My Best Friend's Wedding

June 29, 2018 - My Best Friend’s Wedding and one of the most perfect days of the year!

Growing up at Laurier, Cori and I were often partners in crime when it came to helping to organize events and parties - between Reading Week trips, Winter Carnival teams, Halloween parties and everything in between. So it shouldn't come as any surprise when it came time to get married and she had thought of every last detail!

Cori and Joey chose Cambium Farms as their venue which was the perfect backdrop for the day. The morning started early with 4 girls in one bed and another two on the pull out, it also started a little bit hazier than anticipated from some slight over consumption of wine the night before. We arrived to Cambium nice and early to get started on hair, make up and the standard bridal party things. This is one reason I’m beyond jealous of the Groomsmen, while I love the opportunity to get dolled up, the thought of being able to sleep in, hop in the shower and be ready to go is definitely desirable!

Cambium Farms has a great bridal suite/house that we could set up in and get ready for the day. Cori organized for Fancy Face to come in and do the Bridal Party + Moms hair and make-up. The team that Fancy Face sent down was so efficient and did an incredible job on every last lady. It was finally time for us to put our dresses on and patiently wait for Cori's big reveal and what a reveal it was. Every last one of us was at a loss of words, eyes were not dry, and as you can see Cori made the most stunning bride!

A quick note on our dresses. They are from Park and Fifth in Dove Grey. To say that our bridesmaid dress shopping was one of the most efficient and painless processes would be an understatement! The 5 Toronto based girls + Cori stopped by Park and Fifth's Toronto studio one Friday night and within an hour we had each ordered a dress. If you're looking for a modern bridesmaid dress with styles suitable for anyone and amazing customer service I would highly recommend checking them out!

The nice part about being on site all morning long meant that we were able to check in on the venue throughout and see the transformation from a blank canvas to everything Cori had dreamed of and more! All of the vendors (check them out at the end of this post) Cori chose were absolutely incredible! Forever Wildfield did the flowers and brought all of Cori's visions of all of the greens a reality. The end result was absolutely breathtaking. Richelle Hunter Photography captured the day so beautifully as you can see through the photos throughout this post. I know that Cori and Joey are so thankful to be able to re-live their special day through these photos and video. Cori even created some of her own signs to help personalize the day even more.

It was finally the moment we were all waiting for, the big reveal when Cori would walk down the aisle and Joey would see her for the first time. Based on our reaction earlier that day, we knew that there would be a lot of tissues and watching the look on Joey's face as Cori came down the aisle was a magical moment. The ceremony itself was short and sweet, which was welcome in the extreme heat, and Cori and Joey were officially husband and wife!

We spent most of cocktail hour taking photos, which was likely a blessing to help pace myself ahead of the big speech later that night! Cori and Joey's entrance to the reception as husband and wife took them straight to the dance floor for their first dance to Perfect by Ed Sheeran. One of our best friends and another bridesmaid, Anna, sang the first dance alongside the band which made it that much more Perfect (no pun intended).

This was the first time I’ve had to speak at a wedding and to say I was anxious would be an understatement. Public speaking isn’t something new to me. I grew up speaking at events on behalf of SickKids and it’s a regular occurrence with Molson, but saying a speech at your best friends wedding has a new kind of pressure. You want to make it perfect for them while also ensuring that you aren't losing any of the guests and hopefully providing some enjoyment, tears or laughter. You have to have the right balance of memories and inside jokes, but not over the top that everyone else there doesn’t feel a connection to the speech. I initially wanted to keep it short and sweet, under 5 minutes, but quickly realized that is near impossible to fit in everything you want to. I netted out at 8-9 minutes which felt like the right amount of time. The other added pressure this particular time was that I was the last speech before the bride and groom and just so happened to go after Joey’s mom, Denise, who is an absolute rockstar of a speaker. To say Denise nailed her speech would be an understatement. She was beautifully articulate, funny, sincere and definitely speech #goals! Cori and Joey were up next and then the dance floor officially opened.

It’s hard to choose my favourite part of the day or night, because like I said in the upfront, Cori thought of everything and it was all perfection! Some key take-aways for me were that the combination of band and DJ made sure that the dance floor was never empty! The drinks were flowing (and so were the shots, always an added bonus!). The flabongo was back! This was a special moment for the girls as our flabongo was basically the 10th member of Cori’s Bachelorette in Scottsdale. A special thank you to Bettyloo Phootbooth for letting us take the flamingo prop to make this possible (I think every one of the 9 of us had offered to pay them for this or thought to steal it at some point)! The dance floor stayed hot until the wee hours of the morning and the party continued for some back at the hotel! To say the Burke's and Jackson's know how to throw a party would be an understatement!

June 29th, 2018 holds a special place in my heart. Beyond being a beautifully incredible day with some of our best friends and family, it was also the day I got to see my best friend marry the man of her dreams!

xx Nicole