real weddings

Hot chocolate shots, photo shoots in the snow, and sparkly UGGS… what’s not to love about this winter wonderland wedding?! Captured by Scarlet O’Neill Photography, this stunning Toronto celebration is the quintessential winter wedding.  Rachel and Matthew struck the perfect balance between traditional and totally fun: ring pops for everyone, and a surprise flash mob dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” were among the highlights. Scroll down to see the gorgeous photos — and newlyweds! — and to read more from the bride.

From the Bride…. “I should begin by explaining why we chose to have a winter wedding. No matter where Matt and I we go or what we do, rain follows! So, we figured the safest way to avoid the  rain on our wedding day would be to get married in the winter. To our astonishment our plan actually worked! On the day of our wedding we woke up to find snow on the ground and sun in the sky. The day was perfect.

Once the decision was made to have a winter wedding, it was important to us to fully embrace the season. We made over 300 hot chocolate cone party favors for our guests to take home at the end of the night, and even had hot chocolate shooters served to our guests as they arrived. We gave our moms and sisters black sparkly boots to wear in the snow (and I wore a pair of silver sparkly UGGS myself), and we gave the ladies of our extended bridal party (which we called our Entourage) adorable mittens, and the guys pocket squares and socks. We even ironed on personalized labels to these items that read ‘Matthew & Rachel’s Wedding Entourage 19/2/12.’ Despite the cold season, our dream was to take photos outside and, thanks to our incredibly brave group of friends and our wonderful photographer, Scalet O’Neill, this dream came true.

Finally, it was really important to us that we incorporated ‘ring pops’ into the wedding, as Matt proposed to me with my favorite blue raspberry ring pop. So, again, with the help of our wonderful friends, we did a flash mob dance to a re-written version of ‘Single Ladies’ that I sang while we all showed off our tasty candy bling. We even purchased enough ring pops to hand out to all of our guests. It made for a sweet ending to our perfect day!”