Shawn and Maeve's wedding in Vancouver, British Columbia

Our ceremony was at 3 in the garden behind the mansion. Thankfully, the sun came out for the afternoon so we were able to get married outside. Jonathan, our officiant, was perfect! I wrote it in his review, but my dad commented to him after the ceremony that if he were to get married again, he'd hire Jonathan to officiate. (No, my mother was not pleased with my dad for that one, but she did also concede that my dad's not wrong).

After the ceremony, we had a receiving line so we could say hi to everyone who came (which I highly recommend, because you hardly have any time at all with all your guests so it's nice to have a hug and a hello).

During the cocktail hour, our caterers (Ritz Catering - HUGE shoutout to them for not only having the nicest staff but also having "the best food [my guests] have ever had at a wedding" - legitimately, I heard this more times than I could count) served appetizers while we went off to take pics with Erik from Weddings N Photos. He was an absolute dream to work with - not only is he a super nice guy, he's also an amazingly talented photographer. When we first met him, he showed some of his portfolio, and the way he captures the emotions of the weddings made me feel like I was at them. He took incredible shots at our wedding, not only of us in our photo session, but of our guests and decor, totally capturing the spirit of the day in his pictures. (I look at them more often than I'd care to admit). We had a buffet-style dinner, and again, Ritz provided an amazingly delicious dinner package that didn't break the bank. After dinner, we did speeches and then dancing. My husband and I spent a few weeks compiling a playlist so we got to skip the DJ, but if you're doing this, definitely rent a good sound system. We went with Long & McQuade, and for ~$50 you can have 2 very loudspeakers with great sound. Additional shoutout to Behnaz at Joconde - she made an absolutely breathtaking cake and cupcakes for us. (I included a mouthwatering picture - it tasted as great as it looked!)Our day was a dream! We keep joking that we'd like to do it over again - have settled on the idea of having a 10-year anniversary party at the same spot.