Invisible Strings and Funfetti Cake: Kate & Quintin's Deeply Personal Wedding at Hotel X Toronto

Love Story

Kate and Quintin met in grade nine. Not at a rooftop bar, not on an app, not through a mutual friend at the right moment — in school, the old-fashioned way, the way that gives a relationship the kind of foundation most people spend their adult lives trying to construct from scratch.

The first kiss happened in grade eleven, on a French class trip, on the Eiffel Tower. We know how that sounds. We'd roll our eyes too, except that these two then went home and stayed together through the rest of high school, through university, through over eleven years total — which is the part that actually matters. "We became inseparable ever since," Kate tells us.

Their anniversary is 11/11. They married in their eleventh year together. At some point you stop calling it coincidence.

The proposal came in St. Lucia after their 10-year anniversary trip. Quintin had designed the ring himself — entirely, without her — and despite the fact that Kate and Quintin had sat down like two sensible adults and discussed getting engaged the following summer, he pulled it off on a beach at sunset and she didn't see it coming at all. "He totally caught me off guard. It was very romantic on the beach at sunset. Got to spend the rest of our trip in pure bliss-land."

What we appreciate about this story isn't the Eiffel Tower moment — it's the eleven years after it.

About Your Wedding

Date: February 6, 2026
Venue: Hotel X, Toronto, Ontario
Guests: 96
Planning time: One year
Colour palette: Mauves, burgundy, and cream
Style: Candlelit winter warmth inside a glass room

Here's something couples rarely admit: Kate and Quintin started planning with no vision whatsoever. "We didn't have one at the start! It was so hard to nail down what we wanted," Kate says. "But once we saw the Hotel X space, we said it's here or nowhere."

That's actually how it should work — venue first, vision second. The glass room at Hotel X in February gave them everything they needed: a reason to go warm and rich and textural inside while winter pressed itself against the windows outside. Mauves, burgundy, cream. Satin and velvet. Candlelight. The reference that crystallized it all was Eye Swoon's 50th birthday party. "I was obsessed with the tones and cascading florals coming off the table."

Specific inspiration beats a Pinterest board every time, and you can feel it in how coherent this wedding looks from every angle.

Morning Details

Kate wore her great-grandmother's wedding ring on her right ring finger. No elaborate story attached to it in the notes she gave us — just a quiet decision to carry something that meant something.

Guests arriving to the ceremony were handed a glass of champagne with a custom edible topper — a small illustration of dancing figures that ran through the stationery suite as a consistent motif. A small thing, but it's the small things that tell you a couple actually thought about the experience of attending their wedding, not just having one.

Bride Getting Ready

Kate got ready at Hotel X with her mom, Sandra, her sister, and MOH Annie, and her mother-in-law, Kelly.

The dress is a By Watters gown, and she bought it before she had a venue, before she had a concept, before she had almost anything else figured out. It was the first dress she tried on. "Love at first sight! I purchased it before we even had our venue or wedding concept." She found it at Sash & Bustle in Toronto's east end. A few months out from the wedding, she added a Geisha Designs Long-Sleeve Lace Topper — a practical-meets-aesthetic decision that we think paid off completely. The bolero brought the dress into the February setting without fighting it.
"I added the lace bolero a couple months before to make it feel more 'wintery', and absolutely loved that add!"

Accessories: a custom ivory Italian tulle veil made by her tailor at Couture Bridal, white patent leather Manolo Blahniks, great-grandmother's ring on the right hand.

The bouquet came from Nadia at @floralasylum — pure orchids and hyacinths, nothing else. No filler, no greenery padding it out. Just two flowers, done with enough confidence to make a real statement. Kate cried when she saw it, which is the only review that matters. "I really wanted something chic while being a statement piece! The bouquet made me tear up it was so perfect!"

Groom Getting Ready

Quintin got ready at Hotel X with his brother Noah, best man Connor, his dad Greg, cousin Mackenzie, and friend Tyler. Suit Supply — a reliable choice that photographs well, and one that doesn't try to compete with what's happening on the other side of the room.

First Look

The first look took place inside Hotel X — just the two of them, a quiet hallway, and eleven years of history arriving all at once in a single moment. The kind of moment that doesn't need narrating. The photographs say everything: the way he turned, the way she looked, the stillness before everything else began. We'll let them speak.

Photoshoot Before The Ceremony

Ceremony

The ceremony was held in the Kandy Gallery at Hotel X — a small gallery space on site that seats an intimate group closely enough that nothing gets lost. No one was watching from the back of a cavernous ballroom. Everyone was right there.

Kate walked down the aisle to Invisible Strings by Taylor Swift, played live on harp by @denisefungmusic. "I'm a Swiftie to my core," Kate says simply. We'll just note: of all the Taylor Swift songs available, she chose the one about fate and invisible connections pulling people toward each other across time. That's not a random Swiftie pick. That's a woman who knew exactly what she was doing.

Quintin's brother served as ring bearer. Kate and Quintin had written their own vows. This is where we'd normally say something about how moving it was — but Kate's own words are more honest than ours would be: "It was so full of love. We wrote our own vows and it was so emotional for both of us and our guests. It was pure magic."

Quintin had told people he wasn't going to cry. He got choked up during Kate's vows and had to stop for a moment. "So sweet," Kate says.

Yes. It is.

Photoshoot After The Ceremony

Wedding Venue & Decor

The glass room at Hotel X is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and it earns every bit of it. Floor-to-ceiling windows, February darkness outside, and inside: mauves and burgundy and cream, candlelight, velvet, satin, florals by @floralasylum cascading off the tables the way Kate had seen at Eye Swoon and couldn't stop thinking about. "We wanted something that was warm, romantic and candlelit inside of the glass room on an icy February evening." The tension between outside and inside — cold glass, warm light — is what makes a winter wedding work when it really works. This one worked.

One detail worth stealing: the couple had menus personalized for their engaged guests, each one reading "It's you next! X + X" with the couple's names filled in. "It's so fun to go to a wedding while engaged and thinking about your own, so we wanted them to marinate in that." It costs almost nothing and it makes someone's night. That's good hosting.

Reception

First dance: Perfect by Ed Sheeran. Kate is fully aware of how this sounds. "Totally lame and overdone, but it's a song we listened to over and over when we were young and had always said we'd dance to it. It was sweet. We did a few spins and moves that were so bad, it made it good." Honestly, this is our favourite kind of first dance. Just two people who made a promise to each other as teenagers and kept it, moving badly to a song they love. That's the whole point.

The wedding cake was made by Kate's best friends Chloe and Gill. It was funfetti — specifically because Quintin bakes a Betty Crocker funfetti cake every week and eats it in one sitting, and apparently this is simply known about him. The friends made it beautiful. Kate and Quintin brought them up to take the first bite together. "It was the most beautiful and delicious cake ever and it meant SO much to us. We had them come up to have a first bite with us. So special."

A cake made by best friends, eaten first with best friends. Saxophonist @carsonsaxplayer, DJ @djrichsweet, 96 people who genuinely wanted to be there. The ingredients were right.

"Every single vendor was absolutely incredible. Narelle is a wizard, Koko is a creative genius. I had so much fun on the day and it had to do with the vendors being the perfect match for me. Everyone went above and beyond." A coordinator who's described as a wizard and a photographer described as a creative genius. That's not generic praise — that's a couple who paid attention.

What stays with us about this wedding isn't one single grand gesture. It's the accumulation of small, specific choices — the great-grandmother's ring, the personalized menus, the song they promised each other at fifteen, the funfetti cake. Those details don't come from a trend board. They come from two people who actually know each other, and have for a very long time.