Real Weddings: Susie and Peter

Susie Kim, a 31-year-old software engineer, first met Peter Li, a 31-year-old design studio owner, when Susie transferred to Peter’s high school in 2011. They soon became high school sweethearts, and their relationship progressed when they both attended the same graphic design program at OCAD University. A decade later, in 2022, Susie and Peter got engaged during a walk in Evergreen Brick Works, and they were married in September of 2024 at the Old Mill. Their celebration included swan ice sculptures, a Chinese tea ceremony representing Peter’s heritage, a paebaek ceremony for Susie’s Korean background and an appearance by their shiba inu, Kenzo. Here’s how it all came together.

Susie: I grew up and went to school in Mississauga. I did my first two years of high school in an IB program at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Secondary School, but I dropped out halfway through Grade 11 because I wanted to do something more creative. I ended up in an art school, Cawthra Park Secondary School, also in Mississauga, and Peter was in the same program.

Peter: The art program had about 60 people, so when Susie joined it was pretty obvious that there was someone new. We have different memories of how we first met—Susie remembers me coming up to her and saying that I liked her glasses. But I remember it as her bumping a pencil off my desk when she was walking by.

Related: Inside an ultra-kitsch Vegas elopement

Susie: We had separate friend groups outside of the art program, so we’d only see each other during art classes. But, a few months later, Peter and I started hanging out outside of class.

Peter: I’d ask for her help with my homework. We had a knitting project, and Susie was really good at it.

Susie: In Grade 12, around the wintertime, one of my friends had a crush on one of Peter’s friends. She asked me to ask Peter if he could make an introduction. I told Peter that, if he did me this favour, I’d buy him a pizza.

Related: Inside a colourful Palm Springs celebration

Peter: I agreed because I liked Susie. But, also, I wanted the free pizza.

Susie: We went to Pizza Pizza, intending to get a heart-shaped pizza, but they were all sold out. So we just got regular slices. It wasn’t officially a first date, but we both saw it as one. I don’t remember exactly what we talked about. We were probably just gossiping about our friends.

Peter: I officially asked Susie out on a date after that, on Facebook Messenger. We went to a movie—A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. A week after that, I invited her over to my house and we watched another movie. That’s when we had our first kiss.

Susie: The next day, at school, one of my friends told me to go outside because Peter was waiting for me. It was then that Peter asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend. Some of our friends were watching through the windows. It was very high school. We considered that date, December 16, to be our anniversary.

Related: Inside two wedding photographers’ intimate marriage celebration

Peter: Susie and I ended up going to the same university for the same program, graphic design at OCAD University. We lived in separate apartments very close to each other, so we were always hanging out.

Susie: Peter moved in with me in our fourth year, but we didn’t tell my parents. They had told me we couldn’t move in together until we were married. So, every time my parents came over, Peter had to leave.

Peter: I knew I loved Susie at that point, so I didn’t mind sneaking around. She was the perfect girl to me. She was always really nice to everyone, and she was really good at cooking. I realized how smart she was too. When we’d watch movies and I didn’t understand what was going on, she’d explain it to me.

Susie: I loved Peter’s sense of humour. He’s very musical too. I appreciated how much Peter valued his family—he cares a lot about his parents and his brother—and I liked how ambitious he was. He eventually started his own company, a design studio called 56, and I found that very impressive.

Peter: Susie and I first started talking about marriage when we were dating in high school, but it wasn’t in a serious way. We’d also talk about things like baby names we liked.

Susie: We started talking about marriage more seriously around 2019. I loved Peter, and knew I wanted to marry him. We’d been together for around eight years by this point, and it felt like the right time. I’m a very pragmatic person who likes to plan, so I figured that the sooner we got married, the sooner we could start the rest of our lives together, like buying a house or starting a family. I began bugging Peter, asking him when we were going to get married.

Peter: Our 10th anniversary was coming up, so I figured it was time. Susie had made an Instagram collection of ring designs she liked and would send them to me. Based on the photos, I got her a three-stone ring with some filigree on the side. I had the ring ready by the fall of 2021 and planned to propose to her on a trip to Mexico for our anniversary, on December 16, 2021. Then we got Covid and had to postpone the trip, so I came up with a new plan.

Susie: Peter and I had adopted a dog together in 2017, a shiba inu named Kenzo. Peter suggested that we take him for a casual Saturday walk to Evergreen Brick Works on January 16, 2022.

Peter: I researched a vantage point ahead of time, then asked one of my friends, who’s a really good photographer, to wait there and capture the proposal. I left the ring with him too, because I didn’t want it to be visible.

Susie: When we got to the lookout point, Peter started talking about how long we had been together. I spotted a photographer and a ring box in the distance and started dissociating. It was all a big blur from that point. I was shocked, but also happy and excited.

Peter: Susie and I enjoyed our engagement for the first year, then started planning in earnest in 2023. At first, we thought we’d do a non-traditional wedding, like renting out a bar and having a huge party. We considered a destination wedding too, but it felt more appropriate to do something closer to home.

Susie: After we got engaged and the reality of getting married set in, I realized I wanted a classic, wedding-y wedding. I wanted to wear the big dress and have a cute, classic and romantic celebration.

Peter: When we saw the Old Mill, we knew it was the venue for us. We liked that it was between Mississauga and Toronto, which was symbolic location-wise.

Susie: I liked that the Old Mill was traditional and not too modern. It feels like you’re not in Toronto. It’s like a fairy tale village. We loved the history of the place too. We envisioned having all the classic symbols of romance at our wedding: silverware, red roses and swan ice sculptures, since swans mate for life.

Peter: Susie wanted to have both our families’ cultures represented at the wedding, so we planned a Chinese tea ceremony and door games to represent my side and a Korean paebaek for Susie’s side.

Susie: When actor Alexandra Daddario got married, I was obsessed with her wedding photos. I thought her dress, which was made by Danielle Frankel, was amazing. It was vintage looking and had pleats all over it with a lace overlay. I had planned a trip to New York with friends to see Blackpink, and I tried on the same dress at Frankel’s boutique, just for fun. It was so unique, and I felt like a Greek sculpture in it. No other dress I tried on compared to it, so I went back to New York a few months later and got it. I wanted a Juliet veil too, but I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so I reached out to Blair Nadeau, a bridal adornment designer. She made one for me that matched the lace of my dress. Then I got a party dress with a huge fabric rose to change into later in the night.

Peter: I didn’t put that much thought into my wedding outfit. I’d been to a black-tie event earlier that year and had to get a tux for it, so I wore that same tux to my wedding. It’s a black tuxedo jacket with black pants. I wore it with a pleated shirt that had French cuffs.

Susie: The day before the wedding, we checked into the Old Mill with our families and had a rehearsal dinner. I had a sleepover with my sister in my suite that night, while Peter went to his own suite. The girls started getting ready in my suite in the morning. Then we did the door games: it’s a Chinese tradition where the groom’s side does dares and trivia to prove that the groom is worthy of the bride.

Peter: We didn’t have any groomsmen or bridesmaids, so we thought it was a fun opportunity to share more intimate moments with our close friend group before the big wedding.

Susie: We made Peter’s friends answer questions based on our relationship. I’m always on TikTok, so they had to recreate a popular TikTok dance. As a kid, I did figure skating, so they had to strike different figure skating poses.

Peter: After that, we did a Chinese tea ceremony. Susie wore a traditional Chinese qipao—a close-fitting dress with a Mandarin collar—to respect Chinese traditions, and we served tea to my parents and Susie’s parents as a sign of respect. Then our parents passed along their words of wisdom and blessings for us. Similar to the door games, we liked that it involved our families in a more intimate setting before the ceremony.

Susie: There’s a chapel in the Old Mill that we both really liked, so we chose it for our ceremony. In high school, I’d daydream about the song “We’re Going to Be Friends” by the White Stripes being our wedding song. They’re one of Peter’s favourite bands, and we liked how it’s about the first day of school, since that’s how we met. There’s a part that goes, “Walk with me, Suzy Lee,” which felt so appropriate.

Peter: Susie and I had listened to a few different renditions of that song, and we came across a beautiful one by a children’s choir on YouTube. That gave us the idea of hiring a children’s choir for our processional song.

Susie: Finding a choir was really difficult. We reached out to a bunch of them, but since we had a September wedding and most children’s choir schedules start in September, they all said they didn’t have enough time to rehearse.

Peter: We were almost ready to give up on that. To be honest, wedding planning in general was very stressful. Susie and I are both high-anxiety people. But, thankfully, after looking for two months and getting nos from four choirs, Susie finally found one that could make it work.

Susie: The ceremony was pretty standard and straightforward, about 30 or 40 minutes. Afterward, we hired a dog sitter to bring Kenzo to the venue so we could include him in some photos.

Peter: We did cocktail hour in a room next to the reception room, then moved to the reception room for dinner. It was a pretty classic menu of steak or salmon. We liked that it wasn’t super snooty food. There was a little hitch with the wedding cake, though—someone dropped it while it was still in the box—but we were still able to plate the top tier.

Susie: After the speeches, Peter and I changed into traditional Korean outfits for the paebaek. Our guests didn’t know what was happening, so it was pretty fun seeing everyone’s reactions. Similar to a Chinese tea ceremony, we served wine to our elders to show them respect, and they offered words of wisdom in return. Then there were some little games. In one, our parents threw chestnuts and dates at us, which we tried to catch with a net. The dates represent how many girls we’ll have, and the chestnuts how many boys. I think we ended up with 20-something kids.

Peter: Another game is to eat a date together with a pit inside. Whoever gets the pit is the boss of the relationship. I got the pit. Then, as a show of my ability to support Susie and our relationship, I piggybacked her around the room. The whole thing was really fun and theatrical.

Susie: Peter and I had taken dance lessons to practise our first dance, which was to the 1970s song “I Saw the Light” by Todd Rundgren. That led into the party portion of the night. A bunch of our friends came from out of town, so it was nice to catch up with them while also eating, drinking and dancing.

Peter: Since it wasn’t a huge wedding, about 70 guests, it felt intimate enough to spend time with everyone. Susie got a bunch of heart-shaped light sticks for the dancing portion of the night, which were pretty fun.

Susie: We had to be out of the venue by 1 a.m., so around 12:45, we shut things down. A bunch of our family and friends helped to tear things down and pack up the decor that we’d brought.

Peter: I felt a lot of pressure leading up to the wedding, so there was a big sense of relief that it was over and that everything went so well. Honestly, it was better than we could have hoped for. Everyone was really happy. The whole day felt very surreal, like a dream.

Susie: I hadn’t slept well for months leading up to the wedding. The night before, I only slept for three hours. The night of the wedding itself was my first decent sleep in months. Everything went off without a hitch—aside from the cake. I felt very proud of us. We were so happy with how it all turned out. And I was happy to finally be married.

Peter: We left on our honeymoon two days after the wedding. We were supposed to leave the day after, but our flight was delayed, which was a godsend because we were so exhausted.

Susie: I liked riding the high of the wedding into the honeymoon. We went to Italy and visited seven different cities, so it wasn’t the most laid-back trip. But, compared with the wedding, it felt very relaxing.

Cheat Sheet

Date: September 21, 2024 Photography: Brjánn Batista Bettencourt of 3B Photography Videography: Michelle Homonylo Day-of coordinator: Velvet Bordeaux Events Wedding venue: Old Mill Toronto Ceremony music: Mississauga Children’s Choir Florals: Timberlost Ice sculpture: IceGuy Cake: Reverie Deli Paebaek ceremony: Seshil Hanbok Susie’s ceremony dress: Danielle Frankel Susie’s veil: Blair Nadeau Susie’s party dress: Vaquera Peter’s tux: Suitsupply