She makes chili oil. He’s an architect. They threw a disco-themed pizza party

In our new Weddings series, Canadian couples tell us how they went from first dates to walking down the aisle.

Alex Nankivell, 33, grew up in Ottawa but moved to Sydney, Australia, in 2015 to get his master’s in architecture. After graduating, he stayed in the city, where he ran in the same social circles as Sydney-born human resources professional Nicola Scott, also 33. Despite attending the same house parties and music festivals, the two didn’t interact much for a few years.

“I thought she was probably a bit out of my league,” Nankivell said.

In the fall of 2019, they sat next to each other at a friend’s birthday dinner and hit it off. “I distinctly remember Alex dropping the cauliflower on the ground because he was so nervous to talk to me,” Scott said.

Nankivell had been planning to move to London, but as he and Scott got to know each other, he decided to stay in Sydney to see where their relationship might lead. The pair had a lot in common. They were both well-travelled and their childhoods shared a connection to Hong Kong: Nankivell was born there to a diplomat father and raised in Beijing. Meanwhile, Scott’s mother, originally from Britain, was born and raised in Hong Kong, an experience Scott says had a significant influence on her own upbringing.

“Alex is very curious about the world around him,” Scott said. “The thing that attracted me the most to him was the unique ability of using both sides of his brain. He’s quite a creative person, but he’s also very rational and analytical.”

Nankivell was equally enamoured. “Nicola really knows how to light up a room,” he said. “She’s very gregarious and so full of life.”

Weddings: After a stalled start, this couple found a lasting match

After dating Scott for six months, Nankivell returned to Canada in March, 2020, to renew his Australian work visa – just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With Nankivell unable to return, the couple dated long-distance. But they saw the pandemic as a fortuitous time to get to know each other.

The two would set up cooking dates while Scott prepared her breakfast and Nankivell made his dinner. They had Teleparties on Netflix so they could watch the same movie at the same time. It wasn’t unusual for the couple to spend up to six hours talking on the phone.

Australia’s border closings were stricter than Canada’s at the time, and Scott was considering a career change. The couple figured they’d try living together in Toronto, where Nankivell’s parents live. In March, 2021, Scott came to the city for a three-month visit.

“It was a very good test for being in a pressure-cooker environment,” she said. “It reinforced to me that Alex was the right person to be making such a big change to my life.” She moved to Toronto for good the following spring.

The pair rented an apartment in the city’s Little Italy neighbourhood, co-habiting with Scott’s cat, Hendrix, who she brought with her. On a trip to Ottawa a year and a half later, they began talking seriously about the future.

“We both wanted to get married,” Nankivell said. “We were talking about starting a family, what that would look like and what conditions we’d want to be in place to be able to do that.”

In the summer of 2024, Scott started her own business, a chili oil company called Rippah, inspired by her mother’s upbringing in Asia. Her days were consumed by producing the oil and promoting her business, but she hadn’t forgotten about her desire to get married. She let Nankivell know she hoped to be engaged by the end of the year.

“The running joke in our relationship was that Alex is a procrastinator, so he was going to wait until New Year’s Eve to do it,” Scott said.

Nankivell found a ring – a bezel-set diamond on a gold band – from British jeweller Le Mela, but a postal strike halted delivery. He was eager to buck Scott’s expectation of a New Year’s Eve proposal and pop the question on Christmas, so he bought a placeholder ring from Mejuri.

He wrote a poem about the couple’s relationship and drew accompanying illustrations, displaying them in a PowerPoint presentation on their TV. “I wasn’t surprised by the proposal, but I was surprised by when it happened and how it happened,” Scott said. “It was very personal and considerate.”

A wedding in the summer of 2025 felt too rushed for loved ones from Australia to make the trip, so the couple picked a date in August of this year. They envisioned an informal gathering of about 50 guests, with a short ceremony and a disco-themed pizza party and cocktail reception. “We wanted it to feel like a casual house party that was colourful and kitschy,” Scott explained.

For their venue, they chose a small event and production space in Toronto’s west end called Sixteen Eleven Studios, which they described as “a living room-slash-speakeasy-slash-bar that had disco vibes.”

The couple DIYed many elements of their wedding, sourcing second-hand knickknacks, serveware from local stores, including Value Village, Bazaar and Arts Market. They also brought in artwork from their own home, including the illustrations Nankivell used to propose. A decal illustration of the couple with Hendrix, also made by Nankivell, decorated the venue’s exterior.

All of this helped the couple keep costs low. They spent around $15,000 all-in, including photography by venue owner Kelsi Gayda and florals by Nina Caputo, who assembled a bouquet and sculptural arrangements of carnations, roses and anthuriums inspired by colours of the sunset.

Scott scored her dress, a vintage draped satin gown with a low back, from Space Vintage for $280. “It was so sexy and it felt very timeless, like a nod to the seventies,” she said. Nankivell wore a double-breasted Hugo Boss suit from Simons with a subtle plaid pattern and a flared collar, fitting with the retro theme.

The couple hosted a welcome dinner the day before the event at Nankivell’s parents’ house in High Park, with catering from Parallel Brothers, which serves Middle Eastern food. On the day-of, industry friends helped assemble the food, and other friends pitched in with decor and set-up. Nankivell was on co-ordination duty while Nicola got ready at their apartment. He then joined her to change into his suit.

“We ordered ourselves an Uber Black to get to the wedding,” he said. “It was the peak of luxury.”

They enjoyed a preceremony cocktail hour with guests before the ceremony, which was held in the venue’s back room. It was a short but emotional 15 minutes in which the couple exchanged personal vows about the joy they find in everyday moments and their shared quirky sense of humour.

By the time guests returned to the main lounge, pies from Mac’s Pizza – including one with “Just Married” written in ricotta – had arrived. Pizza was accompanied by a grazing table the couple put together using ingredients they’d purchased themselves, with the help of family and friends in the days and hours leading up to the wedding. Guests returned to the ceremony area for speeches before it was time for dancing back in the main space. The DJ played everything from cross-generational classics to late-nineties rave tunes.

The next day, they had scheduled a brunch at Trinity Bellwoods Park but the relocated the gathering to Nankivell’s parents’ house because of rain. The couple supplied sandwiches from Dad’s Breakfast and Kettleman’s Bagels. “A lot of the same characters showed up, so it was nice to catch up with everyone,” Nankivell said.

The following day, the newlyweds, along with four of Scott’s friends from Australia, travelled to Bracebridge, about a two-hour drive north of Toronto, for a mini-honeymoon at Nankivell’s family cottage.

“We were going kayaking, having drinks and nibbles on the dock and drinking Champagne while swimming,” Scott said. “It was a nice way to decompress and relax after the wedding.”

The pair feel like they’re still in the honeymoon period.

“I look at you and think, ‘I’m so in love with you,’” Scott said. “Nothing and everything changes because we live together and we’ve got our routines and rituals, but having that level of commitment, you just see each other in a different light.”

The rundown

Date: Aug. 1, 2026

Photography and planning: Kelsi Gayda

Venue: Sixteen Eleven Studios

Officiant: Roula Said

Florals: Nina Caputo

Food: Mac’s Pizza, Nicola Scott and Alex Nankivell

Cake: ByPatri Bakehouse

DJ: Dom Dias

Alex’s outfit: Hugo Boss from Simons

Nicola’s outfit: Space Vintage