Alessandra + Mark
Calgary Confederation Park Wedding
When I look back at Alessandra and Mark’s wedding, it will be a delightful blur of an early morning hike, of an ecstatic collection of familiar onlookers participating in a wedding while abiding by health regulations, of a day that celebrated two people, and a ficus tree in Alessandra’s nonna’s living room. I will be grateful for their understanding in pivoting their day weeks before their wedding to accommodate the ever changing rules and state of the world.
These two originally planned to get married the following weekend, a much larger affair, a more formal wedding. But with COVID descending into our lives the middle of March they made the decision to still get married, but this time with just immediate family and a couple of friends in attendance. The celebration was no less marvellous – just different.
They honoured their outdoorsy souls by planning a trip to the mountains in the morning – a reflection of their engagement story at the back of Lake Louise where they were caught in the billows of an avalanche cloud that had settled on the frozen lakeshore below them. I was invited to join them, not for a session, but a documentation of this chapter of the day. A brisk (at least for them, I forgot how much extra gear weight kills your hiking vibe and was starkly reminded of how much training I had to do for a trip to Assiniboine a few weeks following) hike in Kananskis led us to a pass that overlooked the Bow Valley. They marvelled at a distance at the stark rock walls that rose from the valley floor below us. The clouds that threatened rain just an hour early, lapped at the rocky peaks instead. Just as we began our way back to the trailhead the wind picked up and the rain came down.
Hours later I met Alessandra at her nonna’s home – a collection of family photos, floral pattern furniture and the most marvellous wall murals was our backdrop. Oh, and a ficus tree that commanded the entirety of the living room, where it’s status as Christmas tree showing by the single red ornament bulb hidden at its base. One sister helped with the finishing touches of her hair, another with the florals, her mother with arranging her dress. We moved into the living room, where her nonna selected earrings for her, and Alessandra’s father used pliers to place a particularly difficult eye and hook. It was a family contribution morning.
Upon arriving at Confederation Park, the wedding guests greeted each other from afar. To abide by Alberta Health Services’ COVID wedding regulations they interacted with only their immediate family in their inner circle who would be joining them for the intimate dinner reception. A handful of extended family members waited on the hill beyond, to witness from afar, standing at least six feet apart.
Officiated by their friend Sancia, someone familiar with their stories and personalities, their ceremony was simple and curated to them. Upon being declared married, their family cheered, with an echoing cry of delight from those on the hill (and perhaps a handful of park-goers who stumbled upon their ceremony).
Then they were off in his father’s vintage red ride to Franca’s Italian Specialities, the restaurant her father insists all new visitors to Calgary go. For good reason, for have I never tasted such delicious Italian food outside of Italy. Grandma imparted her wisdom privately to the couple, their parents and siblings spoke to them as individuals and a couple. Their friends extended the godparent title of their son to Alessandra.
At a long table, in a hidden gem of a restaurant in Calgary, Alessandra and Mark celebrated their marriage, in perhaps the strangest year of our lives.
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