Our Story | Anna & James 2026

Picture this: It’s a lovely spring evening in 2021. I had just moved back to Ottawa and had been living in my new apartment for all of 48 hours. It was nearing the end of a long day of unpacking boxes, and my roommate and I were hard at work setting up our new kitchen.

A few key details about said kitchen: 1. It was very, very small, 2. It had very, very high walls, and 3. I own a lot of kitchen-related items.

If you’ve ever lived with a small kitchen, or if you’ve ever seen my collection of baking supplies, you’ll know that it was critical that every inch of that kitchen be usable. Enter the built-in corner pantry: it spanned floor to ceiling, which meant there were three full shelves I couldn't reach - even with a step stool!

Now, I’m not saying that my too-tall pantry shelves are the sole reason for this wedding, but the stars aligned that evening when, unusable kitchen real estate on my mind, I opened Hinge to find the profile of a very handsome 6’4” James looking back at me.

What started as a deep appreciation for being able to store the extra bag of flour grew into the kind of love and friendship a gal could only dream of. On our first date, James won me over with his never ending love for learning more about the world. When he very kindly went out of his way to offer to take a photo for a group of tourists at Rideau Falls, I knew it was the first of many small acts of kindness I’d soon find my life peppered with.

It may come as a shock to some of you that I’ve always had ✨big emotions✨. I'll cry over anything and everything, good or bad, and often without warning. If you’re lucky enough to know James well, you’ll know he’s unwavering in the way he listens: always attentively, and always without judgment (unless, of course, it’s about travel plans—in which case, I bid you good luck trying to get anything to stick). In James, I found a type of kindness that I’d never known in a partner before. He gives me a space to be unapologetically myself - a space where I don't have to worry about being too emotional. Over the last five years, I’ve felt myself grow into a more confident, more assured (read: more opinionated) person - something I credit largely to his unrelenting, unconditional belief in me, and to always having a safe space to cry in.

I'm lucky to get to learn from James every day. Sometimes it's intentional: a quick lesson on AI, a fun fact about a bird call, the name for a new flower he's identified in the backyard. More often, I learn from him in all the moments in between: the way he shows up for his friends, the way he extends empathy to loved ones and strangers alike, the way he makes people feel heard, seen, and cared for. I’m grateful for every part of the life we’ve built together - from roping him into craft nights in that first apartment, to the time I took him to meet my entire family and then abandoned him alone with my dad for six hours (worked out great, they’re besties now), to our first apartment together, to adopting Poppy, to buying our first home; every day with James has been full of new challenges (have you ever tried sanding your ceiling with your partner after a really long day?), new adventures, and more love than I have the words to tell you about.

I'm so thankful for that ridiculous kitchen pantry. I’m so excited to marry James, and I’m so excited to have you, dear reader, there to celebrate with us. I hope you’re ready for a weekend full of more (happy) tears than you thought a single human was capable of - and James, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re ready for a lifetime of them. 🤍

One late evening in the early summer of 2021 while I was playing guitar, I was matched with a beautiful girl whose profile revealed a person that was up for any adventure and family oriented. And to my surprise, she was the one who asked me the first question about what my favourite song on guitar to play was. Finding it too hard to pick one song, I mentioned that I was in the process of learning ‘Of a Lifetime’ by Journey. I had no idea that I had just found my lifetime soulmate and the amazing journey we would start together.

Over the next few weeks we got to know each other through messaging and old fashioned phone calls as the pandemic was tearing apart social life. That couldn’t hold us back though, because we were finally able to go on our first date together. We met at her new apartment in Ottawa, so her friends could make sure I wasn’t an obvious murderer, and then we went for a lovely walk around the Rideau River to the Ottawa River before dinner at her place. We had so much fun together and her beautiful smile against the golden hour of sun will always live in my mind.

Although, it didn’t feel like a first date. It felt like we had known each other for a long time already and it was so easy to be myself with Anna. She was so caring and understanding when one of my classic migraines threw off part of the night, which would usually send me crashing, but with her I seemed to have a bit more strength. We then were inseparable and loved spending as much time together as possible, except for some previous travel obligations that we weren’t able to change. We would hop back and forth between her place in Lowertown and mine in Nepean, and once we got our car, Vanessa the Versa, the whole world, and Facebook marketplace, opened up with so many possibilities and projects.

I couldn’t ask for a better partner in crime as our skills complement each other so well and we empower each other to do more, whether it be changing a greasy wheel bearing together or getting into a new craft. As our relationship matures, I continue to see what a creative and intelligent person Anna is and fall in love with her more every day. She is the Crafting Queen in my eyes, creating some of the most exquisite things for heartwarming gifts or different events that she plans or is a part of. I am always impressed by her logistical skills when it comes to planning (and sometimes scared of getting in the way). But Anna’s gifts don’t just affect the people close to her. She applies her time to take real action on the things she believes and cares about and it inspires me. In the end, I have found my best friend and my ultimate partner in the world. I know there will always be blue skys and sunshine with Anna in my life. I am so excited for our future together wherever the wind takes us and the seeds we plant along the way.