Real Weddings: Rob and Spencer

Spencer Hack, a 28-year-old principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, first met Rob Binet, the 33-year-old artistic director and co-CEO of Fall for Dance North, in 2014, when they were working as a dancer and a choreographer, respectively. They formed a natural friendship that eventually evolved into a romance. After more than a decade together, Spencer and Rob tied the knot at the Great Hall, a venue where they had filmed a music video 10 years earlier. Surrounded by over 100 guests, they celebrated their love with tacos, margaritas and—with a guest list full of ballerinas—plenty of dancing. Here’s how the big day came together.

Rob: Back in 2014, Spencer and I met while working at the National Ballet. We started hanging out and slowly got to know each other better. I caught feelings first.

Spencer: For me it was more of a slow burn. We started spending more and more time together. We would have plans to see a movie and then spend nine hours straight together, just hanging out.

Rob: Usually, if I had a crush on someone, it would go away the more I got to know them. But, as I got to know Spencer better, the crush got worse. Naturally, our friendship turned into a more romantic relationship. We had just hit the six-week mark of seeing each other when I travelled to Amsterdam for a six-week work contract. Unfortunately, we didn’t really know how to communicate yet.

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Spencer: I realized while he was gone that I wasn’t quite ready for a relationship. When Rob got back from his trip, I broke up with him. We still worked together, though, and the next summer we went away on a small group project in Banff. We were working so closely that we started to rekindle our friendship.

Rob: After that, it was just sort of like a slow rebuild of the friendship. I was nervous about it turning into something more, but that would never be enough to stop me from going there again.

Spencer: In the fall, Rob went on another work trip, and this time we were talking every single day.

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Rob: We sent like a billion text messages. When I got back from the trip, Spencer told me he liked me. I laughed and said, “I know,” thinking he just meant he liked me as a friend. And then he kissed me, and I was like, “Oh!”

Spencer: That was almost 10 years ago. This time around, I felt ready for a relationship. Timing is everything.

Rob: We became official in October of 2015.

Spencer: On Mean Girls day! We moved into Rob’s condo together in the fall of 2018—I was pretty much already living there—and in 2019 we moved to a condo in the west end. We got a Labrador-poodle mix named Willa in the early months of the pandemic.

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Rob: In the summer of 2023, we were alone in the backyard at Spencer’s parents house in Ohio for a family gathering. We found ourselves discussing the topic of marriage, and we realized it would make sense for us to take that step in the future. We decided that 2025 would be a good year for the wedding.

Spencer: A few months later, I was at brunch with my parents, and we started talking about Rob and I getting married.

Rob: A little while afterward, Spencer came home one day and said he’d told his parents we would probably get married in 2025. Spencer takes his time with decision-making, while I’m on the impulsive side. I was thrilled. I was like, “Does this mean we’re engaged?”

Spencer: Since we didn’t have a planned proposal, one night Rob got down on one knee and spontaneously popped the question.

Rob: I already knew what Spencer’s answer would be, but I still wanted to do a somewhat official proposal. We started telling our families the news at Christmas.

Spencer: About 10 months from the wedding date, we hired an amazing wedding planner, Alex from Blush and Bowties.

Rob: Back when we were first dating, in September of 2015, we shot a music video together at the Great Hall, on Queen West, where we sat for hours talking. It was an easy choice to have the wedding at the same venue.

Spencer: As for the outfits, we had a lot of fun putting them together.

Rob: We’re not people who want to be in bow ties or super buttoned up. I found this really beautiful Alexander McQueen suit while I was visiting Milan and ordered it online when I got home. It had flowers embroidered over the shoulder and across the back. It felt somewhat bridal. My shoes were Berluti.

Spencer: I was looking for something that felt fancy yet casual. But that proved hard to find, so I had a double-breasted suit custom-made by Sartoria Wynona. I matched it with a wonderful pair of Bode shoes, which were really fun to wear.

Rob: We changed after dinner, just for dancing. We each wore Bode shirts, and I wore Alexander McQueen pants and Asics runners. Spencer wore Sartoria Wynona pants and Hoka runners.

Spencer: We knew we wanted a lot of flowers and that we wanted it to feel warm and colourful but still elegant and romantic. We wound up choosing a stunning floral landscape of buttercups and jasmine, which was really the visual event of the wedding.

Rob: There used to be this amazing Mexican restaurant called Fonda Balam in our neighborhood, on Dundas West. We’d go so often that the staff would tease us. They closed last June, and we were so heartbroken.

Spencer: The restaurant had posted to Instagram that they were looking to do pop-up events, and we reached out by email and begged them to cater our wedding. They said yes and brought their slushie margarita machine and tacos.

Rob: Spencer was the one who found our photographer. I remember he showed me her photos and said, “See? These couples look like they have sex.” She was able to capture genuine chemistry in her photos in such a beautiful way.

Spencer: On a snowy morning in January, we woke up together at the condo for the big day. We’ve been together for so long, through so many big, great and hard moments, that it would have felt strange for us to not share every second of this wonderful event.

Rob: I was sobbing literally all day.

Spencer: Rob would pick up his fork to eat his eggs and just start crying.

Rob: I just couldn’t believe how fortunate I was. Part of coming out for me was accepting that I may not get to have the family I grew up imagining for myself. I never had any gay role models growing up. To feel those fears going away was really powerful.

Spencer: By noon, we were dressed and ready, and our photographers had arrived to shoot us at home—with Willa, of course.

Rob: Then we headed to the Great Hall. I walked in, saw the sign with our names on it and burst into tears again. When we saw the room with the tables set up, I was just a mess.

Spencer: Our families showed up at this point for photos in the drawing room, and after that it was time for the ceremony.

Rob: Everyone was set up in a circle around us. We wanted the whole ceremony to feel symmetrical and balanced, to represent us each making equal commitments to each other. We walked in from opposite sides of the room with our parents. Seeing all of our people around us was so special.

Spencer: By this point I was crying too. It was amazing. Facing Rob, in that moment, was surreal. I was thinking, This is the happiest moment of my life.

Rob: I felt an immense amount of love from all directions, with Spencer across from me and our friends and family all around us. Our good friend Christine officiated the wedding. We exchanged rings and kissed to seal the deal.

Spencer: After the ceremony was the cocktail hour. Someone advised us to stick together while we said hello to our guests so that we would experience it all together, and we’re so glad we did. We had an open bar with two signature cocktails, a frozen margarita and a mezcalita.

Rob: Speeches took place over the course of dinner. One of our best friends, Britta Johnson, writes musicals, and she sang and played piano to an original song called “How Lucky We Are,” which wove together the beginning of Spencer and I falling in love, our friendship with Britta, and what she hopes for our future. She and our friend Sara Farb also performed “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac for our first dance.

Spencer: Then an eight-person band took over for the mother-son dance and covered everything from Fleetwood Mac to Robyn to Chappell Roan before giving way to a DJ who played until 2 a.m. By then we had changed into runners and sheer tops, which we thought gave us more of a bridal moment, fashion-wise. So many of our friends there were dancers, so everyone was up on the dance floor.

Rob: We danced with so many friends from different parts of our lives and family who travelled from all over. It was incredibly fun and meaningful. We were the last ones to leave. We headed out just before 2 a.m., and by 3 we were eating leftover wedding cake from Kwento. It was dairy free and gluten free for my allergies, and it was amazing.

Spencer: Being surrounded by so many people from across our lives in one space felt wonderful. It was the perfect way to start a new chapter of our relationship.

Rob: The morning after the wedding, we had brunch at my dad’s house with the guests from out of town, which was nice because it meant we didn’t have to say any final goodbyes on the night of the wedding.

Spencer: We just returned from our honeymoon in Mexico City in March. We had the best time exploring, eating, and seeing beautiful galleries and museums.

Rob: We’re looking forward to enjoying year one of marriage, especially as we both continue to support each other in our professional lives. My schedule changes a lot, and I’m often travelling for work. I’m currently in Brisbane, Australia, creating a new ballet for the Queensland Ballet.

Spencer: My schedule is a bit more consistent. I’m either rehearsing or performing, so it can be pretty physically exhausting. I’m dealing with the pressure to perform well, and that can be challenging.

Rob: Since getting married, I don’t feel like our dynamic has changed. But, now that we’re fully committed partners, nothing feels too big to ask each other to do.

Spencer: Just knowing that there’s this person in the world who is there for you regardless of anything, and vice versa, gives me a lot of comfort.

Cheat Sheet

Wedding date: Jan 11, 2025 Photography: Erin Leydon Planner: Alex McNamara, Blush and Bowties Venue: The Great Hall Officiant: Christine Wright Florist: Jordana Masi, White Oak Flower Co. Catering: K&J Cocina Cake: Kwento Cakes Entertainment: Britta Johnson & Sara Farb followed by the St. Royals Rob’s ceremony outfit: Alexander McQueen suit and Berluti shoes Rob’s dancing outfit: Bode shirt, McQueen pants, Asics runners Spencer’s ceremony outfit: Sartoria Wynona and Bode shoes Spencer’s dancing outfit: Bode shirt, Sartoria Wynona pants, Hoka runners