Real wedding · 18 September 2026

A Small Wedding in Downtown Toronto: Ceremony and Dinner in One Room

Married at 5:30, dinner in the same room at 7

Kevin and Ethan married in front of forty eight guests on the second floor of Storys, in downtown Toronto. While everyone had cocktails upstairs, the room they had just been married in was taken apart and set for dinner.

A tiered stand stacked with glazed and chocolate doughnuts, a small white cake with a silhouette topper of two grooms at the top, beside candles on a white table. — Dipped Donuts, with the cake on top

Guests: 48Four children and a baby among them
Ceremony: On siteSecond floor, 5:30pm
Room flip: 45 minCeremony rows to dinner tables
Second floor: Three usesCeremony, dinner, dance floor

The ceremony

Their own arch, and no phones

The arch they married under was their own. They brought it to the rehearsal, then came back at two o'clock on the day to put it up in front of the arched windows at the far end of the room.

The ceremony was unplugged. A sign asked guests to turn off their phones and cameras and enjoy the moment, and on every seat was a personalised packet of tissues, which tells you roughly how the couple expected the next half hour to go.

The flowers came from The New Leaf Florist as a drop off. The couple arranged them themselves with help from our team, all white, in bud vases along the window ledges and in tall glass on the tables.

A wooden sign on an easel reading: Welcome to our unplugged ceremony. Please turn off all cell phones, cameras and other devices and enjoy this moment with us. Thank you. — The sign at the ceremony

Guests at one of the two long dinner tables on the second floor, a garland of greenery running down the white tablecloth under strings of lights.

6:00pm to 6:45pm

Upstairs, cocktails. Downstairs, a different room.

When the ceremony finished at six, guests were asked up to the third floor, where canapes and wine were going round. Nobody stood around waiting for chairs to be moved, because nobody was in the room while they were moved.

Behind them the second floor was turned over. The ceremony rows came out and two long tables of thirty feet each went in down the length of the room, dressed in white with a garland of greenery along the middle.

At a quarter to seven the grooms were brought down on their own to see it first. Then they stayed, ready for photographs with their guests as each of them came in for dinner.

The same room

Ceremony rows out, two long tables in

The same floor, the same arched windows, the same string lights overhead. The aisle and the rows either side of it came out, and two long tables went in, with the grooms at the middle of the first.

Keeping the ceremony and the reception in one room holds a small wedding together from the first guest to the last song. Our guide to ceremony and reception at the same venue covers how the flip works, and weddings at Storys has the rest.

The second floor set for the ceremony: rows of dark crossback chairs either side of an aisle, leading to the greenery arch in front of the arched windows. — CeremonySet for 5:30pm

The same room at dinner: guests seated along two long white tables under strings of lights, the arched windows at the far end. — DinnerThe same room, from 7:00pm

The evening

Ceremony, dinner and dancing, all on one floor

The only time guests left the second floor was the hour of cocktails upstairs, and that was the hour the room needed to change.

Third floorSecond floorArrival and close

2:00pm
The couple arrive to set up
Vendor load in on Pearl Street, wedding party photographs, the arch goes up
5:00pm
Doors open
Doorman out front, water for guests as they arrive
5:30pm
Second floor
Ceremony
Unplugged
6:00pm
Third floor
Guests go upstairs for cocktails
Canapes and wine passed. Downstairs, the room flip begins.
6:45pm
Second floor
The grooms see the room first
Then ready for photographs with their guests as they come in
7:00pm
Guests invited down for dinner
7:15pm
Seated
7:20pm
Wine poured, allergies confirmed at the table
7:25pm
MC welcome, then the first parents’ speech
7:30pm
Bread served
7:35pm
First course
7:45pm
The second parents’ speech
8:10pm
Second course
8:20pm
The grooms’ speech
9:00pm
Cake cutting
A small cake, on top of a doughnut tower
9:05pm
Third course and coffee
9:20pm
Second floor
First dance, and the dance floor opens
10:30pm
Late night food
1:00am
Bar closes
1:30am
Last song
2:00am
Venue closed

The kitchen

Three courses, and each groom had both mains

Dinner was three courses with a choice of main, a grilled flat iron steak or potato gnocchi with truffled mushroom. Kevin and Ethan each had one of each.

Mesclun salad in a white bowl, dressed leaves with thin slices of green apple and shaved parmesan on top.

Sliced flat iron steak, pink in the middle, over potato and courgette with a dark jus and pea shoots.

Potato gnocchi in a creamy mushroom sauce in a wide white bowl, finished with chives and grated parmesan.

Plated semolina and coconut cakes, each topped with whipped yogurt and sliced strawberries.

Upstairs at cocktails, five canapes went round: the Storys burger, chicken satay, short rib croquettes, corn tacos and a vegan samosa. With nut allergies on the guest list, the satay went out without peanuts, and every allergy was confirmed again at the table as the wine was poured.

A ring of small sesame bun burgers on a round wooden board.

Chicken satay skewers laid out on a long black platter.

A row of small corn tacos held upright in a metal rack on a wooden tray.

Small triangular samosas on a wooden board, each with a dot of sauce and a herb leaf.

The children had their own menu. At half past ten came the late night food, smoked poutine two ways, one with brisket and one with kimchi and miso gravy.

The details

Doughnuts, a telephone and a box of cookies each

There was a cake, but a small one, sitting on top of a tower of doughnuts from Dipped Donuts that had been dropped off at the side of the building in the afternoon. The couple cut it at nine and took it home.

The guest book was a white rotary phone that guests picked up to leave a message. The favours were boxes of cookies, each labelled with the couple's names.