A Beautiful Wedding at the Britannia Yacht Club in Ottawa

KELLY + DAVID

We asked Kelly and David a few questions about their wedding day, and their experience with Union Eleven. Here’s what they had to say!

- How did you meet?

We met the old fashioned way, on Tinder! I was on for a while, he was on for about a minute, and we just happened to cross paths at the right time. David's first message to me was "By the way, I'm moving to China next year..."

- How did your personalities tie into the theme of your wedding?

We wanted something fun and low key so we cut out a lot of the formalities - no wedding party, no grand entrance, no cake, no formal first dance. We focused more on the party! We kept the ceremony to 20 minutes and made it very personal, including readings by each of our moms, and we celebrated our union with a tequila shot before our first kiss. Instead of speeches we did a "How well do you know the happy couple" trivia game so that we could share a few pieces of our relationship with the guests. And since David and his family are French we strived to make the entire wedding bilingual, from the invites to the music to the ceremony and trivia cards. Most importantly we served poutine for the late-night snack - after a year abroad it was perhaps both of our favourite dish of the evening!

- What's your favourite memory from the day?

Just the love from everyone. Since we live overseas it was more than a wedding for us, it was
also a rare opportunity to see loved ones so we really tried to make the most of it and spend time with each of the guests.

- Do you have any tips for other brides?

We were lucky enough to have a good family friend who helped pull together the decor and flowers and coordinate the set up and tear down at the venue. I would have been so overwhelmed without her and I can't stress enough how beneficial it is to invest a bit of money to get some day-of help. And make sure to bring some dancing shoes, I was SO happy to change into my sneakers after dinner

- Why did you decide to hire Union Eleven?

A lot of my friends have used Union Eleven over the years so I knew what to expect from the quality of the photos. For me, it was a no-brainer to choose Union Eleven.

- Was there anything you particularly liked about working with Union Eleven?

Beyond the fact that he is a total professional and clearly very capable, Derrick was so easy to get along with. He set the tone for the day, putting us at ease and having fun with the shots. We feel so lucky that he's the one we got to share our day with.

- What is your favourite photo?

So hard to choose, but the one of us at the end of the bridge at dusk is one of our faves. And I personally love that he caught me checking out my new ring while my sister and David were
chatting and our witness was signing the registry. I didn't know I was doing it and now I have a very sweet memory of that time.