Adventure Wedding
It's finally here! We can't believe it's been one year since our adventure wedding in St. John's Newfoundland! Most of you reading this have most likely seen some pictures, but stick around for the story behind the wedding, the day of, and MORE pictures.
The number one question we get asked when telling our "wedding story" is "are you from Newfoundland?" or "do you have family there?" The answer to both those questions is no. So you may be wondering how we ended up in St. John's getting married. It's not as random as it seems. And I mean, look at this spot!!!
What brought us here was a few things; we had originally started planning a fall wedding in the Ottawa Valley. As we made our way through the initial stages with that idea, something just wasn't sitting right. First off, we have family from all over, and lots of it. The more we reflected and examined the cost of things, we just knew it wasn't what we wanted to spend our hard earned dollars on.
During March Break of 2017, we started to discuss what we really wanted to do. As a teacher, Stephanie knew she didn't want to spend her summer planning a wedding- especially since she spends the whole school year planning for teaching. The more we thought, the more we knew we wanted to spend part of our summer on another awesome road trip, but we couldn't do a road trip and a wedding in the same year. Stephanie had been to Newfoundland two years before, but Justin had not. He had visited the rest of the East Coast, but Stephanie had not. And with those ideas in mind, we decided we would get married in Newfoundland as part of our van-adventure!
Obviously, this left many people unable to attend, but we were so very grateful that Stephanie's immediate family flew out and joined us for the big day.
How do you plan a wedding in another province you ask? It wasn't as difficult as you may think, especially when keeping things simple. Stephanie found our wonderful photographer, Heather Nolan, through some Instagram and Google sleuthing. Not only was she fantastic, as a local, she was able to help Stephanie find a salon, as well as our officiant.
We had another local connection through Stephanie's good friend Victoria. Thankfully, Victoria's mother lives just outside St. John's and was a massive help in locating reasonably priced flowers (remember this is an island, things can get pricey)!
We decided to book a hotel for the night before and the night of the wedding. After all, it would have been a little difficult to get ready inside the van. The Sheraton was a perfect location and super dog-friendly.
Next, we had to decide on a spot to have the actual ceremony. As soon as we knew we were going to get married in St. John's, Justin knew the exact spot. He pulled out a photo of Stephanie from her visit in 2015 and said: "right here".
Since we had some family there for the day, we also wanted to have a nice meal that evening. There are MANY options for delicious food available in St. John's. We settled on Yellowbelly Brewery. We liked the casual vibe and it was a nod to our original plan for a brewery wedding.
It seems the best way to share more about the day is with pictures and not just our words. All photos are by Heather Nolan.
The number one question we get asked when telling our "wedding story" is "are you from Newfoundland?" or "do you have family there?" The answer to both those questions is no. So you may be wondering how we ended up in St. John's getting married. It's not as random as it seems. And I mean, look at this spot!!!
What brought us here was a few things; we had originally started planning a fall wedding in the Ottawa Valley. As we made our way through the initial stages with that idea, something just wasn't sitting right. First off, we have family from all over, and lots of it. The more we reflected and examined the cost of things, we just knew it wasn't what we wanted to spend our hard earned dollars on.
During March Break of 2017, we started to discuss what we really wanted to do. As a teacher, Stephanie knew she didn't want to spend her summer planning a wedding- especially since she spends the whole school year planning for teaching. The more we thought, the more we knew we wanted to spend part of our summer on another awesome road trip, but we couldn't do a road trip and a wedding in the same year. Stephanie had been to Newfoundland two years before, but Justin had not. He had visited the rest of the East Coast, but Stephanie had not. And with those ideas in mind, we decided we would get married in Newfoundland as part of our van-adventure!
Obviously, this left many people unable to attend, but we were so very grateful that Stephanie's immediate family flew out and joined us for the big day.
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| Of course, Tesla was there too |
We had another local connection through Stephanie's good friend Victoria. Thankfully, Victoria's mother lives just outside St. John's and was a massive help in locating reasonably priced flowers (remember this is an island, things can get pricey)!
We decided to book a hotel for the night before and the night of the wedding. After all, it would have been a little difficult to get ready inside the van. The Sheraton was a perfect location and super dog-friendly.
Next, we had to decide on a spot to have the actual ceremony. As soon as we knew we were going to get married in St. John's, Justin knew the exact spot. He pulled out a photo of Stephanie from her visit in 2015 and said: "right here".
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| Stephanie in Quidi Vidi-2015 |
It seems the best way to share more about the day is with pictures and not just our words. All photos are by Heather Nolan.
Getting Ready
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| The only time I left paperwork to the last second |
The Ceremony
This spot turned out to be a little more rugged than anticipated. Stephanie definitely had a second pair of flat (safer) shoes. Her mom ended up in runners, not her first choice, but was also good for a laugh. Our officiant, Craig Murphy came well prepared, which made up for our keeping it (too) simple vibe. He had speakers and the perfect "wedding, but not too wedding" music to play in the background the whole time. He could not have done a better job! As we approached this rocky area, there were some locals out painting their house. We were met with smiles and "congratulations" - the kindness of Newfoundlanders never stops.
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| When you have two bros to walk you down the "aisle" :) |
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| Definitely thinking "we made it"! |
As you can see from the sunshine, it was a gorgeous day... way more beautiful than expected. Stephanie was quite warm in her dress that was originally purchased for a fall wedding (she thought it'd be fine for a seaside wedding haha).
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| Big bros coming through as our witnesses |
Mr. and Mrs. Walker
After the ceremony, we toured around Quidi Vidi to take some more photos and then headed to Flat Rock River trail, about 20 minutes outside St. John's.
It's not your wedding day without a stop at Starbucks! We were gifted free drinks when the barista found out we had just been married!
We have no regrets how this day turned out and would do it all over again in a heartbeat. We are beyond thankful for the family that could be there with us and for those who were with us in our hearts!
We hope you've enjoyed following along on our van-adventures. This summer we're focusing on moving and getting our home setup- the van will have to wait for more adventures. Thanks for hanging on this long!
S & J
P.S. Here's a quick run-down of where we got things:
Dress: Norde Bridal (Ottawa)
Earrings: Sarah Walsh Bridal
Suit: Indochino
Hair: Sound Salon and Spa
Makeup: Stephanie
Photographer: Heather Nolan
Flowers: Hickey's Greenhouses
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