Real Wedding: Jen and Jim's Calgary Stampede Wedding - Family, Friendship and a Celebration in the New BMO Centre

There is a saying that your wedding may be one of the only times in your life when almost everyone you love is gathered together in one place. For Jen and Jim, that couldn't have been more true.

Their wedding brought together two families, lifelong friends, three children, music, laughter and guests from across the country for a beautiful August celebration in Calgary. There were certainly plenty of beautiful details to enjoy, but when I think back on their wedding, what stands out most is not the flowers, the décor or even the beautiful new venue. It's the people who were there to share it with them and the stories that came with them.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Bringing Family and Friends Together

Jen's family travelled from Ottawa to Calgary for the wedding, which proved to be a little more challenging than expected with an air travel strike happening at the time. Jim's family was here in Calgary, and his three children were an important part of the celebration. His son stood beside him as one of his groomsmen, while his daughters welcomed and helped seat guests at the church and each performed a reading during the ceremony.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

There was history among the rest of the wedding party, too. Jim's two Best Men were lifelong friends from his marching band days and had also stood beside him as Best Men at his first wedding. Friendships can take us through many chapters of our lives, and there was something very special about having these two friends standing beside Jim once again as he began this new chapter with Jen.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

A Ceremony Filled With Meaning and Music

For Jen, getting married in a church was important. Her father was a minister, so having their marriage begin in a church held special meaning for her. Jen and Jim chose Christ Church Calgary for their ceremony, presided over by Reverend Brandon Witwer.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Music was equally important to Jim, so it naturally became a meaningful part of the ceremony as well. Along with the church organ, brass and woodwind musicians performed throughout the ceremony, with a vocalist joining them for some of the selections. It was a wonderful way to bring something that has been such a big part of Jim's life into another important moment.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

In fact, music is part of the reason Jim's Best Men were there in the first place. The three originally became friends through the Calgary Round-Up Band and later the Calgary Stampede Showband. That musical history would make another appearance later in the evening, although perhaps not quite as Jim expected.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

A Bottle of Champagne Years in the Making

One of my favourite stories from the day began long before Jen ever met Jim.

While travelling in Paris in her early twenties, Jen bought an inexpensive bottle of champagne and decided she would save it to open on her wedding day. As the years passed, there came a point when she wondered if that bottle would ever actually be opened. Then along came Jim, and after all those years, the champagne finally had its occasion.

They brought the bottle along for their wedding photos and opened it together. Unfortunately, there was one small problem. It hadn't been stored properly over the years and, to be fair, it wasn't exactly an expensive vintage to begin with. Time had not been particularly kind to it.

The champagne had definitely gone bad, and one taste was enough to confirm it. The resulting expressions captured in the photographs tell the story better than words ever could. In the end, I think those photos may be far more memorable than pictures of a perfect champagne toast would have been. Weddings are like that sometimes. The moments that don't go exactly according to plan can become some of the stories you laugh about and remember the longest.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

One of the First Weddings in the New BMO Centre

Following the ceremony, the celebration moved to Calgary Stampede Park and the newly expanded BMO Centre. Jen and Jim's wedding was one of the first weddings to take place in the new Brand Room, which made it exciting in its own right, but the venue also had a very personal connection for the groom. Jim works for the Calgary Stampede and had been closely involved in the BMO Centre expansion. Let's just say that, as their wedding planner, I had a little extra confidence that construction would be completed in time for their wedding!

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Calgary gave us one of those gorgeous August days we always hope for, with warm sunshine and clear blue skies. Cocktail hour was held in The Exchange, the BMO Centre's impressive central gathering space, before guests moved into the Brand Room for dinner and the evening celebration. The Brand Room also opens onto an expansive covered outdoor patio, giving guests plenty of room to enjoy the summer weather. We set out a variety of games for guests to enjoy during cocktail hour and after dinner, and the outdoor fireplaces made the patio an inviting place to gather as the evening continued.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

The modern finishes of the Brand Room provided a beautiful backdrop for Jen and Jim's wedding design. Their colour palette combined soft blush pink with rich shades of merlot and metallic gold accents, creating a warm and elegant look without taking away from the relaxed feeling they wanted for their celebration.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Jen and Jim chose a sweetheart table for the two of them, which let every member of their wedding party sit with their own partner instead of splitting couples up for the evening. It also gave Jen and Jim a few quiet minutes together in the middle of the celebration — or as much alone time as you can have with a room full of friends and family.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Of course, there was one part of the reception that came with particularly high expectations: the beef. Jim's parents both had strong ties to the culinary world through teaching foods programs in Calgary schools, along with connections to cooking for the Calgary Stampede during the summers. There were definitely people at this wedding who knew their food! Their Stampede connection even found its way into the wedding favours, with each guest receiving Stampede horseradish to take home.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Sweets were part of the story too. Delicate macarons in the wedding colours were set at each place, and Jen put together a candy bar for guests to help themselves to throughout the evening — a small, personal touch that guests of every age gravitated toward.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

When Someone Hands the Groom a French Horn...

That wasn't the only time during the day when Jen and Jim's history found its way into the celebration.

Later that evening, Jim's Best Men decided it was time to revisit their band days. They surprised him with an old favourite from their years together and then put him on the spot by handing him a French horn. There was just one slight problem: Jim hadn't played in years.

Naturally, lifelong friends weren't about to let a minor detail like that stop them.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Jim gave it a try, everyone had a very good laugh, and an impromptu musical performance became another one of those moments people will probably still be talking about years from now. There was something especially fitting about it, too, because that musical tradition is carrying on to another generation. Jim's son is now a member of the Calgary Round-Up Band, where those lifelong friendships had first begun.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Music continued to be a big part of the evening as Supersonic Hearts took over and guests filled the dance floor. After all, when music has played such an important role in your life, it only makes sense to have a wedding where people can dance the night away.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

A Special Moment for Two Fathers and Three Daughters

Not every meaningful moment at a wedding is planned as a big production. Sometimes the quieter ones say just as much.

During Jen's father-daughter dance, Jim shared the dance floor with his own daughters. As Jen danced with her dad, Jim danced with his girls, creating a beautiful moment for both families at the same time.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

For me, it was one of those simple moments that summed up what this wedding was really about. This wasn't only about two people getting married. It was also about two families coming together and making room for the relationships, histories and people each of them brought into their marriage.

Creating Memories With the People Who Matter Most

Jen and Jim put a great deal of thought into creating a wedding their guests could enjoy. There were beautiful flowers and stationery, wonderful food, live music, outdoor games and plenty of opportunities for people to spend time together. Their simple one-tier cutting cake from Gold Box Bakery was red velvet, a favourite flavour, because even the smaller details reflected things they genuinely enjoyed.

Photo Credit: Edward Ross Photography

Yet when I look back on their wedding, those aren't necessarily the things I remember first. I remember Jen finally opening the bottle of champagne she had carried home from Paris all those years ago, only to discover that waiting doesn't always make champagne better. I remember Jim's children taking an active part in the ceremony and celebration. I remember lifelong friends handing Jim a French horn and seeing whether he could still play it. I remember the music, the laughter and a dance floor shared by Jen and her father, Jim and his daughters.

Most of all, I remember a room filled with people who mattered to them. Some had travelled across the country, despite the challenges of getting there. Others had known Jen or Jim through very different stages of their lives. For one day, all of those people and all of those different pieces of their lives were together in the same place.

Perhaps that's one of the most special things about a wedding. We spend so much time talking about venues, flowers, food, timelines and all the other details that go into planning the day — and those things do matter. But ultimately, they help create the setting for something much more important: bringing together the people you love to celebrate one of the biggest moments of your life.

Eventually, the music ends, the guests head home and life returns to normal. What remains are the memories and the stories you continue to tell.

And at the heart of all of those memories are Jen and Jim.

Some people find each other early in life. For others, it takes a little longer. Jen and Jim had both lived a lot of life before their paths brought them together, but watching the two of them, you get the sense that they found exactly the person they were meant to find.

There is an ease between them, a genuine happiness in simply being together, and a love that feels all the more meaningful because of everything that came before it. Their wedding wasn't about starting their lives. It was about starting this next chapter together, surrounded by the children, parents, family and lifelong friends who had been part of all the chapters that led them there.

Maybe that is what made this wedding feel so special. It wasn't simply a celebration of finding love. It was a celebration of finding your person — and having a room filled with the people you love there to witness it.

Jen and Jim gave their family and friends plenty of wonderful memories to take home with them. But perhaps the best one was simply seeing these two together and knowing that sometimes, the very best things in life are worth waiting for.

Jen & Jim's Calgary Wedding Team

Weddings don't happen on their own. It takes a large team of creative professionals to come together and create an event of this caliber. Thank you to each and every one of the wedding vendors who contributed in making Jen and Jim's wedding such a special day.

Planning & Design: Creative Weddings Planning & Design

Photography: Edward Ross Photography

Ceremony: Christ Church Calgary

Reception: Brand Room, BMO Centre — Calgary Stampede

Catering: Calgary Stampede

Invitations & Stationery: Lovesky Design Inc.

Wedding Cake: Gold Box Bakery

Flowers: Violet & Co.

Transportation: Paramount Limousine

Ceremony Musicians: John Bouz, Jay Michalak, Andrea Ciona & Eva Michalak

Décor & Rentals: Special Event Rentals

Lighting: Encore

Hair: Amanda

Makeup: Douglas for Michelle Suffolk-Walsh