You Had Me at First Smile

For this month of November, we have chosen our Lis Simon Bride Tania, who looks gorgeous in her Kim dress.

L O V E S T O R Y

Something about Khiry's name gave me butterflies the first time I heard it, and I didn't even know him. On the first day of Tania’s job, which was working in the promotions department for various radio stations in Toronto - her colleagues raved about their beloved “Khiry”, and how much fun it was to work alongside him. His name radiated from every mouth, eyes beaming with glee whenever there was mention of his name. And I couldn't wait to meet him.

As Tania walks into the office at Yonge St. and St. Clair two weeks into the job, preparing for a concert set-up at what is now “Scotiabank Arena”, she heard a new, attractive voice coming from the room. Her heart started fluttering as she turned the corner to see everyone, and remembered, "Is this him? Why am I so nervous?" And there he was, with the biggest smile on his face as we locked eyes for the first time. Khiry, the center of every colleague's attention, radiating energy from all around, and “there was nowhere else I wanted to be in that moment”.

The two worked together at a “lame Katy Perry concert”, and kept smiling at each other the whole time. “He gave me this sense of calm and excitement all at once - I loved watching him so effortlessly engage the people around him”. They eventually exchanged numbers and continued to message each other on Blackberry Messenger (how vintage is that?!) and eventually, about a month later, they went on their first-not-really-an-official-date to see “Crazy, Stupid Love” (during work shift). That movie, labelled as a comedy, is layered with so much emotion and depth - a reflection of who they are as a couple.

Needless to say, nearly 9 years later, I still have those butterflies!

T H E P R O P O S A L

November 29, 2018

Tania’s current job is in destination marketing. In 2018, the couple started talking about marriage and taking the next big step in their relationship. Apparently, when Tania’s birthday has passed, she was surprised that Khiry hadn’t proposed yet, so she figured he was waiting on something even more special.

She was retuning home from a work trip on a Thursday and was having a crappy time. Tania had a long day with clients, her flight got delayed, she had a bad sunburn, and was feeling generally sick. Typically, Khiry always comes to pick her up and stays in the car at the kiss-and-ride at the airport. And as it was late at night, she was looking forward to throwing her bags in the car and heading home to rest.

Tania texted Khiry when the flight landed to let him know that she’d be out soon. He texted her back to say that he didn’t realize how delayed her flight would be, he eventually parked the car and was waiting for her inside the airport. She didn’t really think anything of it so she just said “cool, see you soon”. On her way to Khiry, his face made her smile, and she started venting about her crappy day. Khiry handed her winter coat and said “It’s really cold outside, so I thought you might want to put on your coat”. She put it on and kept blabbing about her trip, she wasn’t even paying attention to where they were walking, but what he was really doing was making them walk to this beautiful Toronto sign in the airport that they both love. Khiry then said, “Look in your pocket, I got you chocolate.” Every time Tania comes home from a work trip, Khiry would always give Tania her favourite treats, some type of chocolate, usually M&Ms. She absent-mindedly reached into the pocket and felt a huge cube. Confused, she took it out of her pocket to see what weird chocolate gift he found. Little did she know, it was a white jewelry box - “Khiry - oh my god!!!” was her reaction.

At this point, the couple were in front of the Toronto sign and Khiry went down on his knee. I don’t think either of us remember exactly what was said to each other, other than romantic things and me ending with “Yes!”.

While they were talking, she saw a man and a woman with a camera and phone filming them, “who are these people?” she prompted. Khiry asked his friend, a photographer, and his girlfriend, to capture the moments leading up to the question and her reaction to it. He immediately knew that if she saw one of her friends, she’d know what was going on.

“It was a really sweet moment, and it was the only time Khiry truly caught me off guard! I love that he proposed to me at the airport. Further to that, once we got home, my friends and family were there with champagne and gifts to congratulate us – a SECOND surprise! It was an amazing ending to what I thought was going to be a bad day”.

T H E D R E S S

“It was a fun experience. I visited a few boutiques, and tried on many pretty dresses. I went to Pearl Boutique in Mississauga, Ontario – I remember how much I loved their dresses when I would go with my friends for their wedding experience”.

Tania tried on 12 dresses at Pearl and was having a hard time choosing one, but she definitely wanted to support local. She asked the assistant to help her look for a Canadian-designed dresses, and immediately suggested Lis Simon. She looked at the selection and fell in love with the Kim dress. Tania tried it on and loved the way it fit her body and how pretty it made her feel. “I knew that this was the dress I wanted to wear on my wedding day above all others, and I was done looking!”.

T H E W E D D I N G & R E C E P T I O N

June 20, 2020

“It was supposed to be held at The Clubhouse Venue in Etobicoke, but due to COVID, we had to switch plans”.

The couple initially planned for a wedding with 200 people in the evening. The ceremony was to be held outside at 5:30 pm, followed by the receptions indoors. With COVID disrupting their plans, they didn’t want to stop their wedding and wanted to make sure it happened on the 20th of June. The couple got married at Tania’s uncle’s backyard and had their immediate family to attend.

“The wedding had lots of white and pink flowers, lots of twinkly lights, greenery, pink table covers and white chairs”. In the front, they had floral arrangements line the driveway. They also placed her uncles’s old Mercedes in front with an old-school Just Married sign, and filled the car with their wedding favours – jars with homemade tomato sauce! In the backyard, they had a chef onsite who cooked all the food and did a buffet-style meal, so people who couldn’t stay for the reception could stop by and have a drink and bite to eat.

During the day, the couple took a limo to The Fairmont Royal York in downtown Toronto where they spent the weekend. They took pictures there with their photographer and hung out before the ceremony. They also met up with their wedding party and took pictures at James Gardens by her uncle’s house. Then, went to the house and got married!

Highlights and Special Moments

We mixed our Italian/Armenian/Jamaican heritages:

“The wedding favour was special to me. My mom migrated from Italy when she was a teen, so a lot of her Italian heritage stuck with me. Every year, we jar tomato sauce for the winter season. Khiry has learned how to do it too! So we made extra sauce for guests the year before and gave them away. For our dinner, we mixed Armenian, Jamaican and Italian food!”

The entire wedding was unique as they had two weeks to plan for it! They were able to get their marriage license on the 7th of June (as the government offices were closed due to COVID) and pivoted and planned a backyard wedding - trying to work with vendors from their initial plans to were willing to help them. The couple rented a Rolls Royce Phantom to drive them around during the day and got McDonalds for lunch in between photo shoots. “It was absolutely hilarious to eat fries and nuggets, mixed with a bottle of 2008 Dom Perignon (gifted by our hotel) inside a luxury car, parading through the city. But it was special that it was just the two of us enjoying this moment”.

When Khiry and I were planning our original wedding, we wanted really big fireworks at night to surprise our guests. When covid changed things, I forgot all about it. “Once the sun finally set on our wedding day(summer solstice is the longest day of the year) around 10:30pm, Khiry announced that we all needed to go to the front of the house for a surprise for me”. Little did she know, Khiry bought fireworks in the days leading up to their wedding - to try and make the day as special as possible. Khiry and his groomsmen set it all up and made the day even more special, “it was so beautiful!!! It was about 20 minutes of gorgeous fire light and we were cheering and dancing. Our photographer left before sunset so we didn’t capture any photos at night, but I’ll never forget how special that moment was for me and for our close family and friends”.

Preparations and Inspirations

Summer solstice romance (June 20 is the first day of summer)

Due to COVID, we still had that and mixed it up with bohemian and traditional (since we got married on the grass at a house).

Magazines, Instagram. With COVID, not much content was out there yet on pandemic weddings, so we came up with a lot of ideas on our own.

Honeymoon

The couple planned a trip to Europe and the U.K. They were planning on going to Scotland, followed by England, and take the maiden voyage on the Princess Enchanted from England throughout the Mediterranean. However, due to COVID, everything got cancelled - instead, they spent the weekend, cycling around the city of Toronto. They also went camping in their favourite spot outside of the city!!!! “We used everything we saved for the big, traditional wedding and bought a house instead! We think that was a better life decision than waiting around for travel to pick up again. We are hoping to do the Mediterranean cruise at a later time – perhaps our 10 year anniversary!”

Girlfriend, you don’t know stress until a pandemic makes you cancel your bridal shower, bachelorette, wedding and honeymoon plans. But remember that everything can go wrong, and it’s up to you how you respond to it.

Khiry and I are fortunate that we kept sight of what mattered most to us – just being married. We really wanted to make sure the ceremony happened, even if it was just the two of us and our officiant. We made it work and honestly, this version of our wedding turned out to be more like who we are than what the big, traditional wedding was planned to be.

Know that you can’t control every outcome, and sometimes you really need to live and let live. You will get through it!

Special thanks to:

Dress Boutique – Pearl Bridal House

Photographer/videographer – Studio 2000 Photography

Florist – Pure Event Design

Officiant – All Seasons Weddings

Makeup – Stacey Cherian Beauty

Cake – Cakes By Mickey

Transportation – Toronto Limo Rental