The Love Story of Two Canadians, a Corgi and a Bali Wedding
When Carmen and Adrian met on Tinder they never expected in their wildest dreams that they were meant to spend the rest of their lives together. From that moment their lives changed forever and they travelled all the way to Bali to celebrate their relationship in the most beautiful way.
Married at The Edge Bali on the clifftops of Uluwatu on a perfect summer day on the 24th of February 2019, it was a day full of love, laughter and dancing.
Read on to find out more about this gorgeous couple’s story and their wedding day…
Tell us, how did you both meet?
“We never anticipated it but we were matched on Tinder, the rest was history. He literally swept me off my feet. After our first date, we just could not get enough of each other and began to see each other everyday since. It was like we had known each other for years and our connection was immediate -- sharing life stories, same goals, and all around just being completely true to our characters. We are ourselves when we're with each other. We are so similar in so many aspects, yet we are so different - I'm an extrovert and he's introverted; we're both family driven; and we both love adventure! And together over the years we've become better versions of ourselves because of the other. 4 years later, having lived together for 3/4, a puppy, and a year of engagement later, we are ecstatic to be married to each other.”
Tell us a little about yourselves..
“We've both born and raised in Toronto, Canada -- where we currently still reside with our 3year old Corgi (his name is Sumo and our precious fur baby; was super sad we couldn't bring him with us to Bali). He's a personal trainer for an elite gym and I'm in project management for a large nancial corporation. Our hours are so different and our work keeps us super busy - but we always nd time at the end of the day to be together.
How did you know you had met ‘The One’?
“We couldn't get enough of each other's presence. There was a point early on in our relationship where I was away on travels for about 3 weeks -- and that was the longest we've both ever spent away from each other. Having gone from seeing each other each and every day to being apart for 3 weeks was hard to endure. We were on opposite sides of the world, but we did every thing we could to communicate and just to check in to see how the other was doing. We both quickly came to the realization that we wanted to always be there for the other and never wanted to be separated. Every stage of our relationship happened quicker than any of our friends anticipated -- but we believe that the timing was perfect for us because we know exactly what we wanted. Because going through these life changes with the other person made it all worthwhile and we couldn't imagine life with anyone but them. It was easy and solid, and it was true. We often joke about how far we've both come and how if it weren't the other, we wouldn't be where we are today; and at the same time we wouldn't imagine celebrating and our lives any differently or with any other human being.
What was the inspiration behind your wedding?
“We just wanted something very simple but elegant. We didn't want to take away from the scenic environment around us, and given we're both pretty simple people. I think the simplicity of everything was really what made our wedding represent us but at the same time gave it that sprinkle of glamour that I love ;)
Why did you choose Bali as the location for your destination wedding?
“He has a HUGE family and both have a LOT of friends. We thought about a local wedding and realized that we would be looking at 200-300 people, which sounded way too bizarre for either of us. We wanted to do something different . and get a whole different experience out of it. I've always wanted an outdoor wedding in a sunny destination and that's something Toronto couldn't offer. So we knew from then we would be looking for a destination wedding -- but we also were certain we didn't want a Caribbean destination like many couples in Canada do. The choice was narrowed down to Bali or Santorini - both places that we really wanted to explore. In the end we chose Bali because wanted to be close to our families in Hong Kong and make a huge Asia trip out of it with our best friends and family -- so worth it!!
Why did you choose The Edge as your wedding venue?
“THE EDGE. The view, the name, everything about it was breath taking. It made it so surreal and sooo cheesy to say we traveled to the EDGE of the world and got married at THE EDGE of the world. A cliff top wedding overlooking the Indian Ocean -- a view to die for!
What was your favourite part of the day?
“I can't pick a favourite part as all of it was so perfect. Even with a sick groom and all (Adrian literally had heat dehydration on the day and we were all fearful that he wasn't going to make it). But the team did AN AMAZING job in taking care of everything AND our groom. I cannot be thankful enough and I feel so blessed!!!
What were the favourite details that you chose for the day?
All the decor was exactly what I envisioned I'd want for my wedding. Twinkle lights and tiffany chairs !
Did you follow any wedding traditions?
“A bit of both. We had our traditional Chinese tea ceremony in the morning, including door crashing games and all. Then we westernized it in the afternoon. I had my something new, something old, and something blue (my shoes), but missed getting something borrowed (it was a tough one)
How did you find the perfect dress?
“It was fluke. I had wanted this other dress that costed 6 times the price of the dress I got but I really couldn't justify it. I had to find something I could travel easily with and light as we were coming all the way from Toronto. We stopped by a store with zero hopes of finding something - but I did. The design was so similar to the initial dress I had in mind. AND I managed to snatch it on sale.
What were the most memorable moments for you?
“Walking down the aisle and sharing our first dance... all of it. It’s crazy to believe that we were able to do everything with little to no rehearsal with a rather sick groom….
Where did you splurge and where did you save?
“We definitely splurged on our photography and I'm so glad we did!!! Axioo was BEAUTIFUL. HIGHLY recommend. I guess we saved with a lot of our decoration as we went with the basics to keep it simple and classic. But it all fit together perfectly at the end of the day. We also splurged and got block letters of our initials -- we wanted this because Adrian actually had miniature versions of blocked as part of our proposal display too!
Any words of advice for future brides and grooms-to-be?
“Live spontaneously and love wholeheartedly. Sometimes you'll have no idea about the great things that will come your way.
Get a wedding planner. It'll save you soooo much stress. And hire Botanica Weddings - THEY WERE AMAZING!
How happy were you with your experience with Botanica Weddings?
“YOU WERE AMAZING !!! Sanita and Brett - I have no idea what the day would've been like without you both. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!
Sanita made my entire wedding planning experience SOOOOO simple. She definitely kept me aligned to getting everything done. And everything came together PERFECTLY. Brett -- THANK YOU FOR TAKING CARE OF ADRIAN ! Thank you for reassuring everything was going to be okay on the day. You both literally made my dreams come true.
Fikri Halim OWNED MY MAKEUP!! He was AMAZING!
And finally, where did you honeymoon?
“Our whole trip was basically our honeymoon. We spent a total of 2 weeks in Bali - a few days with ourselves and then a week with our friends.
All of the beautiful images were captured by the Axioo.Bali
Hair & Makeup by Fikri Halim
The brides shoes are by Nine West
The Dress by Gallina Signature from David’s Bridal
The boys were dressed by IndoChino
The girls were dressed by Henkaa
See more photo’s here in their Real Wedding allery