You may recognise today’s bride & groom Jennifer & Jason from their fabulous vintage diner engagement shoot, published right here on Chic Vintage Brides last week, it was a retro beauty – if you missed it, you can take a peek here. Well, if you thought their engagement shoot was stylish, just wait until you see their wedding. Captured sublimely by Nicole Sarah, it is vintage perfection!…..

How stunning does Jennifer look in her tea length wedding dress?? And isn’t the tandem cake topper just adorable and perfect for the couple who love their bikes! Absolutely full of fabulous style, creative flair and personal details, Jennifer & Jason’s intimate vintage affair was just as every wedding should be – a complete romance-fest! I am going to pass you over to lovely bride Jennifer to tell you all about it…..

“I found planning our wedding pretty easy – Pinterest became my best friend and was a great reference guide with the ability to create boards and pin all of my ideas. I naturally love going treasure hunting, so finding all of those little details were fun, it also helps we had a lot of support from our families.

We knew right away that we wanted to get married in our favorite spot to bike and eat in Calgary, which is the River Café in Princess Island Park. Very rustic all on its own, it was a perfect location to have a wedding with a vintage feel. I did the majority of the decorations by hand and our wonderful friends Jessica and Greg put everything together on the day. Originally we wanted to have our ceremony on the River Café patio but because the weather was rainy, we switched last minute to indoors – but not even the rain couldn’t damper our wonderful day!”…..

“The shoes were one of the major things I looked forward to finding after getting engaged, as I’m a shoe-aholic! I knew, because I wanted my dress to be tea length, that I’d needed to find a beautiful pair of shoes to show off. I lucked out and found the perfect blue sparkly pair at Betsey Johnson. ”

“My bouquet was extremely heavy but worth it, the colour palette was white, yellow and French Blue. I knew I wanted succulents, craspedia and tea roses, so I took a bunch of ideas, including a list of the flowers I wanted, to my florist. Corinna from The Dutch Touch, who my family has been using since I young, was my florist of choice.”

“I wanted my dress to be timeless and to be inspired by 40’s design to match our vintage theme. I took to Google and Pinterest to start searching for gowns. After not having much luck with finding a vintage inspired tea length dress with sleeves a co-worker of my suggested a designer by the name of Justin Alexander . As soon as I saw my dress on their website I knew it was the one. I went on a whim and never got to try my dress on prior to ordering it through a local shop (Blissful Bridal). When it arrived it fit like a glove and matched my vision for the dress I wanted to wear on our wedding day.”

“The wedding reception was right at the River Café in the same space that we got married in. We did all of our decorations, I’m a graphic designer by day with a passion for anything crafty . The chalkboards on the fire mantel behind us during the ceremony were done by myself. I went antique hunting for all of the tea cups and made the candles by hand. All of the milk glass vases throughout the venue and used for the table decorations are vintage (gathered from different vendors off of Etsy, Kijiji and garage sales), birds nest are hand made, as were the table numbers and forks. The flowers at the reception were based around my bouquet with an assortment of garden roses, grey succulents and craspedia.”

We had mini picnic baskets for our favors, the River Café put truffles in each one for our guests.

“Jason had a custom 3 piece suit done at Harry Rosen, with custom cuff links from the his mother, with matching tie and pocket square. Jason loves bright socks, so it was only fair that he found the brightest orange pair possible to match all of his accessories!”

“I wanted a 40’s inspired up do with make-up to match. I did a lot of research on local vendors who specialize in that genera; my hair was done by Erica from Lather and make-up was done by Erin Winters. Both ladies did trials long before the wedding so that we could nail down the look exactly how I wanted it.”

“Our wedding cake was made especially for us from the River Café, I have a dairy allergy so they made us a chocolate zucchini cake. As well the tailored the entire meal to be dairy free. We included fresh flowers from our florist (The Dutch Touch) and a wire dual bike made for us off of Etsy with the wedding date and our names which will make a great keepsake! We only had a small cake made for us to cut at the wedding because we choose a “his” and “her’s” cupcake made for each of us again from the River Café, as well as mini ice cream cones.”

Pearls of Wedding Wisdom from the Bride…..

“Keep a board, binder or book of all of your favorite ideas so you can easily access them. Start planning early so that the vendors that you wish to use are available. Pick a budget together and work with by being as thrifty as you can, if you do some hunting you can find some good deals. Don’t panic as something also doesn’t go according to plan…….the day of our wedding was one of the only days in August that poured rain….sometimes life happens and it all comes together the way it was meant to be. Oh and never be afraid to ask for help…..it’s not a one woman show!”

“Our getaway car was a surrey bike that we rented and put a just married sign on to get away throughout the park after our reception.”

Tell us a little about your photographer…..

“Nicole was absolutely amazing! We did tons of research on photographers because for us it was the most important piece of the puzzle – since after the day we’d have our photos to remember it all by. We wanted photos that looked natural and not staged, and that used real light as our wedding was going to be during the day and in the park. Once we touched base with Nicole she wanted to meet with us in person, as she’s just as particular about the clients she works for. She wanted us to have a chemistry with her…..shortly we found out that she is just as goofy and fun loving as us!  We did a vintage engagement photo shoot with her at a dinner in Calgary which was a blast even though it was freezing out. Both our engagement and wedding photos were taken on an overcast day which was perfect. She’s sneaky like a velociraptor…..and captured all of our special moments even if we weren’t aware they happening. We will be coming back to her to do some family pictures down the road and recommending her to everyone we can!”

A huge congratulations to the chic and stylish Jennifer & Jason, wishing you every happiness as husband and wife! A big heartfelt thankyou too, to them and to their wonderful photographer Nicole Sarah for not only capturing every detail of their perfect day so beautifully, but also for allowing me to publish it here on Chic Vintage Brides. Do pop across to her website www.nicolesarah.com, or follow her on Facebook and Instagram, to see more of her work.

Amy

x

Photography ~ Nicole Sarah

Wedding Dress ~ Justin Alexander from Blissful Bridal, Calgary

Bridal Shoes ~ Betsey Johnson

Bridal Hair ~ Erica from Lather

Bridal Makeup ~ Erin Winters

Floral Design ~ The Dutch Touch

Groom’s Attire ~ Harry Rosen

Wedding Cake ~ River Café (and dairy free!)

Wedding Cake Topper ~ Heather Boyd Wire

Venue ~ River Café in Princess Island Park