Rustic and Unique
Compiled by Ariel Vered and Photos by Annemarie Gruden
Nathalie and Olivier met online five years ago. Both still in school, “we were quite busy and didn’t have much time to devote to dating,” she said. Nathalie even canceled their first date because she was too busy with exams. A few months later, she rescheduled and they’ve been together ever since.
The couple have a tradition of taking a trip to Quebec City every summer, so on their trip in the summer of 2016, Nathalie suspected a proposal might be coming. “I was kind of expecting it because it’s our little paradise over there,” she said. “He was really nervous so I knew something was up.” Nathalie had previously mentioned that when a proposal happened, she just wanted it to be the two of them. Olivier waited until every other person had left the park and got down on one knee to ask Nathalie to marry him.
Nathalie found her wedding dress at With Love Bridal Boutique. The Mikaella gown was an all lace fit and flare dress with exposed boning on the bodice. “I had tried on about 20 dresses before that and when I put on that dress, I just knew it was that one,” said Nathalie. “I can’t say why. They say that you know when it’s the one and that’s the feeling I got.”
They chose to get married at Strathmere, one of the first venues to come up when Nathalie Googled “wedding venues” and the first one that the couple visited. The couple was incredibly impressed by the staff, down to the simple gesture of o ering them free co ee from the café. “It felt like they cared and wanted to take care of us and knew how to take care of the wedding,” said Nathalie. “We knew right away that we wanted to get married at Strathmere.”
The ceremony and party were both held outside. The couple wanted their wedding to have a rustic country feel, but still be unique. “I’d call it a natural vibe,” said Nathalie. “I wanted everything to be really natural and a bit more casual.” Nathalie’s bouquet of wild flowers looked so natural, in fact, that someone asked her if she’d arranged it herself. In fact, the bouquet was a surprise even to Nathalie, who had simply asked the florist for a bouquet of wildflowers. She dry-pressed the flowers to preserve them and mounted them on a frame in their home. The meal was catered by the staff at Strathmere. Instead of a wedding cake, the couple opted for eight different flavours of cupcakes from The Cupcake Lounge.
“Everything is blurry from the wedding…but the moment I remember most was right before the ceremony I got to meet Olivier and have our rst look,” said Nathalie. “It was just the two of us. It was nice to get a moment away from everyone and have a moment together. It got a lot of the stress out of the way. When I think of the wedding, that’s what I think of.” W
