Hi! Samantha & Marcel here, ready to share our story that led us here to this moment - planning our wedding and preparing to celebrate our love with our favourite people.

Every story has a beginning. And ours began the traditional way of many Millennials - through swiping right on a dating app in 2017. After chatting for a few weeks, we decided to meet at Local for a drink. Things were going well, so we decided to extend the date and played some games at the Rec Room with some of Marcels friends (such as our wedding photographer, Jay). We quickly realized that even if our meeting was millennial-cliche, our feelings were already something special.

A month in, we took our first trip together to a concert (errr.. Rave) in Edmonton, and shortly after introduced one another to our families over the holidays. Sam remembers how welcoming, wild and fun that first Burca-Djuranic Christmas dinner was and how she felt at home with his boisterous family, and Marcel laughs over the fact that he met Sam's whole family in his swimsuit, in the hot tub of a closed swimming pool on Christmas Day.

Fast forward to a summer in BC celebrating friends' weddings and enjoying slow days at the Burca's cabin at Mabel Lake with friends and family, things just fell into place. Whether the days were bright and sunny, or dark and stormy, we knew we could count on one another to be there, lending love and support to help the other come through to the other side.

We also began spending all our free time together, so it became very clear living separately didn't make much sense. Come October 2018, despite vowing to never move out of inner city, Sam bought her first car (yes, at 27) and moved in with Marcel in the suburbs, making Marcels home and dog Millie her own.

It didn't take long for us to start thinking about next steps of our relationship. After a fun, week-long visit to Montreal where we dreamed about our future together while enjoying copious amounts of Rockaberry cheesecake, we agreed we wanted to start a family. Eleven months later, after a visit to Arizona to celebrate Sam's best friend Nikki's wedding (aka, our Wedding Officiant), we welcomed our first son, William Dennis to the world in 2020. Eighteen months later, we completed our family by welcoming Arthur Alexander in 2021.

While Marcel asked Sam's father Gord for her hand in marriage in October 2019 while at the Grand Canyon, it took him 4 years to *finally* propose to Sam. On a sunny, blue bird day in Kananaskis (a place Sam and Marcel visited many times together), Marcel presented Sam with a beautiful ring, asking her to marry him and become a Burca. Finally! Celebrations ensued, and the official planning for our wedding began.

Now, William and Arthur are so excited for their parents to be tying the knot this September at a park they love, and a restaurant they adore, with all the people who are important to them. The boys look forward to the 'wevvin' and cannot wait to celebrate with you, our cherished family and friends.

Memory Lane