a fully licensed bar and did all the catering, the evening was a breeze. We did a his and her cocktail and mocktail menu and gave each guest 2 pre-paid drink tickets. We steered away from a traditional sit-down dinner and instead did several platters and had canapes passed around almost all night, resulting in an endless rotation of food. The food was absolutely delicious by the way, and we even got to take home any leftovers, of which there was not much. The staff who made and handled all the catering were friendly and professional.

On top of taking care of almost everything, The Metro Hall knocked it out of the park by providing some of the best entertainment I have ever seen at a wedding. They had giant Jenga set up that was a hoot for everyone, but the real winner for me was the fact they were able to hire a caricature artist! Yeah, that's right, we had ourselves cartooned at our wedding! We kept it a surprise for our guest and they loved it more than we thought they would. Highly recommend Daryl Stephenson at www.caricatoons.ca as his talent really made my wedding special and perfect.

For dessert we went to Cake Conspiracy in Vancouver and they really helped bring to life our very subtle wedding theme, trivial pursuit! We had a small cake made just for us to cut that looked like the game pieces. We also had cake-pops made for the guests that were the same flavoring as the cake, white cake with raspberry. I made our cake topper from clay to look like sloths as we both love them.

We ended up saving a ton of money by opting-out of hiring any kind of DJ or liver performer, and instead created personal playlists with Spotify and had our MC control when each playlist started. It worked out great!

And lastly, as for transportation, we hired Carl at Enchanted Limousine in Coquitlam. Can not say enough about Carl. Friendly, very prompt, prepared for all weather even if we were not, thanks again, and all around an absolute delight! Would not let me walk anywhere if he could help it, and I tried, very caring.

We are thankful for stumbling upon Wedding Wire as we do not know what kind of wedding we would have had if not for the amazing organization and connection this site has given us.