A Raymonds Restaurant Wedding // Aurora + Danny
Shot in June of 2018, Aurora and Danny planned a destination wedding here in St. John’s, Newfoundland as they had visited on numerous occasions and Danny spent time employed here. Their love of the people, place and culture ultimately led them to choose Newfoundland as the perfect destination for their wedding.
NEWFOUNDLAND WEDDING Vendors:
Photography: JP Mullowney
Dress: Cameo and Cufflinks in Calgary, AB
Ceremony Venue: The Basilica
Reception Venue: Raymonds Restaurant
Decor and Flowers: By Sharpe Design
Hair and Makeup: Allison from Mobile Hair by Allison
Wedding Cake and Favour Cookies: Maria at Petite Sweets
Transportation: Classic Carriage provided our Trolley
Wedding Accommodations: The Inn by Mallard Cottage
Additional Wedding Catering and Food: Rocket Bakery & Fresh Food and The Merchant Tavern
the bride and groom
As many in this day and age, we met online.
Aurora met at least 25 frogs before she found her prince! We enjoy the same past times: shopping, traveling, dining out and visiting small little towns. Although we are both Type A and uber organized, Danny is better at time management. He is packed two weeks before a trip while Aurora will be packing until it is time to leave for the airport. This causes Danny a touch of anxiety so Aurora will work on her packing game go-forward.
planning your wedding
Although we live in Calgary, once we knew we were going to go full in and get married in St. John's it didnt take us long. Our dates and vendors were secured within a month of our engagement!
Again, Type A hahaha.
Newfoundland Wedding Vendor Reviews
Vendors you chose and why:
JP Mullowney- we stalked Jim online and loved his work. He was our preferred photographer and we were thrilled he was free on our wedding date! We love the magical simplicity and artistry in his work. And from the first facetime meeting to the couples icebreaker session to the wedding itself, Jim was nothing but the utmost professional. Highly recommend!
Dress:
Aurora's dress was purchased after only one visit with her mom at Cameo and Cufflinks in Calgary. It is a dress by Sophia Tolli. As everything with our wedding planning, the dress came within 4 weeks rather than the 4 months we thought it might! The bride's tip is keep the dress at the store and do not visit it. That way you don't second guess yourself or get bored!
Suit:
Danny's suit was classic Hugo Boss and came from Nordstrom in Calgary. Again because we are Type A, Danny had a second suit he also loved as a back-up! That one was a Tom Baker which we hope he will wear sometime soon!
Decor:
By Sharpe Design. What can we say about Sue and her team? Such a pleasure to work with. Again, we were lucky that our vendors were open to long distance planning and an in-person meeting a couple of months before the wedding.
Flowers:
By Sharpe Design. All things wedding, Sue's team can handle. We loved her fresh bouquets and knew she could do all our fresh flowers and decor for the Basilica, Raymond's and the Rocket.
Hair and Makeup
Allison from Mobile Hair by Allison is a rockstar.
From initial ideas to my hair trial to the day of, Allison was sweet and professional as could be.
She is so quick with her craft and did lovely hair for myself, my sister and my mom.
Aurora did her own makeup. But being the rockstar that she is, Allison rescued Aurora from the horror of false lashes. I love you Allison for getting those critters on my eyelids and ensuring they would stay put!
Any other vendor you'd like to acknowledge
Maria at Petite Sweets did extraordinary work on our wedding favour cookies (jellybean row) and our whimsical cake of the battery. Not only did her work look magical, it all tasted wonderful and plated so lovely!
Classic Carriage provided our Trolley for our Trolley Tour for our guests. The Trolley was in excellent condition and got our guests where we needed to! Dianne was lovely to work with.
Inn at Mallard Cottage. We rented out both buildings of the Inn for our wedding weekend and the staff at the Inn treated us like family. What a lovely, quaint setting to keep all your loved ones together. The rooms were beautiful and spacious and we loved the baked goods in their breakfast trays! As our wedding weekend also fell on Father's Day, we had a lovely Lobster Boil dinner at Mallard Cottage. Delicious!
Rocket Bakery and Fresh Food. The Rocket catered orders for us for our Trolley Tour and our kitchen party post-wedding brunch, which we held at the Rocket Room. Everything was fresh, tasty and hit the spot. The dessert table was to die for and we had to keep the kids from raiding it before brunch! Kelly also made sure to be around for our brunch and visited with our guests, so lovely!
The Merchant and Raymonds. What can we say about these sister restaurants other than they are the best at what they do. We held our wedding rehearsal dinner at the Merchant and our wedding reception at Raymonds. For such an acclaimed restaurant, Dani Ryan and Ross Larkin from Raymonds were so accommodating and so kind to meet with us to gather ideas and make sure our guests would enjoy the reception. The seafood cocktail bar before dinner was a sight to behold and we loved our 5 course tasting menu with wine pairings.
Brides favourite moment
Stepping into the Basilica and hearing my sister singing and playing flute with the pianist as guests were seated. It made it all real and I knew it would just be a few moments before we were to become husband and wife!
Grooms favourite moment:
There were so many great moments, having the church at the Basilica, the reception at Raymond’s and our photography session with Jim, but I would say watching the expression on Aurora’s face as she walked down the isle was my favourite moment. I really loved how happy Aurora was during our wedding day.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Breathe. Enjoy the moments. Pick the most important thing to both of you and stick with it. Because everyone will have an opinion (solicited or not) and, at the end of the day, it is your wedding after all. So plan for the day that you want.