When we asked our fabulous bride Vickie to describe her wedding day in five words or less, she said, “Romantic, Surprises, Love, Fun, Badass.” Never before has a mixture of words so accurately captured a wedding day!
In addition to looking fabulous in her Astrid & Mercedes Artemisia wedding gown from our Toronto bridal boutique, Vickie was stunning in her áo dài! Our sweet, sassy bride’s has a Vietnamese and Chinese background, and she incorporated elements of those cultures throughout the day. Which, by the way, started at 3:30 am in order to accommodate a traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony, a change into her strapless Artemisia, a first look with groom Vijay, a reception at the stellar Eglinton Grand, a lion dance (in which Vickie participated!), and then another change into yet another gown for dancing—this time a red Astrid & Mercedes Joy dress. Out of breath? Us, too!
Get all the details—including The Office’s Pam and Jim connection and cow socks—from wonderful Vickie below.
Dish on how Vijay proposed!
“So you know in The Office how that first Christmas Jim gave Pam a teapot filled with memories of their friendship so far. That’s exactly how it happened. It was my birthday weekend celebration in 2016. His brother and his brother’s girlfriend came over to hang out. He finished work so I went to go pick him up. We got back to the apartment and they had mysteriously disappeared. I thought they were playing hide and seek, nope they were nowhere to be found. Anyways I walked past our bedroom to the bathroom and thought it was strange that something was on the bed, it wasn’t there before. After a little bit, Vijay called me into the room and it took me a little bit to realize what was happening. I unpacked the teapot and once I got to the ring he asked me to marry him! It was the perfect moment and the perfect way for him to propose! (because I’m his Pam and he’s my Jim).”
bride’s finery: Astrid & Mercedes Artemisia and red Joy via the flagship Toronto bridal boutique | photography: MotionDPhotography | scroll down for full vendor list
How did you choose your gowns?
“My timeline could be wrong, but Lea-Ann Belter opened at the corner of Broadview and Dundas over 15 years ago or so…. I remember walking back to visit my old middle school that is across the street (Queen Alexandra) and saying “Oh wow! A bridal shop has opened here. Maybe one day that is where I’ll buy my dress!” I always thought I would wear a Vera Wang or Hayley Paige. However, when it came time to actually choosing a bridal shop to go to, Lea-Ann Belter was it. It was the one I actually booked an appointment for the one that I was actually so excited to go to. I remember just for months looking on the website going through all the different gowns by Lea-Ann Belter and Astrid & Mercedes. Picking the ones I thought I would love, saving them so that when I actually went in I would know exactly what she needed to pull. It wasn’t easy, Vanessa walked me through the different styles. The one gown I thought I would fall in love with, Ginger, I believe. Then I put on Artemisia, it was alright but then I said something like I always thought my dress would be strapless. Vanessa immediately showed me what Artemisia looked like strapless and I fell in love. It was it, the veil just reconfirmed how perfect strapless Artemisia was.
Joy was a different story. I had left the bridal shop purchasing Artemisia and knew that if I wanted a dress to dance in it needed to be spectacular. So I emailed Vanessa and she gave me a few options and landed on that she had the perfect dress, it was called Joy. I immediately went to the website and looked for it, with no luck; I had to wait until I got in. I got in and even on the hanger I knew I would love it, we put it on and I fell instantaneously in love with it. The topping was that I would be one of the very first to have it and the first person to have it in red. All my friends know that if I could be the first to have anything, I’m sold, also helped that I LOVED THE DRESS!!!”
Tell us about the big day!
“The day was absolutely perfect even with a 3:30am wake-up time. Vijay and I have always loved watching movies and TV shows together. One of the first movies being How To Train Your Dragon and one of the first shows being The Office. It had to be some sort of movie or game theme and the colours had to be our favorite: Orange and Purple. We saw about 4 venues before we stumbled onto the Eglinton Grand. We walked in and I fell in love! That feeling when you’ve found the right guy, the right dress, that was the feeling. You could just see it all fall into place as you stood there, everything from the smallest detail laid out. It was perfect. Back to the 3:30am start. My background is Vietnamese and Chinese so following tradition we started the day off with a traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony, hence the 3:30am start to get makeup and hair done. After the tea ceremony, we went to the Port Union Waterfront to take pictures and do our first look. We then headed to the Eglinton Grand for our ceremony and reception! The ceremony was perfect, we had Brian from Enduring Promises as our officiant. He along with our brothers Andrew and Rajiv married the two of us; along with the cute reference to our relationship, Vijay’s tower stack of Tim Horton’s Cups and being there for each other even when one of us can’t beat a boss in God of War. I even surprised Vijay by having our bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearer dance in to Chris Brown’s “Forever” just like Jim and Pam’s wedding in Season 6, Episode 4. The Reception was fantastic and filled with more surprises for Vijay, from dinner music playing Lord of the Rings and Skyrim. The tables were named after movies and TV shows that we loved watching together. We had a candy table with all of our favorite candies. Popcorn was part of our late night because you can’t go to the theater without popcorn. Our cake toppers were Wedding Mario and Peach, our favorite characters in Smash. The day was everything we wanted and more!”
What is your funniest wedding day memory?
“The boys’ socks! Funniest thing because each sock matched them perfectly! Vijay had cows, he loves cows!”
Share your favorite wedding day moment!
“I don’t know! There was so many! I think seeing Vijay for the first time in my wedding gown at the park and his mind blown face! I will never forget the look he gave me and how much love there was in his eyes.
If I could my second favorite moment was when I shocked our guests by getting into the Lion Head and dancing with my brother and cousin! Not very many of our guests knew that I did that so it shocked them especially since I wasn’t properly dressed for it either in my Vietnamese Ao Dai.”
What was your first dance song?
“Endless Love, Lionel Richie and Shania Twain.”
Advice for future bride/grooms
“Be in the moment. Steal those chances where it’s just the two of you, enjoy those moments because some of them will be the best memories you have. There will be times when it gets difficult through planning but just remember to compromise, talk it through and be there for each other.”
