This Couple Hired a Destination Wedding Planner to Bring a Little Bit of Europe to Their Vancouver Celebration

Dale and Michael met at orientation during the first week of dental school and quickly became part of the same friend group. When they went on a canoeing trip together, things changed. “When we reached a point where the water was calmer, we all grouped our canoes together and took turns sharing about ourselves,” Dale remembers. When it was Michael’s turn, he was shy and hesitant to open up, but he finally blurted out a story about his younger sister. “I learned that day that he was family oriented and it made me want to get to know him better because I'm close with my family, as well,” Dale says. Five years later, the couple took a trip to Vancouver, Canada, for the first time together. Michael took the opportunity to propose to Dale at the Cypress Mountain Overlook at sunrise.

When Dale and Michael’s original vision of a wedding in Italy was derailed due to Covid-19, they decided to gather 36 of their closest loved ones at the Hycroft Manor in Vancouver for their nuptials, instead. “We went to visit Hycroft in person and loved the elegant European charm of the manor and the fact that it was located in Vancouver, where we got engaged, really made it the perfect venue for us,” Dale says. They enlisted Ariel Chiu to design an intimate, European-inspired event with a muted pastel color palette on June 16, 2023. “Ariel helped so much with narrowing down our vision,” Dale says. “We wanted a wedding that was elegant in an understated way.” Don’t miss all the personal touches in photos by Jen Huang Photo.

Dale and Michael were thrilled to invite their guests to Vancouver to celebrate their wedding. “Most of Michael's friends and family are based in the Greater Toronto Area, whereas my loved ones are from the States, mostly California,” Dale says. “I felt like if it was not for me and Michael, our people probably never would have met!”

The couple worked with The Ayla View to customize a debossed invitation suite with a custom monogram and wreath design featuring the couple’s first initials. The suite was finished with a pale purple ribbon, custom wax seal, and calligraphy.

Before the wedding, Dale and Michael held a tea ceremony, where they served tea to their parents. “It was important for us to incorporate this into our wedding day because we wanted to pay tribute to our culture and honor our parents, who are all first-generation immigrants and sacrificed so much when they moved to a different country to create a better life for us,” Dale says. When Dale went to serve her parents tea, she burst into tears, which created a domino effect throughout the room. “To this day, my mom lectures me about making her cry so hard her false eyelashes came off but to me, this memory encapsulates her love for me,” she says.

Dale went wedding-dress shopping with her mom and sister and ended up selecting a gown that her sister picked out for her. The strapless tulle Pronovias ensemble had an illusion neckline, crystal buttons, and a lace-trimmed train. “It wasn’t a dress that I would typically pick out for myself because it was so eye-catching and glittery and I felt so shy with it on,” Dale says. “But looking at my mom whose smile reached the corner of her eyes in that moment made me feel so beautiful and I knew it was the one.”

She honored her parents by wearing a necklace that her dad had gifted her mom and completed her look with a Martin Thornburg veil.

Dale’s bridal bouquet consisted of spray roses, sweet peas, astilbe, clematis, lisianthus, and allium flowers and was tied with pale pink and purple ribbons.

Dale asked her maid of honor and matron of honor to wear white, her favorite color. “I asked them to pick something that would make them feel beautiful and confident,” she says. They both chose dresses in different styles from Azazie. Michael’s best men wore black tuxedos from Style Code.

Michael wore a black two-piece tuxedo from Canali for the wedding day.

The couple had a first look before the ceremony, but the private moment didn’t go exactly as planned. “As I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to surprise Michael, who was at the altar waiting for me, he thought he heard someone tell him to turn around and open his eyes,” Dale says. “So in the end, we both ended up being surprised. Even though it wasn’t a perfect moment, we now laugh about it.”

The ceremony took place outside in the garden, where an asymmetric open arch structure was covered in greenery and florals in muted pastel hues. Guests were seated on either side of the floral-lined aisle in natural wood chairs.

Dale’s father walked her down the aisle as musicians on the harp and cello played Pachelbel's "Canon in D." The couple’s planners decorated the venue’s statement pillars with crawling greenery and floor-to-ceiling white drapery.

Dale’s brother-in-law officiated the ceremony, during which the couple exchanged vows they wrote for each other. “I didn't expect us to both get emotional as we were reciting and hearing each other's vows,” Dale says, “but there's something about sharing your deepest feelings in front of people you care about that really turns on the waterworks.” They celebrated back down the aisle to Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air On A G String.”

As Dale and Michael stepped away with their photographer for portraits around the venue’s grounds, guests gathered for the cocktail hour. The couple hired Isabel Dusmann to create an illustration of them with their dog, Theo, to display for guests to sign. She also customized watercolor illustrations of guests at the wedding, which they could take home as favors.

Guests found their table assignments for dinner at a wooden escort display decorated with more elegant floral arrangements. The escort cards featured custom calligraphy, ivory wax seals with pressed flowers in them, and dusty blue ribbons.

The couple hosted an al fresco dinner reception on a covered veranda, where long tables were topped with ivory linens that matched the flowing drapery hanging from the pavilion’s pillars. The couple asked their florist from Da Fiori Design to create Ikebana-style centerpieces highlighting blooms in muted pastel hues. “The marbled pink chargers were a little bit out of our comfort zone, but they worked perfectly with the dusty pink dinner plates and rose gold flatware,” Dale says.

Place settings also included linen napkins and custom hand-calligraphed scroll place cards. Pillar candles in various heights, shapes, and colors were placed throughout the tablescape for added dimension.

Dale and Michael sat at a private sweetheart table surrounded by flowers. The couple repurposed some of their ceremony florals for the reception. 

Dale and Michael shared their first dance to “You Are The Reason” by Calum Scott and Leona Lewis. “Michael and I are both shy dancers except in the comfort of our own home, so we really put ourselves out there for our first dance debut,” Dale says.

Michael danced with his mother to “A Song For My Son” by Mikki Viereck. When Dale hit the dance floor with her father, they started by performing the handshake from The Parent Trap before transitioning to dancing to Rod Stewart’s “Have I Told You Lately.” “Dancing with my dad made me feel like a giddy little girl again,” Dale says. “When I wanted to add The Parent Trap handshake into the mix, he was so diligent about practicing it and even taught my mom the steps so she could practice with him when I wasn't around.”

Dale and Michael served guests a three-course meal and took shots with their friends and family before hitting the dance floor. “That liquid courage gave us the smooth moves we needed to let loose,” Dale remembers. “The songs the DJ played and all the dancing just gave off high-school dance vibes in the best way possible.”

The couple also served a three-tiered white wedding cake with painted peach and pink florals on the top two tiers and green olive leaves cascading down the sides. They chose a vanilla confection with passion fruit curd and vanilla buttercream.

The newlyweds credit much of their bi-day success to their wedding planner, Ariel. "I think the most challenging part of the planning process was finding a vision for our wedding. There are so many amazing resources and so much information out there that it can sometimes be overwhelming and also make it easy to lose track of what you want," notes the bride. "Ariel helped so much with narrowing down our vision. She took the time to get to know us individually and as a couple—so by the time we got to the design portion of the planning process, our vision was clear to her."