Prior to pandemic restrictions that placed a cap on wedding sizes, some people sought out a small wedding by choice. Toronto Micro Weddings has catered to that set since 2019, offering affordable weddings that require minimal planning on the couple’s part.
Tiffany Mac Isaac, a curator for the company, says micro-weddings “usually attract couples who are flexible and open-minded” — two traits that COVID-time weddings require in spades, thanks to ever-changing regulations requiring smaller-than-usual guest lists, seated cocktail hours and mask-wearing throughout.
The no-dancing rule may be a bummer, but Mac Isaac says that guests make the best of it: “It’s definitely upped the shoulder-dancing game!”
Emily + Trevor
Emily Boodram, 32, and Trevor Vaughan, 33, grew up a seven-minute walk from one another on either side of a major intersection in Pickering, but they didn’t meet until a mutual friend introduced them in 2010.
Six years later, when the couple had outgrown the Toronto rental they shared, they had to make a call: buy a home or pay for a wedding.
“Trevor always jokes that ‘I can’t live in a dress’ was my biggest concern,” says Emily, an HR business partner. So, they decided to forgo the expense of a wedding and purchase a home in the Junction Triangle. (No regrets, they say.)
In March 2020, on the eve of the first pandemic lockdown, Trevor, an engineer, proposed outside the Old Mill with a ring he’d designed himself — a white-gold band and a light-blue diamond — and had made to his exact specifications at The Den on Davenport. (The couple later returned to the shop to have their wedding bands made.)
The Whitby Playdium wasn’t their first choice of wedding venue, but after multiple other venues cancelled on the couple, they found themselves open to the idea — and then enthusiastic about it. Guests had a private section of games to themselves, which scored Emily and Trevor major cool points with their nephew. Importantly, it had an outdoor space for the ceremony, which was held on a perfect (and unseasonably warm) November day. Playdium don’t allow pets in the space, so Trevor set up a webcam for their beloved Boston terrier, Pepper, to watch via Zoom.
Thanks to Toronto Micro Weddings staff, “I never had the chance to be a bridezilla,” jokes Emily, who walked down the aisle in a lace-sleeved dress from Toronto Bridal Project.
“Looking back, I wouldn’t change a single thing,” adds Trevor, who has since developed a new take on the arcade’s slogan: “Now whenever we drive past it, I say ‘Playdium, the ultimate place to get married.’”
Jacqueline + Michael
It wasn’t until treatment co-ordinator Jacqueline Bucago, 30, arrived at her wedding venue, Brock Street Espresso, a charming Whitby coffee shop, on the day she was to be married that she found out her photographer and DJ had cancelled due to a COVID scare.
“My eyes bugged out,” recalls Jacqueline, but she took it in stride. (Luckily, replacements had already been found.) She and fiancé Michael Neto, 33, a graphic designer, had been together for 10 years, and an over-the-top wedding wasn’t in the cards for the laid-back couple.
“Even though weddings are significant, we’ve been together for so long that whether it was written on paper or not, we would still be together,” says Jacqueline.
The coffee shop venue was a sentimental choice for the duo, who had their first date at the now shuttered High Park location of Cafe Novo. While Jacqueline is not big on wedding traditions, the one she wanted to keep was the “first look” — seeing one another for the first time on their wedding day as she walked down the aisle. It was a moment both Michael and Jacqueline say moved them, even after living together for the past six years.
Their first dance, to the acoustic version of Sam Smith’s “Latch,” was shaky at first. “We didn’t know what to do,” laughs Jacqueline, who is 5-4 to Michael’s 6-1, of their slow, shuffling steps. “My mom immediately yelled, ‘They didn’t practice!’ She had to call us out on it.” In the end, they found their footing.
“She’s always down to try new things and go to new places. And get her in a room and she’ll make everybody feel at home,” says Michael of just some of the reasons he loves Jacqueline. “Nothing much will stop her.”
Ameena + Eddie
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The first time Eddie Patzan and Ameena Kirmani, both 31, met was over a plate of chicken at the Square One Zara employee holiday party in 2014.
“I remember she was wearing a long black-and-white skirt, and I was like, ‘How have I never seen her before?’” recalls Eddie, who had just left the company, missing Ameena’s start date by two weeks.
Eddie, who works in software, recalls Ameena, who works in sales, texting him one Canada Day about little plastic Canadian flags littering the ground. “Most people wouldn’t think twice about it, but she picked them all up and put them in the garbage,” he says. “It shows what her character is.”
Ameena still gets emotional remembering the birthday when Eddie, knowing how much she loves the Harry Potter series, gifted her a Hogwarts acceptance letter. (She says she’d be a Gryffindor.)
By early 2020, Eddie had been carrying around an engagement ring for weeks, waiting for the right moment to propose. Having got lost on their way to an apartment viewing in Corktown one day, they popped into an alcove to shake the snow off their gloves and check their phones. “It was next to a flower shop, so there were flower petals on the ground,” recalls Ameena. Eddie seized the moment.
Their September 2020 wedding honoured their Pakistani and Latino heritages.
Because the wedding was outdoors, Eddie was able to hire a mariachi band that had played at his family’s celebrations for years. For their first dance, his aunt sang “Mil Noches.”
Ameena paired her sari with a pink-and-gold-embroidered veil that her mom had worn on her own wedding day. The couple held a Muslim ceremony during which the imam cracked Lord of the Rings jokes. (Think wonderfully corny “my precious” references.)
For these newlyweds, living and working together 24-7 during the pandemic has been easy. “I’m going to miss him when I go back to the office,” says Ameena. “Right now, I’ll be sitting in my pyjamas with my hair a complete mess, and my husband’s like, ‘Babe, you look awesome.’”
Sonia + Blake
In March 2020, Sonia Bhooshan, 29, was supposed to fly from Toronto to New York City to visit her fiancé, Blake Rasmussen, 34, who worked in finance there. Understandably, Sonia had to cancel that flight — and, due to visa issues, the couple were unable to cross the U.S.-Canada border to see one another throughout the pandemic.
When Blake and Sonia finally reunited, they had been apart for a total of nine months — and it was just a week before their October wedding.
The couple met back in 2013 through a mutual friend they both knew from York University, where they had attended school. “I thought he was the most interesting person I had ever met,” says Sonia of her first impressions of Blake, who, at the time, was training for a 160-kilometre ultra-marathon. (It took him 24-and-a-half hours to complete; he ran three that year.)
Blake loved how caring Sonia was — and her sense of fun. The duo has a shared affinity for board games, which they often played online together during the pandemic. In 2018, Blake had an illustrator friend design a custom tile piece for their favourite game, Alhambra, with a chapel on it. Sonia thought it was part of the new expansion they had purchased for the game, and was completely surprised when Blake got down on one knee.
While Sonia and Blake were thankful that most of the wedding planning was out of their hands, they did make sure to include some personal touches.
“When I was little, the number one thing I thought about for my wedding day was getting mehndi,” says Sonia. She hired a talented local artist, Henna by Divya, who drew portraits of the couple in the palms of her hands. Sonia surprised Blake by having the logo for Leeds United, his favourite soccer team, printed on the dupatta — a traditional Indian scarf held over the bride — and the team’s colours (white, blue and gold) featured on the wedding cake.
“It wasn’t so much about the party or the celebration but [about] both of us moving forward with our lives,” says Sonia of the wedding. “The pandemic had really put a lot on hold. The goal was marriage, echoes Blake, not a fancy party: “If it happens in a year when there’s a pandemic and it’s not what we planned for, that’s OK,” he says. “We want to spend the rest of our lives together.”