Real Weddings: Tellie and Nathan

Tellie Hunt, a 34-year-old florist, first met Nathan Haynes, a 37-year-old photographer and firefighter, on Bumble in 2019. After bonding over their creative backgrounds, the two went on a first date in High Park, where they walked their dogs. Their fifth date was a trip to Mexico, and they made their relationship official on the plane ride back. The couple were engaged by October of 2023 and married in September of 2024 at their off-grid cabin north of Huntsville in a disco rodeo–themed wedding. Here’s how it all came together.

Nathan: Tellie and I first met on Bumble in the spring of 2019. It was an easy swipe-right for me. We found each other’s dogs—and each other—cute. We both had creative careers: I was a commercial film director at the time, and Tellie was a florist, so we had a lot in common starting out.

Tellie: The same day we matched, I told Nathan that I was going to pick him up for a walk in High Park. I hate going back and forth online and would rather just meet up in person to see if there’s a connection. I’m originally from Newmarket, but I did my last year of high school in Toronto and have lived here ever since, so I know all the trails well.

Nathan: I’m from Bristol, UK, but when I was 27, I was looking for a new adventure, so I moved to Toronto in 2015. I liked that it was close to New York, where a few of my friends live. I’d mostly lived downtown—near the Rogers Centre and at Queen and Bathurst—and hadn’t really been to High Park. But I had a new dog at the time, Kodak, a rescue mutt, so I was looking forward to getting this pup out to a new spot. Meeting up with Tellie and her dogs, Olive and Peach, who were spaniels, felt like a no-brainer. We’d only been chatting for two hours and had exchanged about a dozen messages before we met up.

Tellie: On our first date, Nathan and I talked about what had brought us to the city. I originally came to Toronto to be a tattoo artist, but I ended up working in floristry. I felt like floristry came more naturally to me, and I was able to design more freely. I started up my own business, Hunt and Gather, in 2017. Nathan saw the world in a creative way, which I admired. It was inspiring hearing him talk about his career.

Nathan: I thought Tellie was super cute. She was vibrant, full of life and really easy to talk to.

Tellie: For our second date, Nathan made me dinner at his place. While he was cleaning up, I took our dogs out for a walk, and my King Charles spaniel, Olive, got sprayed by a skunk.

Nathan: I just went on autopilot and started googling what to do. I brought a pair of rubber gloves, baking soda and a tin of tomatoes out to the backyard, where Tellie and her dog were waiting. We covered her dog in tomatoes, rubbing them on her little face, and hosed her down.

Tellie: That was the moment I knew I really liked Nathan. The fact that he was willing to do all these things to help me with my dog made me realize I wanted to date him more seriously.

Nathan: To be honest, at the time, I was more focused on my career and not really looking for a committed relationship. But I was having a good time with Tellie.

Tellie: Meanwhile, I was jokingly looking up articles on how to woo a Capricorn. For our fifth date, in May, I invited him along on a trip I had already planned to Mexico City, where some of my friends live. I told Nathan that I had credit card points that were expiring and needed to be used, which was a white lie, but I did end up using my points on his ticket. We had a wonderful weekend away. We went to a reggaeton warehouse party at an old flour factory, shopped for vintage clothes, went to photography exhibitions and visited the botanical gardens. On the plane ride back, we made our relationship official.

Nathan: By then, I felt more invested in Tellie. I wanted to see it through, and it felt right to put ourselves out there. I could see that we would be good together, so we went for it.

Tellie: Our relationship moved quickly after that. By October of 2019, Nathan had moved into my apartment, which was a two-bedroom unit in a house in the Junction.

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Nathan: I felt like the only way to know if our relationship was going to work was to live together. Shortly after moving in, we went through the pandemic together, which was super strange. Covid was stressful at times, but looking back, it was nice that we had the time to hang out with each other so much.

Tellie: I’m a pretty straightforward person, so I mentioned to Nathan early on that I wanted to get married someday.

Nathan: I’ve always believed in the idea of getting married and having kids. But it’s also healthy to take some time and not rush into anything. I knew of Tellie’s intentions to get married pretty soon. I told her that those things were on the table but that I would need to take my time. It’s a big decision to choose someone for the rest of your life.

Tellie: Nathan made me feel more assured in our relationship than anyone else I’ve been with, so when it came to marriage, I had to trust the process and know he’d do things in his own time.

Nathan: During the pandemic, I went through a career change. A lot of us in the film industry suffered, so I pivoted to become a first responder, which is something I’d been interested in since I was 18. I’m still focused on my photography work, and I like being in between two worlds. Once I was settled in my new career path, I had a good idea of what our relationship would be like outside of the pandemic. By the middle of 2022, it felt like our lives were back to normal. We had a great summer together. By the end of that year, I knew I wanted to propose.

Tellie: Because I work in the wedding industry, I’ve always had strong opinions on what I like and don’t like. I follow a lot of other wedding vendors, which is how I found out about a jewellery designer called DMD Metal. Their ring designs are very art deco and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. On a trip to New York, we stopped in a store called Love Adorned that carried their rings. I made things easy for Nathan by showing him the exact ring I wanted, which had a salt-and-pepper diamond. We visited New York often, so whenever we were there, we’d go and look at the ring.

Nathan: I was paying attention when Tellie showed me the ring she liked. At the end of summer 2022, our friend group booked a trip to New York for that October. I knew I wanted to propose then, because we could celebrate with our closest friends after the engagement. That gave me three months to plan everything. I quickly emailed the ring designer and asked if he could make a custom ring—I decided to add some extra diamonds on the band of the ring Tellie liked. The designer said he wouldn’t have time to ship the ring to Canada before the trip, but it would be ready at the store in New York by the time we got there.

Tellie: In the middle of our trip, Nathan broke off from the group. He told us he was going to pick up some film for his camera. I didn’t suspect anything at that point.

Nathan: Secretly, I was going to pick up the ring two days before I planned to propose. I even described Tellie to the people at the store—a Canadian girl with tattoos—and told them not to say anything about me having been there.

Tellie: I actually ended up going to the store with my friends 10 minutes after Nathan left to try the ring on. My friends were even asking the clerks about shipping times. We had no clue that we just missed Nathan.

Nathan: We went to a restaurant together with our friends that evening. I took the guys outside and showed them the ring, and they were all surprised. They were so excited for us. I hadn’t told anyone what I’d been planning before that moment. When the big day came, I told Tellie that I wanted us to meet some of my friends in Prospect Park, so we broke off from the group. Brooklyn is our favourite place in New York—we love the energy, the food, the drinks and the culture, so I figured that Prospect Park would be a great place to propose. I wanted to do it in an open space in front of a big tree—a spot that we’d remember and could revisit—but I didn’t have time to scope the park out in advance. We were just walking around the park while I was keeping an eye out for the right spot.

Tellie: I was getting confused because Nathan said we were meeting his friends but he didn’t know where they were.

Nathan: It took a little longer than I expected to find the right spot. We walked around for 30 or 40 minutes until we came upon a beautiful open field at the end of a path, and I knew that was it.

Tellie: When Nathan got down on one knee, I thought he was joking. A few months before that, I had fake-proposed to Nathan, so I thought he was just getting back at me. Then I realized he was serious and the tears started flowing. After I said yes, we walked through the field together and thousands of dragonflies flew right in front of us. Apparently it was their migration season. It was such a beautiful moment.

Nathan: I had a restaurant reservation lined up right afterward for dinner, just the two of us, and I’d rented a brownstone in Brooklyn for us to spend the night together. Then we met up with our friends the next day to celebrate with them.

Tellie: I definitely flipped through wedding magazines as a teenager, imagining what mine would be like. I’ve seen a lot of venues, but Nathan and I knew we wanted to get married at our off-grid cabin north of Huntsville, which we bought together in 2020. During the pandemic, we were looking for an escape and a place we could potentially Airbnb. In the end, we fell in love with the cabin and made it our home—we spend half our time there—as opposed to a rental. Our cabin is something that we built together, so it has a lot of significance to the two of us.

Nathan: It’s a 2.5-acre woodland lot with a log cabin and a river running through it. We’ve done a lot of renovations to it over the years, and Tellie started a small flower farm on the property too. I left Tellie in charge of the florals while I took the lead on photography. We made joint decisions on everything else.

Tellie: For our colour scheme, I wanted it to reflect our natural surroundings but also have pops of orange. I love the colour of terracotta, but it felt too close to the brand colours of my floristry business, so I decided on a spin-off that would feel more personal to our wedding. We also wanted to bring in some off-kilter decor elements, we set up disco balls with Spanish moss in a tent, plus mirrored pedestals to reflect the woods around us. The theme evolved into something we called “disco rodeo.” We invited 60 guests in total, who would rent Airbnbs nearby to stay overnight.

Nathan: We started preparing the property six months before the wedding. We painted and did some landscaping, like flattening out the ground for the ceremony. We went up to our cabin on the Tuesday before the wedding to start getting things ready.

Tellie: Since we were getting married in the woods, I had a hard time finding an outfit that felt right. Most dresses felt too over-the-top for the setting we’d be in. I decided on a simple dress with a silk top layer by Lola Varma. For my bachelorette, my friends and I went to Mexico City, and we visited a veil designer, Ofrenda Studio. I picked out a veil with fringe that complemented our western theme. It was quite the statement piece.

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Nathan: My outfit came together piece by piece. Tellie and I have an appreciation for old Americana. I knew I wanted to wear 1970s flared pants, western boots and a structured, David Bowie–esque tuxedo jacket. I wore a western hat for the final touch.

Tellie: It seems like it’d be a tough decision as a florist to pick your own flowers, but it wasn’t. For the first time, I got to pick everything I liked at the flower market and not worry about whether the client would like it. I grew a few things on my microflower farm that I knew I wanted to use, like cucamelons for the tablescape, agrostemma, orange cosmos, phlox and marigolds. Then I picked up some pails of celosia and amaranthus, along with these cute little peppers and cherry tomatoes on long vines, which I incorporated into my bouquet and actually snacked on throughout the day.

Nathan: The night before the wedding, Tellie’s bridesmaids stayed with her in an A-frame that we rented on Airbnb. Then the bridesmaids and my groomsmen arrived at our cabin at 10 a.m. to have breakfast and help us set up. They put tables out and set up the decor and flowers. I got ready at a different Airbnb while Tellie got ready in the A-frame.

I’m a bit of a control freak, so I was pretty nervous leading up to the wedding, knowing how many things could go wrong. Since we were up in the woods, we could lose power, so I made sure we had generators ready. And I made sure we had umbrellas on standby. We could have moved into the log cabin or the tent if it rained, but we really wanted to have the ceremony outside. Thankfully, it was clear skies. By that point, I knew there was nothing left to do except get my suit on. My groomsmen rallied behind me and helped me chill out, knowing that whatever happened was going to happen. My dad was running out to get more ice for the bar half an hour before our first-look photos. So it was hectic, but in a strange way, it felt like it was us. We’ve always been super hands-on people.

Tellie: We hired a big yellow school bus to pick everyone up and bring them to our ceremony. Our guests arrived at the top of a hill near our log cabin, then walked down the hill, past the microflower farm, into a big clearing with a large tree, where the ceremony would be held. Our guests started arriving around 4:30 p.m. One of Nathan’s good friends from childhood was our officiant.

Nathan: Once the ceremony started, I didn’t feel nervous at all. I was pleased with how nicely it had all come together. As the ceremony was starting and everyone was sitting down, I thought everything looked perfect—the flowers looked great, the weather was super beautiful, the music was on. I thought, We did it. Once Tellie started walking down the aisle with her father, it was a super emotional moment, especially when I shook her father’s hand. There were tears all around.

Tellie: It was a blur of emotions. I don’t think I stopped crying the entire time. Nathan and I wrote personal vows for each other.

Nathan: After the ceremony, our guests moved into cocktail hour. We invited them to tour our log cabin and my flower studio while they were there, so they could see how we’d renovated it. One of our good friends set up a little drinks station down by the river as a surprise for the two of us.

Tellie: It was so nice to have 15 minutes together before we went back to our guests, just to slow the day down.

Nathan: I’d always envisioned serving southern barbecue for our wedding. It’s one of my favourite foods, and I loved the idea of smelling barbecue throughout the day. Especially for our location in the woods, it really fit. We eventually found a smokehouse in Orillia that was willing to come out. They set things up the morning of the wedding, and by the time our guests started arriving, the barbecue smelled amazing. We had brisket, pulled pork, sausage, chicken and a vegetarian smoked burrata, along with sides like mac and cheese and potato salad.

Tellie: Dinner was more informal. Our guests could come up to the smoker and dress up their barbecue plates however they liked.

Nathan: I put together a playlist for the day. We had a lot of blues, country and disco, leaning into the disco rodeo theme.

Tellie: One of our good friends plays the saxophone in a navy band, so she surprised us with some saxophone solos during dinner. There were also a few speeches, then we cut the cake and danced all night. We had a big bonfire going, and our guests went back and forth from the fire to the dance floor.

Nathan: A good thing about having a wedding on your own property is that we could make our own curfew. The party went on till around 2 a.m. By the end of the night, I wanted to do it all over again. It felt like the day went by so fast.

Tellie: Throughout the day, I really tried to step back, savour the moments and take everything in. People always tell you that it goes by too fast. But I felt like everything was perfect. Everybody came together as a family to make it happen. It was definitely a labour of love from both of our families to throw a wedding in the middle of nowhere.

Nathan: We went to Morocco for our honeymoon, in April of 2025, for ten days. We had both always wanted to go, and neither of us had visited North Africa before. The food, the desert, the Moroccan rugs and the history were huge reasons why we wanted to visit.

Tellie: Married life has a certain calmness to it. I don’t feel like anything’s changed in terms of our dynamic. We love each other. But there’s a comfort that we’ve found.

Nathan: Marriage feels really secure and has allowed me to focus on our relationship in a different way. I’m looking forward to doing all the things that we get to do together now that I have my forever person to venture through life with. It’s a nice feeling.

Tellie: There’s a lot that I’m looking forward to doing with Nathan. We’d both love to start a family one day, and we’re working toward building the next stage of our lives together.

Cheat Sheet

Date: September 1, 2024 Photography: Jacklyn Barber Getting-ready venue: Angus Point A-frame Wedding venue: Tellie and Nathan’s off-grid cabin Florals and design: Hunt and Gather Additional decor: Simply Beautiful, Glamourous Affairs, All Cargos Food: Northbound Barbecue Co. Cake: Too Cool For Cakes Late-night food vendors: Pie O My Pizzeria DJ: DJ Neon Nomad Tellie’s dress: Lola Varma from LoversLand Nathan’s outfit: Simons