Ottawa Wedding Toast Events, vintage car

A planned wedding in Greece. That reality started slipping away in the early stages of the Pandemic. All their dreams of a sunny elfresco wedding in Europe was but a glimmer. It was inevitable, the wedding had to be cancelled. Both Anastasi and Saam were respectively devastated and disheartened. Lost deposits and a painful feeling in their hearts they didn’t realistically feel that they could recreate their vision, and in, of all places- Ottawa while also living in Toronto.

Amidst the pandemic Anastasia & Saam re-grouped and started contacting vendors to help them celebrate their wedding day the best they could. But they were up against a Covid and the world had other plans. Newly updated restrictions without notice, grey areas of interpretation and guest safety was a major concern. Dancing was officially banned, while food and beverage was being served guests were to remain at their seats, masks to be worn if a guest left their designated seats, live performers had to be placed far from guests, 1 meter physical distance had to be maintained at all times, tables needed to be spread far apart, guests had to be seated in their own bubbles, contact lists needed to be formulated for contact tracing for guests and vendors alike, security was tight etc which continuously posed new challenges Anastasia and Saam didn’t have the strength to get through. The obstacles mounted and the murky logistics seemed like a never ending battle they weren’t prepared for. How could you possibly celebrate in such circumstances?

When Saam and Anastasia contacted us we could feel the tension in their voices, the mourning for their beautiful wedding in Greece. We had large shoes to fill. With the unknown ahead of us, we began planning their wedding in stages with a 2 month head start. The date changed numerous times, the amount of guests permitted changed based on our local health regulations and the work put forth was as if we were planning 4 weddings at once. There was a plan A-Z and I think at the end we were on plan W. Covid provided its own set of hurdles to overcome with short supply in vendor availability, constant price changes, scarce furniture rental ability, short supply of floral product, staffing shortages, and new costs associated to Covid cleaning procedures and food safety. All of these things played into how we would be able to design and plan their wedding. A spiderweb of complications which left all of use with extreme highs and lows. A roller coaster ride no one want to be on. Where was this silver lining everyone talks about?!?!

In over a decade of working in this industry, I had never had to deal with so many unknowns. In some respects it felt like this was the first wedding I had ever planned. Nothing was the same and every day had a new surprise which was completely out of our control. It took a lot of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, major discussions that were hard to have and a lot of personal favours called in to make this wedding happen as close to the clients vision as possible.

We personally had sleepless nights, mini anxiety attacks and mini fits of disbelief. But we pulled through and it made us strong for it. It’s an experience my team and I will not soon forget and a huge learning opportunity. It pushed us to the brink- but the reward of hearing “It was the best day of our life”made it ALL worthwhile.

I remember meeting with Saam and Anastasia after the wedding and the sheer joy they emitted was palpable. They explained that throughout the whole process they were skeptical of how they would actually feel on their wedding day having been robbed of the privilege in having their dream wedding in Greece. But, they explained, it was everything and more then what they would have expected for their dream wedding. It was incomprehensible how the day all came together and that their day was truly special in every way. Cloud 9.

And this only begins to scratch the surface of this wedding story….