Two Wedding Days, One Perfect Story: Charlotte & Evan’s Intimate Vancouver Wedding

We're catching up with a few awesome story we wanted to share from this season.

Sometimes wedding plans change. And sometimes the change ends up making the whole experience even better. Charlotte and Evan had planned an intimate Monday wedding in Vancouver surrounded by their closest family and friends. Their family was flying into the city, the ceremony was going to be small, dinner would bring everyone together afterwards, and the whole thing felt completely like them.

There was just one tiny problem.

Vancouver City Hall doesn’t perform weddings on Mondays.

So instead of completely rearranging everything they had planned, Charlotte and Evan made a little pivot: why not have two wedding days?

And honestly, we’re very glad they did.

An intimate Vancouver City Hall wedding

Their first wedding day was wonderfully simple.

Charlotte and Evan headed to Vancouver City Hall with just two of their closest friends there as witnesses. No huge production. No giant guest list. Just the people they needed, a beautiful old civic building, and the excitement of actually getting married.

Inside City Hall, everything still has that old vintage vibe. The wood-panelled council chamber gave the ceremony this wonderfully cinematic feeling while their friends stood nearby laughing, cheering and reacting to everything.

There were laughs during the ceremony, hugs immediately afterwards, and the mandatory ring of the City Hall bell.

Then champagne came out. Which, turned into spraying champagne around, drinking directly from the bottle and wandering around Vancouver City Hall as newlyweds.

Exactly how a civil wedding should end.

What we loved most about this first day was how uncomplicated it felt. It wasn't trying to replace their original wedding. It was simply another little chapter added to it.

And suddenly they didn't have one wedding day.

They had two.

Then came the wedding day they had originally planned

A few days later, we got to do it all over again.

This time the day started slowly, surrounded by the people closest to them. Charlotte and Evan had this gorgeous house booked in the north shore, both got ready with style but most importanly with family that had flew in. The entire atmosphere felt incredibly personal.

We picked out a perfect spot for their first look and but those quiet minutes together before everything began are some of our favourite photographs from the day.

And then their families joined them for a beautiful ceremony. It wasn’t exactly what they had originally envisioned, but honestly, I think it may have been even better. Small, intimate, and centred around the people they love most, with Evan’s mom sharing some beautiful words as part of the ceremony.

There was no need to make it bigger simply because it was a wedding.

Parents, grandparents and close family gathered around them while Charlotte and Evan exchanged vows overlooking Vancouver.

Wedding portraits that still felt like Charlotte and Evan

Once the ceremony was finished, we had time to wander, experiment and make some photographs that felt a little different.

There were quiet portraits around the house, reflections, that incredible spiral staircase, and then one of our favourite additions to the day:

the red Alfa Romeo.

The car added such an unexpected pop of colour against all the greenery and neutral tones. Charlotte leaning out of the window in sunglasses immediately changed the energy of the photographs, and we played with reflections, windows, movement and the bold red bodywork rather than simply standing them beside the car.

Later, we headed into the forest.

This part of the day gave us the complete opposite atmosphere: dark greenery, giant ferns, narrow pockets of sunlight.

It was such a good contrast to the clean architecture of City Hall only a few days earlier.

Two wedding days, but visually they almost feel like two completely different worlds.

Dinner with the people they love most

And eventually, everyone met at the restaurant.

Their closest friends joined the family, drinks were poured, people caught up, and the formal part of the wedding gave way to what it was really all about:

being together.

There were drinks shared across the table, big hugs, kids being kids, family members laughing with Charlotte and Evan, and all those tiny moments that probably seemed ordinary while they were happening.

Proof that changing the plan doesn't mean losing the plan

Charlotte and Evan's wedding is probably one of our favourite examples of why wedding plans don't need to be rigid.

Finding out City Hall wasn't available on their original Monday could easily have become a stressful problem.

Instead, they turned it into something better.

They kept the intimate wedding they had already planned with their family and friends, but added this tiny City Hall adventure with two witnesses a few days earlier.

And somehow, both days felt completely connected.

One was spontaneous, playful and almost like an elopement.

The other was warm, intentional and centred around family.

Together, they told the whole story.

We had so much fun documenting both days with Charlotte and Evan, and looking through everything now, we really can't imagine their wedding happening any other way.

Two ceremonies. Two completely different atmospheres. One very, very good wedding story.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2