Colourful Québec Wedding Fiesta

Simon Laroche Photographie

August 16, 2018

Isabelle and Olivier were married in Québec, Canada. Although barn weddings are now seen as pretty mainstream, and this couple are anything but, the bride had dreamt of being married in a big beautiful barn ever since she was a child… so that’s exactly what they did! They still wanted to put their own spin on the day though (of course!) so they went down the hyper colourful, Mexican vibe for their theme.

“Our wedding was a rustic and eclectic wedding fiesta”, Isabelle said. “The idea of making the day so colourful is something different than all the white and pastel colours people usually choose for barn weddings.”

“I love Mexico and its culture”, she continued. “Frida Kahlo and her artwork, the spicy food and the Dia de los Muertos celebrations. I thought the idea of combining beautifully colourful papel picado with skulls was the perfect mix and that it represented us both well. Plus, Olivier asked me to marry him at our favourite old school deli with love songs sang by mariachis. We booked them for the wedding and they adapted and sang our favourite French love song in Spanish.”

The ceremony, officiated by a friend, was full of memorable moments for their whole family. “I walked down the aisle to Postcards From Italy by Beirut. We asked our mutual friend who introduced us 12 years ago, to officiate. Throughout the years, all of us have become a lot closer. Our daughter has since been born and absolutely loves her. She’s also the funniest person we know and a talented entertainer. She was the perfect person to conduct such a special moment for us as a couple and as a family. We wrote our own vows. We laughed, we cried. Our daughter was supposed to be the ring bearer, but only cared about running around with her cousin. Our dog was there and he was nervous as hell. We almost forgot to sign the official papers. We kissed and the music wasn’t on cue (Heroes by Bowie). We then walked down the aisle under a shower of giant rainbow confetti. It was beautiful and perfectly imperfect, just like us.”

Isabella has some great advice for other couples planning their wedding when you already have your own children. “If you think your three year old will be well behaved on a day like this, think again”, she laughed. “Mine was absolutely adorable, but she could not, for the love of God, stay in place. She ran around from 3-11 pm without taking a break. I lost track of her multiple times. It’s a good thing I planned for a professional babysitter during dinner and would advise any other couple in the same position to do the same!”

Of their $25,000 budget, their biggest cost was the food, but they saved a lot on decorations even though the bride confesses she doesn’t have “any crafting talent whatsoever! I shopped around a lot for papel picado that wouldn’t be too expensive and a friend of mine started a business selling handmade items from Mexico sold things to me for 1/3 of the usual price. Also working with a team like Le Coeur Bohème for the styling and flowers was a great idea. I didn’t have to stress about where every little thing would go and have to get everything ready myself on the day of – asking talented professionals do that was liberating, in fact.”

The food was integral to the theme, they served big platters for their guests to pick and choose from. “The caterer had cooked for another wedding we had gone to about two years before our own. We loved it so much that we absolutely wanted him to cater for us too. His food is so delicious: lots of local, seasonal ingredients. Sharing the food on table platters was a hit too. Most of our guests had never seen that before. I wanted a family dinner and BBQ feel to the event, but it was pouring rain so I’m not even sure the BBQ part happened. I know my guests absolutely loved the food and that’s what’s important to me, in retrospect. A good idea I had thanks to Pinterest was to have a sweetheart table and ask guests to come and eat with us two at a time. That way, we had time to chat AND eat! I highly recommend that.”

“We don’t have a blog our magazine like Rock n Roll Bride in Québec”, Isabella concluded. “I was on your Facebook page everyday while wedding planning, feeling inspired for the wedding look, but also getting more and more confident in the fact that I was going to be a beautiful plus sized bride – that I wasn’t going to be a thin bride as I had always imagined. Also, whenever a problem would occur with family members concerning the wedding, seeing that other brides were going through the same stuff as me and didn’t have the picture-perfect family we all imagine everybody else has was comforting. Reading all the comments from other Rock n Roll brides who were always supportive and encouraging of other brides was so very inspiring so thank you for that!”

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