About the couple

Bride: Brooke Ballantyne

Groom: Tyler Akeson

How they met: “We first met in the mid-1990s. Tyler was playing on a hockey team with my older brother,” explains Brooke. “I grew up in Brockville, Ontario and Tyler grew up in Nepean, Ontario, so years passed before we met again. I moved to Ottawa in 2003 to attend nursing at Ottawa University. Tyler and I ran into each other on a night out in early 2008. I first recognized Tyler as one of my brother’s teammates from years ago and decided to approach him and say hello. Having been about 15 years since I last saw Tyler, I couldn’t quite remember if his name was Tyler or if it were ‘Dewey’ — a nickname of another teammate. I decided to go with the latter and approached him with confidence and proclaimed ‘Dewey!’. The silence and confused look on his face quickly told me that I had chosen the wrong name and I explained who I was and that I knew it must be Tyler, and the conversation took off from there with a laugh.”

Engagement story: “After two and half years as a couple and the building of our first home almost complete and ready for move-in, engagement felt like it was right around the corner in our plans. Tyler and I had talked of marriage a number of times, and knew that we would be spending our lives together when we decided to make the move to buy our home. So when it was less than a month away from move, I was left with no idea as to when the moment would come. Then, on a random Tuesday evening in August of 2010 Tyler took off for a ‘hockey meeting’ (or so he said.) We had been staying at Tyler’s Dad’s house awaiting the completion of our home which was only a two minute drive away. So, after Tyler had been gone a while, he phoned to let me know his meeting was over and he was on his way home and asked me to meet him at our new house to take a look around. This didn’t surprise me as we had done it a number of times throughout the building process to see how things had come along. So off I went in my t-shirt and jeans to meet him. I walked into the house, and Tyler called me upstairs to the master bedroom. Upon entering the room, I was overwhelmed with emotion taking in everything all at once. Tyler was in the doorway on one knee with a row of tea lights and rose pedals leading to a table and chairs set up with cheese, crackers, my favourite red wine, and a dozen red roses. The bathroom sink had a bottle of champagne on ice, and on the floor behind Tyler was a heart made of rose pedals with a single rose in the middle. As I tried to contain myself Tyler asked me if I would spend the rest of my life with him and revealed the beautiful diamond engagement ring he had made for me,” says Brooke.