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It’s Amore!
Christina Torrison and Neil Cumbria, August 15, 2008, Edmonton. By Roseanne Dela Rosa
About the Couple
Bride: Christina Torrison
Groom: Neil Cumbria
Occupations: Neil is a consultant and Christina is a speech-language pathologist.
Favourite date: The perfect day they spent in Venice, Italy. They travelled together to Croatia and Italy during the summer they first met. One of the highlights of the trip was the day trip they took to Venice. They wandered the cobblestone streets and bridges, saw St. Mark's Square, discovered a beautiful handmade Venetian mask (which they still have on display in their loft), ate the most delicious Italian pizza in a side-street restaurant away from the throngs of tourists, and topped it all off with a gondola ride down the Grand Canal. It doesn't get much better than that!
What attracted her to him: His beautiful, expressive eyes, his kind spirit and his fantastic sense of humour!
What attracted him to her: Her wonderful smile.
Engagement story: They spent a beautiful day in Banff shopping in the small shops and then having a nice long fondue lunch at the Grizzly House Restaurant. At the end of the day Christina was cold, so Neil suggested that they stop at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel for a hot chocolate. When they got there, they were amazed at the beauty of the hotel. As it was late November, it had already been decorated for Christmas and there were twinkling lights and decorated trees everywhere. They eventually got to the patio area where they went outside to look at the spectacular view of the snow-covered mountains. And there, on a deserted balcony under the evening stars, Neil asked Christina to be his wife.
Words they live by: Fortune favours the bold (Virgil).
The wedding day:
Wedding date: August 15, 2008.
Guests: 80
Wedding theme: Elegant, classy and fun.
Her best moment: “Seeing my handsome fiancé for the first time that day as I walked down the aisle with my parents, surrounded by the people we love most.”
His best moment: “Seeing Christina walk down the aisle. She was (and is) the most beautiful girl in the world.”
What would you have done differently: “Nothing at all.”
Advice you would give to other couples that are getting married: “Work hard and plan hard before the wedding and then just enjoy it all on the day.”
Wedding song: “‘When You Say Nothing at All’ by Ronan Keating—it perfectly describes the way we feel about each other.”
The day in three words: The perfect day.
Favourite wedding gift: “The love and support of our parents. They helped us with a significant financial portion of the big day.”
Most unexpected moment: “When one of our friends shocked and amazed our guests with his late-night, solo singing and dancing rendition of 'Mony Mony!’”
Best surprise of the day: “Trusting our photographers to find just the right locations for our formal photoshoot—we had so much fun!”
Honeymoon: Two weeks at the exclusive Qamea Resort on a remote island in Fiji.
Favourite wedding detail: “The lush, gorgeous flowers and the cake, which was custom-created exactly as we described down to the last detail! We also loved the amazing Chrysler 300 limousine that we rented for the day—it is the only one of its kind in the city, and we travelled in style.”
What made her day: “Standing in the hotel room in my wedding dress before we left for the church, surrounded by friends and family, and truly realizing that this was the day I had been waiting for, the day that I was marrying my love!”
What made his day: “When she said, ‘I do!’”
