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LYDIA OKELLO AND HANNAH ACKERAL AUGUST 8, 2019 | BLOEDEL CONSERVATORY
In Bloom An intimate, joyful ceremony in the (urban) tropics.
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ydia and Hannah knew they had each found their person within their first year of dating. They just didn’t think they’d get hitched as soon as they did. “We knew we wanted to get married and were planning to do it in summer 2020,” Lydia says. “But we went to two weddings this year—one in Australia, one in Vancouver—and they were just so fun and intimate and felt so personal to the couples. We loved being at both of them, and so we were like, ‘What if we got married this year?’” The pair, who met at a party at the Red Gate Arts Society in 2014, had that thought in April. They ended up marrying in August in a cheery, unstuffy ceremony at Bloedel Conservatory, where classic wedding conventions were upended in favour of coralpink pants, a poetry reading and a ring-warming ritual in which guests had the chance to hold—and imbue love and blessings into—the dainty wedding bands that Lydia and Hannah would eventually slip onto each other’s fingers. Hannah led the whirlwind four months of planning, enlisting the help of talented friends as florists, bakers and sound technicians. Friends contributed to the reception at Gastown’s Six Acres, too, by naming a song they’d like to hear on the dinner and dance playlists when they submitted their RSVPs. “Having our friends help out and having a little bit of them in the wedding was really lovely,” says Hannah. “Because they’re what flavours our lives, right?”
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by Lucy Lau photographs by Wild Hearts Collective
A COORDINATED COOL Lydia and Hannah didn’t want to go the traditional wedding-dress route. Instead, Lydia opted for peach-pink ELOQUII pants and a ZARA buttonup dotted with sunny daisies. Hannah paired a breezy white ZARA dress with OAK AND FORT earrings. The couple wore pink shoes: a pair of ABOUT ARIANNE bow-tie sandal mules for Lydia and 27 EDIT slingback pumps for Hannah. “Our outfits weren’t a big reveal on the date,” says Lydia. “So we were able to coordinate our looks.” CHRISSEY LEYBURN did the brides’ makeup. NESSA PINEDA of FIELD TRIP HAIR styled Hannah’s tresses; Hannah styled Lydia’s hair.
16 REAL WEDDINGS winter/spring 2020
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1/23/20 10:32 AM
