Sarah and Amanda: A Love Story 11 Years in the Making

Sarah and Amanda first met on their university hockey team, where a friendship slowly grew into something much deeper over the 11 years that followed. At The Royal Hotel in Prince Edward County, a place already woven into their story, they brought their favourite people together for an intimate, modern celebration that felt entirely their own.

Photography Alecia Patrick

THEODORE Mag: How and when did you meet?
Sarah and Amanda: We met at university, on the Women's Varsity Hockey Team.

THEODORE Mag: Tell us a little about that first time you met…
Sarah: The story goes that I actually couldn't remember Amanda’s name when I first joined our university hockey team! I was a rookie navigating a new school, a new city, and a roster of over 25 new teammates, so my excuse is that I was just completely overwhelmed by all the new faces. Amanda was a year ahead of me, and once I finally got her name right—and realized everyone was constantly talking about how hilarious she was—we became inseparable.

THEODORE Mag: What was the first thing you noticed about each other?
Sarah: The first thing I noticed about Amanda was her infectious personality and hilarious sense of humour—she always had everyone in the room laughing. She has this effortless way of lighting up any space she walks into, and people naturally gravitate toward her, including me. She quickly became my favourite person who walks into any room.
Amanda: I immediately noticed how quiet, calm, and loving Sarah was. She has this steady, grounding energy that drew me in right away. Ever since the day we met, she has always made me feel at peace.

THEODORE Mag: Tell us about the standout moment or milestone in your relationship…
Sarah and Amanda: It was an 11-year journey of ups and downs, mostly because we were both in denial about the fact that we were falling in love! The real standout moment for us was realizing that we couldn't go even one day without talking to each other. That’s when we knew this was forever.

THEODORE Mag: What does marriage mean to you?
Sarah and Amanda: To us, marriage means choosing to love each other every single day, while encouraging one another to embrace life to the fullest and be exactly who we are. It is about filling our days with fun, comfort, and a shared sense of home. Marriage is loving each other through both the quiet moments and the chaos, the highs and the lows. Ultimately, it’s about giving each other the kind of love we felt as kids—that safe, fun-loving, and completely carefree feeling.

THEODORE Mag: Who proposed and how?
Sarah: I proposed to Amanda at The Royal Hotel in Prince Edward County—the exact same hotel we chose as our wedding venue 19 months later. We always spend a quiet weekend at this hotel every Fall, so I knew it was the perfect place to ask her. We had agreed that Amanda wouldn’t do a separate proposal back, but she had secretly picked out a ring for me. To make sure we could both wear our rings that night, I asked her to tell me where it was hiding in our condo so I could grab it when the time was right (I promise I didn't peek!)

Long story short, she finally revealed the 'secret location' of my ring exactly one week before my pre-planned proposal. At that point, I had already accepted that I just wasn’t going to have my ring in time for the big night—after 11 years of waiting, I simply couldn't wait any longer to ask her.

THEODORE Mag: When did you get married?
June 5, 2026.

THEODORE Mag: What was the main influence behind your wedding day?
Sarah and Amanda: The main influence behind our day was the desire for a modern, romantic, and intimate setting, centred around incredible Italian-inspired dining. A boutique hotel suited our style perfectly, and the opportunity to gather our favourite people in our favourite place was the ultimate dream.

THEODORE Mag: What was the most important thing to you surrounding your wedding?
Sarah and Amanda: Honestly, it was all about choosing details that felt 100% 'us' and filled us with love, comfort, and excitement. Our main goal was to create an atmosphere that felt intimate and personal. We ended up doing a full buyout of our venue, which meant all of our guests slept over. Honestly, adding a giant sleepover to your wedding weekend is just as fun as it sounds!

THEODORE Mag: Did you incorporate any family sentiments or traditions?
Sarah and Amanda: We definitely paved our own path with a non-traditional wedding, but we still wove in some deeply special family elements. To honour a tradition of readings in Sarah’s family, we put a modern twist on it: a close family friend shared a reading by a queer American author and activist. We also asked Sarah’s brother, Adam, to officiate. It was his first time officiating, and his nervous excitement and visible emotion made the ceremony feel so raw and beautiful. There were moments where his words made everything else fade away, and it felt like we were the only ones standing there. He crushed it!

THEODORE Mag: Where did you find the bulk of your inspiration?
Sarah and Amanda: Honestly, our biggest source of inspiration was attending 7 to 8 weddings a year for our close friends and family! Being guests so often made it easy to cherry-pick our absolute favourite elements. Right after getting engaged, we locked in our theme with a vision board and stuck to it. From there, we did some serious scrolling to find queer representation on social media, constantly swapping ideas we loved. Plus, we had an amazing support system—shoutout to Amanda’s mom and Sarah’s sister-in-law for constantly flooding our DMs with the best Instagram inspiration!

THEODORE Mag: How did you choose your suppliers?
Sarah and Amanda: Our vendor team was a mix of recommendations from our venue and our own extensive online research. For us, connection was key; we made sure to have video calls with everyone to ensure we clicked on a personal level. Having both grown up playing sports, we know how powerful it is when a team just 'clicks'—and building our own dream team for our wedding felt incredibly special.

We first connected with our photographers, Alecia and Patrick. As a husband-and-wife duo with experience capturing LGBTQ+ weddings, it was deeply important to us that they understood how to authentically represent queer love. When they visited Toronto from Germany, we invited them to dinner, instantly bonding over hockey, pizza-making, and life. We knew then we were in amazing hands. Alecia and Patrick also introduced us to other incredible Prince Edward County vendors they had worked with previously. To keep ourselves fully involved in every detail, we hired a day-of coordinator. While managing the planning ourselves brought some added pressure, looking back, we wouldn’t change a single thing.

THEODORE Mag: What was the most difficult thing about planning your wedding?
Sarah and Amanda: Planning a wedding is hard enough, but doing it during the busiest chapter of our lives was a whole new challenge. Between attending 7 to 8 weddings a year (most of them destination!), bringing home our new puppy, Guinness, moving houses, and Sarah recovering from major hip surgery—life was happening all at once! To manage the chaos, we set aside specific times to talk wedding plans, which turned into our favourite Sunday coffee dates. It kept us completely aligned because our ultimate goal never changed: we just wanted to throw the absolute best party for our guests and ourselves.

THEODORE Mag: Where did you spend your honeymoon?
Sarah and Amanda: Just 48 hours after our wedding, we boarded a plane for a three-and-a-half-week honeymoon! We started in France, spending our first three nights in the quiet, secluded town of Mougins to catch up on sleep and fully debrief our wedding weekend. From there, we explored Nice—where the coastal views paired with an Aperol Spritz or a Negroni were unmatched.

Next, we flew to our favourite country, Italy. We rented a car and travelled at our own pace, starting in the Tuscan countryside near Perugia before heading to Porto Ercole. This was the dreamiest part of our trip—a postcard-perfect seaside village where we did a full-day boat tour, which ended up being our absolute favourite memory. (Rumour has it we were vacationing just ten minutes away from Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, but no one believes us!). We wrapped up our trip in Rome, where Sarah’s brother and sister-in-law joined us. We joked that after three weeks, we had run out of things to talk about, so we were thrilled to have our favourite people 'crash' the end of our honeymoon. Sharing those final memories with family was the perfect end to an incredible trip.

THEODORE Mag: Any advice for other couples planning their day and finding it difficult to navigate the journey?
Sarah and Amanda: You’ve got this! There is no feeling quite like being surrounded by the people you absolutely adore, feeling completely loved and supported. It is hard to put into words, but trust us: every bit of effort will be worth it. When it comes to planning, treat your vendor selection like building a championship sports team—except the ultimate goal is creating the most perfect day of your lives.

Sarah and Amanda’s Team

Venue The Royal Hotel

Photography Alecia Patrick

Videography Shae & Evan

Florals Alexis Joy Florals

Wedding Coordinator The Wedding Lab Canada

Paper Goods All Sorts Press

Hair Michelle Reid Hair

Makeup Jenna

Amanda's Dress Pearl Bridal House

Sarah's Dress Becker's Bridal

DJ DJ Frankensztein from St. Royals

Engagement Rings Serli & Siroan Jewelry

Wedding Bands Cartier

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