Real Weddings: Rosie and Sean

Rosie Prata, a 39-year-old arts journalist, and Sean Liliani, a 42-year-old video producer, met on a dating app in 2022. The two spent early dates gallery-hopping and bonded over their love of artist Félix González-Torres and their desire to build a family—Sean was invested in co-parenting Rosie’s toddler daughter, Cosima, from day one. The couple was engaged on a trip to Paris in August of 2023 and married on a picturesque autumnal day last October at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (where six members of the Group of Seven are buried). The wedding featured plenty of art, including a mock gallery exhibition curated from the bride and groom’s love story as well as a theatrical performance based on texts from their early dating days. Here’s how it all came together.

Rosie: When I met Sean, I was a single mum with a two-year-old daughter emerging from pandemic hibernation. I decided to check out a dating app, thinking I might meet a nice person to go to the movies with occasionally. I was badly burned from my last relationship and wasn’t sure I wanted to ever be in another relationship again. In general, I never expected to fall in love again, and certainly not on a dating app.

Sean: I hadn’t had much success with apps. After giving up on technology, I let my friend, actor Sascha Cole, make a profile for me. She took my phone and asked me to dictate answers to her. I said silly things, like “I’ll fall for you if: you tie my shoelaces together.” Asking a friend to take control meant letting go and not taking it all so seriously. Whatever magic Sascha worked, Rosie took notice.

Rosie: I thought Sean was very attractive and funny. His wonderful sense of humour came through on his profile. When I first came across his profile, I saved a screen recording of it because I could tell it was special. I still look at it sometimes. When we started talking, things between us felt effortless and undeniable. I had a two-year-old daughter, Cosima, so there were a lot of daytime dates and hours spent texting or talking on the phone. We met about three weeks after we started chatting.

Sean: When I first met her, I felt star-struck. She just illuminated the room with her charm. She’s simultaneously brilliant and hilarious. We instantly became mutually obsessed with each other.

Rosie: At the time, I lived with my parents, who were helping me raise my daughter, in Burlington. A few months into dating Sean, I was so certain of our connection that I moved into my own one-bedroom apartment in Roncesvalles with Cosima. Sean was basically at our place six nights a week. We worked so well together as a family that it felt natural to move into Sean’s two-bedroom apartment a year after we started dating.

Sean: Rosie works in the arts, so we spent a lot of our early dates going to galleries together. She knows so much about art that it’s like having a private tour guide. The first exhibition we went to together was in the spring of 2022. The show was by Félix Gonzáles-Torres at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. He’s one of Rosie’s all-time favourites.

Rosie: Early on, I noticed that Sean was a phenomenal father to my daughter. He was just so patient and generous. That’s how I knew he was the one. For much of my life, I’ve felt like I was operating in survival mode. But, whenever I spent time with Sean, I felt a deep sense of safety and happiness.

We knew early in our relationship that we wanted to add to our family. In April of 2023, after a little over a year together, I found out I was pregnant with our son, Theodore.

Related: Inside the Toronto-centric wedding of two TTC superfans

Sean: We went on a family vacation to Paris in August of 2023. On our last night there, while staying at a friend’s place, I spontaneously decided to propose. Rosie and I were sitting on the couch, having a conversation and holding hands. I asked if she would marry me, and it was a quiet moment of love between us. After I asked Rosie, I also asked Cosima, who gave us three seconds of attention to say yes and then went back to her colouring book.

Rosie: Back home, we selected the ring together. Coincidentally, the design, by Brockton Gems, was named “The Rosie.” It’s a gold band fashioned after an antique stirrup ring with a rose-cut diamond repurposed from a Victorian brooch.

Sean: I proposed to Rosie again with the ring that October. The second time, it was much more of an event. We were in the local playground in our St. Clair neighbourhood, and I got down on one knee. I also gave Cosima a plastic ruby ring.

Rosie: We were just hanging out at the park, so it came as a total surprise. When he brought out the beautiful ring box, I cried. We didn’t start wedding planning right away because our son, Theodore, was born in December of 2023. Once things were more settled, in July of 2024, we started planning.

We knew we wanted a fall wedding—I love the crisp leaves and brisk air. One of our favourite spots near the city is the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. About a year into our relationship, I took Sean there as my plus-one to the McMichael’s annual fundraising gala, and he was completely enchanted by both the art and the semi-rural setting. The gallery is home to some of Canada’s most significant Indigenous and historical Canadian art, and six members of the Group of Seven are buried on the property. I am not religious, but I consider it to be a sort of temple.

Sean: It felt like the venue chose us. It’s close to the city but feels ensconced in a woodland paradise. We leaned into the art gallery aspect and decided to curate our own exhibition of objects and ephemera that told the story of how we fell in love. Each panel represented a different phase of our relationship. I included the Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore hand puppets that Cosima and I played with, which had helped her accept me into her life. There were also family photos, screenshots from our text exchanges and a program from an art show we saw on our first date. I designed a wedding program to look like an actual McMichael exhibition pamphlet, titled “Wedding Day.”

Rosie: Sean modelled the look of our wedding art exhibition on the McMichael’s didactic panels—white text on black background. The day of the wedding, he was installing the exhibition in the gallery lobby, and one of the visitors started reading the panels thinking it was real.

Rosie: We wanted to pay homage to our first date, so we created two installations for our ceremony space inspired by González-Torres’s work: a beaded curtain at the entrance was a tribute to Untitled (Golden), and two strands of lights running down the aisle, symbolizing intertwined lives, were modelled after Untitled (North).

Sean: The night before, we got the ceremony installation looking as good as possible. I had to let go of a degree of perfectionism. All our DIYs were very time-consuming, and we spent a lot of our free time working on them together in the months leading up to the wedding. We enlisted a few arty friends to help us out too.

Rosie: I wore my mum’s wedding dress from 1985. I’ve looked at a photo of my parents’ wedding day on the mantlepiece of our family home for my entire life, so when my mum offered me her wedding dress, I was over the moon. It’s made of a pearlescent ivory silk taffeta with a fitted bodice and balloon sleeves. I wanted a “1980s does the 16th century” look, so I had it altered with the help of costume designer Susan Dicks. I accessorized with my mum’s veil, an art deco headpiece I bought from Etsy, thrifted silk pumps and Simone Rocha earrings I bought online at Vestiaire Collective. The earrings spelled out our initials, S and R. My reception look was a white ruffled silk corset by La Villa Clementine and silk trousers from Hai.

Sean: In 2012, I was in Hong Kong for work and had a suit made at Empire Tailors. Since then, I’ve bought three suits from them and even made a short documentary for the Globe and Mail about the family that runs it. A few months ahead of the wedding, I saw that they were touring across Canada and taking custom orders. I placed one at their Toronto pop-up and personalized the suit by adding a red rose-patterned lining to my vest and jacket—a tribute to Rosie.

Related: Inside a movie-themed bash at the Revue Cinema

Rosie: Cosima loves dressing up, so she chose her own outfit—a powder-pink tulle-trimmed ball gown paired with her beat-up Crocs. Our son, Theodore, who was 18 months old, wore a tiny three-piece suit with a clip-on tie.

Sean: On our wedding day, guests arrived to a welcoming committee. Our friends Daniel Laxer and Stefan Banjevic stood outside the entrance of the gallery playing old-time folk songs on their fiddles. Standing next to them were 10-foot-tall air dancers dressed up like a bride and a groom, waving in the wind. The air dancers signalled that you had arrived at this wedding of weirdos.

Rosie: We loved the idea of introducing used-car-dealership energy to such a revered institution of Canadian art. Our close friend Kate officiated the wedding. Instead of formal readings, we enlisted some theatrically inclined friends to stage a surprise performance.

Sean: Our friends Max and Sascha, who are professional actors, performed a dramatic interpretation of us as a new couple, using actual text messages we sent each other. Another friend, Sarah, acted as a narrator, as if she were presenting a podcast.

Rosie: Sascha even did an English accent to imitate me, which I didn’t know was going to happen. The whole thing was hilarious.

Sean: I don’t love being the centre of attention and was dreading putting myself on display by reciting custom vows. But, leading up to the ceremony, I came to appreciate that writing and reciting vows is about creating a memory to draw on for your future. By the time we were at the altar, I was ready. Our reception and dance party were in the McMichael’s grand hall. It was incredible to be able to move through the space without all the visitor traffic—it felt like sneaking into the museum after hours.

Rosie: We had ikebana-inspired table arrangements in deep purples, whites and greens. The flowers helped soften the reception space, which has 20-foot ceilings and exposed stone walls.

Sean: Dinner was served family-style and was full of classic crowd-pleasers—salads, chicken, brisket, potatoes. Dessert was tiramisu from Tutto Panino, which my brother co-owns, and a croquembouche.

Rosie: We had 20 children in attendance, ranging from four months to 14 years old, so it was important to us that our wedding be welcoming and fun for kids. We set up a bunch of lawn games for them outside and had activities like colouring stations inside to entertain them. We also made loot bags stuffed with candy, balloons, toys and trinkets.

Sean: There wasn’t a single meltdown.

Rosie: At one point, the kids ambushed the DJ and took over the dance floor with a track from KPop Demon Hunters. Watching the kids have so much fun at the wedding was so gratifying. It felt reflective of our everyday life. At the end of the night, our friends Jake and Val gifted us a party bus they had booked to take everyone back to the city. My parents took our kids to a nearby hotel, and we headed off to Bar Plus Karaoke on Yonge Street with a big group of friends. We sang the night away and got home at 4 a.m. We don’t get out much since we have young kids, so when the opportunity to party presented itself, we fully committed.

Sean: We didn’t go on a honeymoon—post-wedding, it was back to business as usual. But I think we will take one eventually. I’m hoping for Italy next summer.

Rosie: I love calling Sean my husband because it clearly represents the strength of our bond. It’s the real deal.

Sean: I do think our relationship feels different now that we’re married. It feels like we’re now in the state we were always meant to be in: husband and wife.

Cheat sheet

Date: October 18, 2025 Photographer: Vuk Dragojevic Venue: McMichael Canadian Art Collection Florals: Carmel Floral Food: Food Dudes Desserts: Croquembouche by Lindsey Gazel, tiramisu by Tutto Panino Day-of coordinator: Megan Reynolds, Mega Projects DJ: Nino Brown Rosie’s dress: Vintage Alterations: Susan Dicks Headpiece: Etsy Hair: Ali Harcourt, Escapa Studios Makeup: Kristin Wayne Sean’s suit: Empire Tailors Engagement ring: Brockton Gems Wedding bands: Attic Gold