Intimate rooftop wedding at Santropol Roulant
This intimate rooftop wedding in Montreal was colourful, sweet and totally accessible!
Amy and Chris brought their crafty vibes to create a cheery ambiance and their friends and family added to the relaxed, down-home vibes of this small wedding.
A wheelchair-accessible wedding venue in Montreal
One of Chris and Amy’s first priorities when planning their wedding was finding a venue that was wheelchair accessible. They ended up finding the perfect venue to host their small wedding at Santropol Roulant.
Not your typical wedding venue, Santropol Roulant is a non-profit community organization that grows, prepares and delivers food to people with loss of autonomy. They do amazing education work, making healthy food more accessible and creating stronger social ties within the community.
Santropol Roulant has a loft and an adjoining terrace available for rent. It’s ideal for intimate weddings with about 30-50 guests. You can bring your own caterer, and there’s a commercial kitchen available too. Renting this event space also means supporting Santropol Roulant, since the proceeds go to keeping its services running.
And–the key part for Chris and Amy–this wedding venue is wheelchair accessible with elevator access to all floors including the rooftop garden.
Wedding decor popping with colour!
Amy and Chris have a quirky sense of personal style and they brought that into the plans for their small rooftop wedding.
They added fun colours everywhere with crafty yarn wall hangings (made by the bride herself!) and ribbon streamers and signage.
Sometimes weddings have a simple colour scheme, but this wedding took it to the MAX: blues and pinks and orange and purple and bright yellow! It made me so happy to see!
The wedding venue was already a cheery sight with its colourful murals and green gardens and a yellow staircase.
A floral archway and the bright bouquets by Atelier Carmel added more pops of colours throughout the scene.
First look in the rooftop garden
The wedding couple saw each other for the first time dressed up in their finery on the rooftop level overlooking the terrace where they would soon be married.
After this sweet first look, we took a few photos in the garden, under the hot sun, as bees buzzed around the nearby flowers.
And then we headed down to cool off in the shade beside the fans.
After some family portraits indoors, Amy and Chris and I headed down to the streets below for some wedding portraits.
Wedding portraits in the Plateau Mont-Royal
The wedding venue is located in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood, right next to Terrasses Roy. This pedestrianized street has plenty of painted planters and seating areas and brings a lot of colour and greenery to the neighbourhood.
It was the perfect spot for some casual wedding portraits as Amy and Chris had a cozy chat. We also explored the neighbourhood, finding a creative mural and a little green alleyway tucked away between buildings.
An intimate wedding ceremony
Back at the wedding venue, guests were beginning to arrive and greeting family members. They signed the wooden hearts that served as a guestbook.
Two musician friends of Amy’s played the music for the ceremony, which included acoustic covers of Such Great Heights and Moon Song. The ceremony was officiated by their friend Gurn.
Shared wedding vows
Instead of keeping their vows a secret from each other, Amy and Chris worked together to create their shared vows. They read them to each other, back and forth, trading mutual promises with each line.
It was one of the only times I’ve seen couples write their wedding vows together, and I found it so meaningful!
Creating them together must have been a perfect time to reflect together on the love they share and the commitment they were making to each other on their wedding day.
After exchanging rings, the wedding couple kissed and exited the ceremony area while their guests cheered and waved their ribbon streamers!
Rooftop wedding reception
Cocktail hour kicked off with food and drinks on the terrace and loft, with family-style buffet dining.
As everyone helped themselves to delicious fare, the bride and groom each took turns to share heartfelt thank you speeches.
Following up these speeches were toasts from the bride’s parents and her best woman, then the groom’s two sons, who also acted as witnesses for the official wedding signing.
First dance
Amy and Chris choreographed a first dance which included a medley of songs and dance styles! Then everyone joined them on the dance floor for a few songs.
Party on the rooftop terrace
It was hot enough that the dancing soon calmed down and everyone headed out to enjoy the cool night air on the rooftop terrace.
Amy hosted a trivia night for 8 years, so they included a fun nod to this passion with a couple-themed trivia game. During the evening, the wedding couple shared the results of trivia game. And one lucky guest won a prize!
Thanks for taking the time to check out the photos of this small but spectacular rooftop wedding.
For more photos featuring Amy and Chris, check out their at-home engagement session.
Are small weddings the future?
With the new reality of a post-pandemic world, it’s becoming more and more popular to have a small wedding.
Couples are paring down their weddings to just the essentials, reducing the number of guests and keeping their families safe by social distancing. All the while, they are still celebrating the most important thing: their love and commitment.
From backyards to national parks to restaurants, there are so many places you can host a small wedding.
For more inspiration, Intimate Weddings author Christina Friedrichsen has a great post about micro weddings.
Planning an intimate wedding
If you’re looking for a photographer, send me a message and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you’ve got.
References and more info:
- Offbeat Bride on disability-friendly weddings
- Intimate Weddings: Small Wedding Ideas
