Real Weddings: Coulson and Taryn

Coulson Armstrong, the 40-year-old culinary director of Our House Hospitality Company—Matty Matheson’s empire of food—first met Taryn Casey, a 36-year-old event planner, in 2015 at a running group. They were both seeing other people at the time, but they reconnected in the fall of 2020 and began dating. They moved in together in late 2021. Then, in March of 2023, their daughter, Nora, was born. That Christmas, Coulson popped the question. The couple were married at Prime Seafood Palace, one of Matheson’s restaurants, in February of 2025, in the middle of a snowstorm. Here’s how their winter wedding came together.

Taryn: I first met Coulson at the Food Runners, a running group for people in the culinary industry. I was working for a café and catering company in Oakville, Kerr Street Cafe, but I wanted to meet more people in the Toronto food scene and find a job here. Coulson was already a regular in the group, and I felt pretty intimidated by his experience in the industry—he had been the head chef at Canoe for a few years—but he was nice and offered to keep me in mind for jobs. So we exchanged numbers. I did get the feeling that there might’ve been something more between us, but we were both dating other people at the time.

Coulson: Taryn was effortlessly cool—the day we met, she was wearing a Kikkoman soy sauce T-shirt. And she was fast, always in the top five to finish. The attraction was definitely there. At the start of 2017, my existing relationship ended, and I went on a three-year trip to see the world and cook at as many restaurants as I could. I ended up visiting 16 different countries and working at just as many restaurants. Covid eventually brought me back to Toronto in 2020.

Taryn: When the pandemic hit, I blew up my life. I broke up with my boyfriend of six years and quit my job at Kerr Street Cafe. I had been watching a lot of Matty Matheson’s YouTube series, Just a Dash, and I thought it would be cool to work for him. At the time, he had just started a burger pop-up in Trinity-Bellwoods, Matty’s Patty’s, so in the fall of 2020 I sent in an email asking for a job.

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Coulson: I had met Matty during my travels in Australia. He approached me about joining his team at Prime Seafood Palace, which had been under construction since 2018 but was delayed because of Covid. He opened up the burger joint to tide us over. Taryn’s CV came in, so I interviewed her over the phone and gave her a job helping us manage the place.

Taryn: Coulson, the general manager and I spent a lot of time together. We’d be writing orders on bags for 11 hours straight. My attraction toward Coulson wasn’t obvious at first, but I admired his success, and my feelings grew as I saw him in a leadership role.

Coulson: I knew that Taryn was on the outskirts of a relationship, so I didn’t want to put a ton of pressure on her. But, when she gave me a jar of homemade granola labelled “Equals three warm hugs,” I took the hint. I asked if she wanted to go for a hike together.

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Taryn: We went up to Kleinburg, and I brought my dog, Homer. We caught up, talked about Coulson’s travels, our families and ambitions. We kept going on dates after that. We’d go on a lot of road trips and adventures in the early days, like visiting a vineyard in Niagara and doing a wine tasting. We’re both pretty active, so we’d run together and play pickleball.

Coulson: That summer, we rented a cottage on an island in Muskoka for a week. We brought Homer with us and spent seven days cooking and hanging out. We didn’t leave the island once. It was the most magical time.

Taryn: In 2021, I left Matty’s Patty’s and went back to work for Kerr Street Cafe. Later that year, Coulson moved into my apartment in Roncesvalles. Then, in the summer of 2022, one of my brothers, Conor, found out he was having a kid with his fiancée. The baby hormones were in the air. I’d known a couple of friends who had kids before they got married, so I figured, Why wait? Earlier in our relationship, we had both talked about wanting kids. So, in June of 2022, when we were at one of my best friends’ weddings in Bobcaygeon, I asked Coulson what he thought about the idea.

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Coulson: Almost immediately, I instinctively wanted to be a dad. I felt nervous about it but ready. It was a new leap and a new adventure in life, and I couldn’t have been more excited.

Taryn: It didn’t take us long to get pregnant. We found out in July. Then we moved to a townhouse in Etobicoke to have more space. Our daughter, Nora, was born in March of 2023.

Coulson: Later that year, Taryn and I started talking about getting pregnant again. That’s when she told me that she wanted to get married before we had our second child. I always knew she was the one, so I put things into motion. My friend has a jewellery shop on Queen West, so I got something designed there. The ring was ready by October of 2023, but I sat on it for two months while I figured out how to pop the question. I wanted to do something special, and since the holidays were coming up, I decided to piggyback on Christmas morning.

Taryn: Conor, his fiancée and their kid, Ella, who is around the same age as Nora, were all staying over at our house for the holidays since they live in Kingston. On Christmas morning, we were all huddled around the tree, opening up gifts. Coulson and Nora were behind me, and Coulson said, “Taryn, here’s a gift. Nora wants to give it to you.” I looked behind me. Nora had this little ring box in her hand, and Coulson was on one knee. I started crying instantly. I never knew that a Christmas proposal could be so good.

Coulson: We didn’t start wedding planning until the summer of 2024. At Prime Seafood Palace, where I now work, we had already hosted two weddings. Seeing the “power of the palace,” I thought of how good it would be to have our wedding there. I talked to one of my partners at the restaurant, and he was 100 per cent supportive. He said to look at the sales for the year and pick one of the slowest days. We ended up with a date in February of 2025, a Sunday two days after Valentine’s Day, on the Family Day long weekend.

Taryn: I liked the idea of a winter wonderland wedding. We’ve always thought of it as a magical season, with all the snow. I hadn’t been to a winter wedding, but Coulson and I thought we could do it well. We’d have about 70 guests.

Coulson: We’d get married in the main dining room, then use a private dining space in the restaurant, which we call “the cottage,” for cocktails while the main room was flipped for dinner. We’d also have a tent outside in the courtyard with a fireplace and two heaters for overflow. The dining room would get flipped one more time after dinner to open up a dance floor and space for a band to play.

Taryn: The restaurant is already beautiful, so we didn’t need to do much. We worked with a florist, Isabel Mendoza from Floret, and put our trust in her. We wanted some florals for our altar arch, so we gave her a colour combination—white, light pink and green—and let her work her magic. She created a hanging installation that was absolutely gorgeous.

Coulson: Instead of buying, I rented a tux from Tuxedo Junction. But I decided to splurge on shoes and got a pair at Lost and Found. Taryn wanted me to have a shaved face for the wedding, but I kept a moustache as an ode to my dad, who passed away in 2024. He had one when he was my age, so it was a nice way to represent him for my family.

Taryn: I found my dress at Park and Fifth. I tried on five styles and chose a strapless silk dress with a corset fit at the top. My favourite bit was a little matching silk scarf. I also found a cute white dress for Nora to wear. It had long sleeves, a tulle skirt and green flowers to match our floral colour scheme. She looked so adorable in that dress.

Coulson: My mom was the only one who was worried about there being a snowstorm on our wedding day. And there was. We had never seen so much snow. I had planned to get ready that morning at the Drake Hotel, so I booked a suite for the night before and the night of. I was also planning to write my speech the morning of. But, when I arrived at the Drake, they told me that they had cancelled my booking because I hadn’t checked in the night before. I was like, “Oh my god, I’m getting married in three hours.” Plus, six of my friends were about to come and help me get ready. Thankfully they found me another room, which was smaller, so I got ready on my own and worked on my speech. While my buddies and I were taking photos in the lobby, we learned that the penthouse guests had cancelled their stay because of the snowstorm, and the hotel gave it to us instead. That just turned the whole day around. I was so thankful.

Taryn: My morning was less stressful. Our hairdresser came to my house for me, my mom and a friend. Then we went to my friend Beth’s house to get ready together with more of my girl crew. We were sipping on mimosas. It was fun. My mom and Coulson’s mom looked after Nora and my niece Isla, managing nap times in between. Both grandmothers would stay at our house the night of the wedding with the kids.

Coulson: I got to the restaurant an hour before our guests were supposed to arrive. The next thing I knew, someone was pinning a flower on my tux, the music was playing and Nora was walking in with my mom. I started tearing up. This was already a space I had spent a lot of time in for work, and to see it like that felt surreal. Everyone was in the best mood. But I could feel my blood sugar dropping, so I went down to the basement walk-in fridge and ate three little lemon meringue cakes. When I walked back up the stairs, our planner told me it was time to walk out with my mom. I cleaned the meringue off my mouth, hooked arms with my mom and started walking.

Taryn: I started crying as soon as the door opened for my walk down the aisle. I could really feel the love of the people around me.

Coulson: After the ceremony, we had champagne, cocktails and wine; an oyster bar with scallops and caviar set up in the cottage; plus passed hors d’oeuvres like beef tartare and king crab legs.

Taryn: Even though there was a ton of snow, it actually wasn’t that cold out, so it was comfortable hanging out in the tent during cocktail hour. The vibe was very après-ski. The snow almost acted like a silencer to any background noise, which was kind of cool.

Coulson: We did dinner family-style. There was tuna tartare, seafood dumplings and shrimp cocktail. For mains, we had prime rib, strip loin and fish for the pescatarians, plus lots of veggie sides and salad.

Taryn: Afrim Pristine from Cheese Boutique gifted us a cheese-wheel cake for the wedding. We also had a classic vintage wedding cake—a three-tiered chocolate cake with white icing and cherries on top.

Coulson: We did our speeches over dinner. Members of our family spoke, as did Matty. Taryn did her speech first, and she nailed it. On the spot, I decided to throw my speech out and just speak from the heart. I talked about my feelings for Taryn and how she was the best mom, partner and wife that I could ever ask for.

Taryn: After dinner, I changed into my second dress, which I also got from Park and Fifth. It was a short long-sleeved lace dress that had Priscilla Presley vibes. The band started up and played late ’90s and early 2000s hits like Britney Spears and Blink-182. They were great. Everyone was down to party.

Coulson: The night went on until 2 a.m. I probably drank ten margaritas. We danced our asses off. Then Taryn and I went back to the Drake.

Taryn: Coulson wanted to surprise me with the penthouse room, but multiple people had already told me the story over the night. It was still incredible, though.

Coulson: The next morning, waking up and looking at Taryn, I felt so vulnerable all over again. I said everything I felt from the day before.

Taryn: We got room service and hung out in bathrobes all morning. We read our wedding cards together, which made us cry.

Coulson: Then we went on our honeymoon to Mexico for six nights. It was just me, Taryn and Nora, and it was perfect. We were still feeling the afterglow from the wedding.

Taryn: Being married feels pretty much the same as before, but it’s a little more solid. I’d always felt like we were partners in life. Now, it’s official.

Cheat Sheet

Date: February 16, 2025 Photography: Erin Leydon, Mitch Syer Planner: Grazia Kim, Prime Seafood Palace Getting ready venue: The Drake Hotel Wedding: Prime Seafood Palace Officiant: Roula Said Florals: Isabel Mendoza, Floret Food: Chef Rob Wen, Prime Seafood Palace Cake: Mariel Lima Cheese wheel cake: Afrim Pristine, Cheese Boutique Wine: Sheila Flaherty Cocktails: Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers Band: XPRIME DJ: Kevin Zepeda Taryn’s dress: Park and Fifth Taryn’s hair: Amber Fairlie Taryn’s makeup: Milena Iaizzo Taryn’s engagement ring: Haley Woodbury Coulson’s outfit: Tuxedo Junction Coulson’s shoes: Lost and Found