Real Weddings 2013: a DIY vintage wedding at Evergreen Brick Works

By Michelle Higgins, Bronwen Jervis, Sharon Monuk and Amanda Panacci | Photography by Tara McMullen

Date: August 11, 2012 | Location: Evergreen Brick Works | Guests: 190

It took three tries for Janet Chung, 30, and Adam Roach, 31, to have a successful date. The first time around, during dinner at a Pizzaiolo, Janet, a surgical resident with the University of Toronto, got called in to work. The same thing happened on the second date, while they were picnicking at Victoria Memorial Park (this time, Adam, who works in advertising, tagged along to the E.R. to watch her in action). They finally made it through an evening together on their third attempt, at the Open Roof Festival. They had been dating for just under a year when Adam asked Janet to marry him on a trip to the West Coast. “My plan had been to propose in Big Sur, but one day, while hiking on a trail in Oregon, we wound up in a huge field of wildflowers on a cliff. It was too beautiful to pass up,” he says. Hoping to recreate the natural setting of the proposal, they picked the Evergreen Brick Works in the Don Valley for their venue and decorated the space with vintage accents they found at flea markets and on eBay and Kijiji—centrepiece boxes, antique keys, candle holders. The dancing opened with an old-fashioned foxtrot. “Even when we were stepping on each other’s toes, we were laughing,” says Janet.

See the wedding album »