John & Jesse
Invite You To Celebrate Our Wedding!
When:
Saturday
June 1st, 2024
RSVP
by April 15th
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Where:
Wedding details
Ceremony
4:00 PM
Reception
6:30 PM
until Midnight
Grace United Church
6215 104 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T6A 0X9
This is the church that John grew up in, located in the Fulton Place neighbourhood in Edmonton.
Muttart Conservatory
9626 96a St NW
Edmonton, AB T6C 4L8
The Muttart is Edmonton's iconic indoor botanical garden featuring four different glass pyramids full of plants. This is one of our favourite places, especially in the winter. The pyramids will all be open to explore during the reception.
Guests are invited to attend both the ceremony and reception.
You can indicate which portions you can attend in your RSVP.
There will be about an hour and a half between the ceremony and reception to allow time for photographs and travel. While we are unable to open the reception venue prior to 6:30 pm, we highly recommend folks use this time to take a walk in Edmonton's River Valley. There is also a public park right next to the Muttart to explore (where we will be taking photographs before the reception as well).
HOW TO
GET THERE
Ceremony: Address is above. Free street parking available. We recommend carpooling and leaving some time to park. ETS bus service is also available (bus 1A from Downtown to Capilano).
Reception: The Muttart is located in the River Valley, right next to a brand new LRT stop on the new Valley Line! So you can take the train easily from Downtown (5 minute ride). There are also several ETS bus options that serve the Muttart area. It is a ~7 min drive from Grace United Church. There is a dedicated parking lot for the Muttart and wedding guests are able to park for free all night. We still recommend carpooling!
We are pretty laid back people. Please wear anything that makes you comfortable from casual to semi-formal attire. The weather should be nice in June, but all events are indoors. The reception venue is a botanic garden so floral attire is encouraged, though not expected.
WHAT TO
WEAR
FOOD
DETAILS
We understand some guests have dietary restrictions or allergies so we wanted to let everyone know the menu in advance. Dinner will be served "family style" at each table and will consist of:
-
Appetizer charcuterie and baguettes with assorted meats, cheese, hummus, olives, gluten-free crackers
-
House Salad of fresh greens and veggies
-
Caesar Salad
-
Beef brisket with mushroom jus
-
Oven roasted chicken breast with pesto cream
-
Caramelized cauliflower, sumac, blistered cherry tomato with hummus and lime tahini
-
Roast potatoes
-
Seasonal roasted vegetables
And for desserts we are having cake (of course) where the top tier will be Vanilla Raspberry, the middle tier will be Black Forest (chocolate cherry) and the bottom tier will be Lavender Lemon Blueberry. There will also be assorted dessert squares, with coffee and tea.
You can let us know any dietary restrictions in your RSVP.
We will also be having an open bar, and plenty of non-alcoholic drinks.
We would love to have your kids join us! They are welcome at both the ceremony and reception. The reception venue has four botanical gardens in glass pyramids that are very fun for kids to explore (scavenger hunt!). We are also planning a "wedding piñata." Please include kids in your RSVP.
KID
FRIENDLY
Wedding Piñata will be something like this:
SCHEDULE
This is the schedule as we know it right now.
Check back closer to June to see any updates.
SATURDAY, June 1st 2024
Ceremony begins at
Grace United Church
4:00
PM
Reception begins at Muttart Conservatory
6:30 PM
Cake and
Wedding Pinata
First Dance
8:00 -
8:30 PM
Cleanup time!
Midnight -
1:00 AM
5:00 -
6:30 PM
Free time to travel to reception, explore the River Valley. We will be taking photos at this time.
7:00 PM
Dinner is served
8:30 PM
- Midnight
Time to explore pyramids, dancing, stay as late as you'd like
"Registry"
We recognize that many of you would be traveling to Edmonton to celebrate with us, and that is a very generous gift in itself!
Please do not feel any obligation to bring any gifts to this wedding, your presence is what we are looking forward to.
We have plenty of stuff already so we won't be doing a traditional registry. If you did feel very compelled to give a gift we would welcome contributions toward our honeymoon fund.
We are planning to visit the Netherlands and Switzerland!
We have set up a Honeyfund site for our honeymoon here:
https://www.honeyfund.com/site/maidens-dutton-kenny-06-01-2024
If desired, Canadians are also welcome to e-transfer honeymoon contributions to us at jduttonkenny@gmail.com (since Honeyfund is setup for USD).
Otherwise you are very welcome to contribute in any way
that makes you comfortable.
Visting edmonton
Travel
If you are planning to fly to Edmonton, the airport is about 30 - 40 minutes South of the city. There is no train from the airport but there is a bus as well as taxis. There are also several car rental options from the airport, or we are happy to do some pick ups and drop offs from the airport.
We live in the Garneau / Strathcona neighbourhood on the South side of Edmonton, near the University. You'll find lots of Air BnB options in this area, and there are lots of great restaurants and activities. The majority of hotels are located Downtown, near Edmonton's Civic Centre. For hotels we would recommend: Chateau Lacombe, The Sandman Signature, or the Westin. All of those are right Downtown and very close to the new Valley Line LRT that will take you right to the reception venue. We did not reserve any hotel blocks, but we are happy to weigh in if you need recommendations.
hotels, ETC.
things to do
If you have some extra time in Edmonton, which should be lovely in June, we recommend checking out the following:
-
Art Gallery of Alberta: Located downtown, this is where Jesse works and installs all of the artwork in the exhibitions.
-
High Level Bridge Streetcar: Catch it on either side of the river. The streetcar starts running in late May and operates Fri - Sun. It's one of the highest streetcar river crossings in the world. A true summer treat.
-
Stroll down Whyte Ave: Take in the shops, restaurants, farmer's market, historic buildings, buskers, etc.
-
Walk around the River Valley: Miles and miles of walking and biking trails. The wedding reception will be in the River Valley, so you'll at least have a chance to check out Edmonton's gem.
If you are interested in exploring more of Alberta / Western Canada, we also highly recommend Banff and Jasper National Parks or
the Badlands / Drumheller region (the Dinosaur capital of the World)!
our story
If you have made it all the way down to this section, past all the wedding info... you deserve a little story.
John grew up in the Canadian Prairies and Jesse grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it's pretty unlikely that they would have crossed paths had John not gone to UC Berkeley for graduate school in 2012 at the same time as Jesse was finishing her undergraduate education.
They have been together ever since.
In 2014 Jesse went away to Colorado for two years for graduate school, but they made it work with the distance. Since then they have lived in many different places. From Santa Fe, back to Berkeley, then up to Toronto, back to Oakland, over to Berkeley, and in 2023 they moved to John's hometown of Edmonton. Fiona the cat has been along for all those journeys over the past decade. They'd be lost without her.
.jpg)
On October 1st, 2023 John proposed in Kananaskis in the Canadian Rockies. That's the snowy proposal day below. John and Jesse are excited to be married
in June of 2024.
