Real Weddings: Kieran and Poly

In 2011, Kieran Sells, a TV producer at the Today Show, met Poly Polydorou, a set dresser, through a mutual acquaintance. By 2019, the couple, who shared a love of big concerts and glittery shows, was engaged. After postponing their 250-person celebration at the Great Hall until it was safe to gather, they enjoyed a wild night featuring LED party lighting, disco balls, and special performances by a gospel choir, Chantal Kreviazuk and queer singer Betty Who. Here’s how their music festival of a wedding came together.

Kieran: In December of 2010, a friend I worked with, who knew I was single, told me about Poly. I had just moved back to Canada from Los Angeles and didn’t know many people. So I looked him up on Facebook and thought he was very cute. We had a lot of mutual friends. I would see him RSVP to events that I would end up going to, but he’d never show up. A few months later, in February of 2011, I finally messaged him on Facebook and asked, “Do you ever go to these events?” He laughed and joked about how he always RSVPs “Maybe.” There was never any guarantee that he would attend. And we continued the conversation from there.

Poly: I thought Kieran was cute too. The back and forth with him was really fun and engaging. I was newly single and newly out of the closet at the time.

Kieran: In March of 2011, we both ended up going to a Kesha concert. We knew that we would both be there, but we hadn’t made any plans to meet up. I had just come from an interview, so I was wearing a shirt and tie. Poly showed up in a jean jacket covered in glitter. He was a million times wilder than I thought he was going to be. You could tell right away that he was the life of the party in any room he was in.

Poly: When I saw him, I actually took his tie off and was like, “Loosen up a little bit. Have some fun.” I could tell he was nervous.

Kieran: Our first date wasn’t until May of 2011. I asked him to an Adele concert. We went to the show with a big group of friends, then afterward we went for drinks at the Loose Moose. We got a chance to talk more there. We compared notes on our favourite songs.

Poly: It was nice to be able to talk to somebody so easily and be a bit flirty.

Kieran: We immediately started seeing each other every night. I was living in Oshawa at the time, and Poly shared a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate in the Annex. I was working downtown as a producer on a morning TV show. So I would go back to Poly’s place during the week after work and see him. We started having lots of dinner dates at Bar Neon and Pizzeria Libretto and went to see more concerts, including Madonna and Rihanna.

Poly: In December of 2012, we went on our first trip together, to New York City. Poly knew I was a romantic, so he planned a scavenger hunt of fun activities to do while we were there. We went to see Scandalous on Broadway because I love a musical, we ate dinner at Lombardi’s because I love New York pizza, and we made a stop at 30 Rock to see The Today Show because he knew it was my favourite show and that it had always been my dream to someday work on it.

Kieran: We moved in together in 2014, at a place two doors down from where Poly used to live. Then, in July of 2015, we rescued a dog, a Labrador-retriever-collie mutt named Andrew.

Poly: Andrew had a lot of anxiety because he had been in a few rescue homes that hadn’t worked out prior to ours. It was a really tough first couple of months, adjusting to having this responsibility and training Andrew to become comfortable in his new home. But I really think it brought us together.

Kieran: Poly and I had talked about marriage early on in our relationship. I always wanted kids, and I wanted to be in a relationship with someone who wanted that too. But marriage was never top of mind.

Poly: I didn’t feel strongly about either—marriage or kids. I was okay being with him whether we got married or not.

Kieran: My feelings about marriage changed when I talked to a friend who had just gotten married. He explained to me that you never quite understand the feeling of what it’s like to be in a room supported by all the people that you love the most, cheering you on and rooting for your love, until your wedding day. After hearing that, I knew I wanted to propose to Poly, and I knew it had to be in New York because I wanted it to take place where that first scavenger hunt began. In March of 2019, we went back to 30 Rock to see The Today Show. Kathie Lee was leaving the show, and it was one of her last episodes. Afterward, we went to a café that overlooks the skating rink at Rockefeller Centre. I said, “Kathie Lee and Hoda are a dynamic duo, and the friendship, admiration and respect they have for each other reminds me of the relationship we have built. I know that Kathie Lee is leaving the show and their relationship is entering a new chapter. I think it’s time for our relationship to enter a new chapter.” Then I pulled out the ring and proposed. It was a simple silver ring with a dark-blue band in the middle, which I purchased from Tiffany & Co.

Poly: I’m not a cheesy romantic kind of guy. He kind of just slid the ring across the table. He didn’t get down on one knee and make a spectacle. There weren’t a lot of people around. It was a kind, intimate moment between us, which I really appreciated. But I didn’t see it coming. I was shocked and surprised, and I said yes.

Kieran: We wanted a big celebration, but we didn’t want it in a church. In February of 2020, we looked at two venues: the Eglinton Grand and the Great Hall. The second we walked into the Great Hall, we were like, “This is it. We’re gonna put on a show.” I have worked as a producer for over ten years in Toronto. I have a lot of relationships with artists and musical acts. We sat down and started thinking about who we would want to perform. Chantal Kreviazuk was at the top of our list, so I reached out to her and she agreed to participate. We’re also big fans of the queer artist Betty Who. We reached out to her team, and she agreed to fly in from LA to do two half-hour sets with her backup dancers.

Poly: Once those two performances were in place, everything else came together. We started thinking of our wedding as a concert. We kept asking, “How do we make this bigger and more spectacular? How do we surprise people?”

Kieran: We wanted to show all the people we know and love a good time. We originally planned to have our wedding in May of 2021, but a few months into the pandemic, we postponed to May of 2022.

Poly: I’m not a flowers guy. We put all of the budget that most couples would have put toward flowers and place settings into props that our wedding planner sourced.

Kieran: Our inspiration was Studio 54 meets a 1975 concert. We had these huge ornamental peacocks that would be on stage with us during the ceremony. Our planner also sourced a huge disco ball that hung from the ceiling. It took three people to lift it up.

Poly: My friend Kelly Taylor works for an LED company. She measured all the little squares on the Great Hall stage and the archway and made custom LEDs for them. Another friend, Sari, provided beaded curtains that were draped from the balcony.

Kieran: By April of 2022, we were feeling good about the wedding. After all the lockdowns, I think everyone was just ready to go out. People said, “We’ll be there! We’re ready to party!”

Poly: Instead of a rehearsal dinner, the weekend before the wedding, we rented a limo bus and surprised our wedding party—we had five people on each side—with a trip to Margaritaville in Niagara Falls. We wanted to flip the traditional rollout of a wedding and do something cheeky and fun.

Kieran: On the morning of the wedding day, Betty Who arrived at the Great Hall with her backup dancers for rehearsal. We love her so much that we know all of her choreography. We’ve probably been to eight of her concerts. We asked if she’d consider having us come up on stage and perform one of the numbers with her and the backup dancers. She said, “This is your wedding. Do whatever you want. Let’s go!”

Poly: At 3 p.m., we went over to the Drake Hotel, two doors down from the Great Hall, to get ready for the wedding. We rented out the penthouse suite. We both got ready together and had photos taken of just the two of us.

Kieran: We got our suits from Harry Rosen. Mine’s from Tom Ford, and Poly’s is from Giorgio Armani. There was a crazy thunderstorm while we were getting ready. It caused a bunch of power outages in the city, but luckily none of them affected the wedding. An hour later, everything cleared up and we headed over to the venue.

Poly: The ceremony was set to start at 6 p.m. We had a 10-minute countdown timer projected on a white screen on the stage. We had three of our celebrity friends who couldn’t be there send videos. That included Cheri Oteri from SNL, Carson Kressley from Queer Eye and Taylor Dayne, who sang “Tell It to My Heart.” When the countdown hit zero, there was a four-minute video of our wedding party answering questions about us, like “What words would you use to describe Kieran and Poly?” and “What can you expect from a party that Kieran and Poly throw?” We did that instead of traditional wedding speeches.

Kieran: Right after the video, our wedding party danced to the Lady Gaga song “I Want Your Love.” It wasn’t a traditional aisle with two sides. We did a zigzag catwalk, like a fashion show. The boys were in black suits, and the girls wore silver sequin dresses. We’ve never felt more like rock stars in our lives. People literally stood up and started screaming. But I didn’t get nervous until Poly and I started reading our vows to each other.

Poly: My hands were shaking the whole time.

Kieran: The whole ceremony was about ten minutes long. After we were married, Chantal Kreviazuk came out and did an intimate set of six songs, including “Before You” and “Feels Like Home.” Everyone stayed in their seats, and Poly and I sat down at a sweetheart table at the end of the piano. It was a really special moment for us. At one point, she looked around and said, “This is one heck of a wedding.”

Poly: After Chantal’s set, there were passed hors d’oeuvres and food stations. Andrea Nicholson, who was on Top Chef Canada, did Southern-style comfort food, like chicken sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. It was a grab-and-go setup, so we didn’t have a formal seated dinner.

Kieran: After dinner, we did a mother-son dance to “Mama” by the Spice Girls. And then right after that was my wedding gift to Poly. He’s a huge fan of the movie Sister Act 2. I hired a gospel choir to perform “Joyful, Joyful.” It was a complete surprise to him. Then they did a couple of Disney covers and ended with “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman.

Poly: At midnight, I changed into a glitter suit jacket for the party. We kept going until 2 a.m.

Kieran: There’s not a thing we would change about our wedding. Everything worked out perfectly. A million things could have gone wrong that day, and nothing did.

Poly: The people from the venue came to us after and said, “That wedding was epic.” In the weeks and months afterward, I was getting phone calls from friends thanking us for inviting them. Getting to share that night with everyone we love was so satisfying—and I got to marry my best friend.

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Cheat Sheet

Date: May 21, 2022
Venue: The Great Hall
Planning: Lexi Haslam, Lexington and Co.
Lighting: Moss LED
Drapery and curtain reveal: Curtain Call
Videographer: Pat Crandles Productions
Officiant: Amanda Gulka-Armstrong, All Seasons
Photography: Kayla Rocca
DJ: Anil Singh, DJ Floh Back Productions
Performances: Chantal Kreviazuk, Betty Who and Shahi Teruko’s Gospel Choir
Catering: Butchie’s
Donut cake: Harry and Heels California Donuts
Poly’s suit: Giorgio Armani
Poly’s dance-floor jacket: Leeland Mitchell
Kieran’s suit: Tom Ford