Daniel Joy & Alexandrea Joy
A small, intimate wedding with 50 guests for now, and a planned celebration for their one-year anniversary. Here is what this couple thought about minimizing the guest list, Pink Whitney shots and meaningful vows.
Tell us a bit about your love story: We met after both moving back to our hometown after being away for work and university. We met on the dating app Bumble. We had our first date at Starbucks, talked for over three hours. Through our conversations we found out that we went to elementary school together (same classes even, I’ve attached an old yearbook photo).
Daniel is huge into baseball, so Alexandrea really loved when, for their second date, Daniel took her to the batting cages.
Shortly after meeting they both landed their dream jobs, Alexandrea in a local Emergency department and Daniel as a police officer. Daniel proposed to Alexandrea during a family vacation in Vermont, USA. They hiked mount Mansfield, and he proposed at the top!
What were your original plans for your wedding day? Our original guest list was over 250 people, same location but a larger party with a DJ and photo booth. We decided we wanted to go ahead with our wedding regardless of number allowances because you never knew what the future will hold during a pandemic. The number had increased to 100 the week before the wedding, but we kept our guest list at 50, which allowed us to have our closest family and friends. We postponed our DJ and photo booth to use for our one year anniversary (pending guidelines at that time).
If you had to change your plans, how did you feel before and after? Will you be having a larger celebration next year? We were originally discouraged by the change in plans. The bride coming from a blended Dutch family and the groom having a very large friend group, we were really looking forward to having a large wedding/celebration with everyone we cared for. The smaller wedding was so special, really having your closest loved ones to cherish and spend time together. I was always told you never spend time with each other on your wedding day as your so busy socializing with guests, but the small wedding really allowed us to enjoy our time together and with all of our guests! We couldn’t imagine our wedding day any other way and we recommend the small intimate weddings to anyone planning a wedding.
We have booked the majority of our vendors for the same date next year so we can have a one year anniversary party with everyone we originally invited, and we are looking forward to that celebration!
What was your favourite part of the day? Spending time with our wedding party all in one place. It was really special having both sides of our friends group and family together. The Pink Whitney shots.
What will guests remember most? The groom’s vows! He said his vows not only to the bride, but also to the now step children as well! He had the guests and wedding party in tears!
What advice can you give to couples planning a wedding? Go with the flow of planning a wedding. Try not to get discouraged if government restrictions cause you to change things up. The most important part of that day is marrying each other, and at the end of the day that’s all that will matter!
Number of guests: 50
Ceremony/reception location: Bride’s parents’ property in Marysville, Ont.
Gown designer: Sophia Tolli
Suit designer: Ike Behar
Photographer: Russett Photography/Jack Logan Films
Décor: bride and mother of the bride
Stationery: Christine Burr
Flowers: Vintage and Bloem
Rentals: Dewmil Enterprises
Food: The Wandering Fork
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