Premium blend
How one couple dreamed up a ‘Jewmaican’ wedding
When Alex Edwards and Alan Naiman went on their first date in summer 2015, they hit it off right away. The pair met on the dating site OkCupid, where Alan was determined to make a good first impression. “She did say in her profile to make one of my messages a pun, to prove that I read the profile,” Naiman recalls. “And so I did.”
After a couple weeks chatting online, the two met for dinner, which led to many weekly dates throughout the summer. In the six years since, they’ve gotten a pup, explored Niagara Falls and Jamaica, and moved into a High Park apartment. “We’ve been virtually inseparable,” Edwards says. “He’s my best friend and the sweetest, kindest person I know, although he loves a dank meme and has a dry sense of humour. We can often be found wandering around the city with our troublesome terrier, Toby, admiring local gardens or going on food adventures.”
Their relationship has also yielded opportunities for learning, especially when it comes to each other’s backgrounds. Edwards found out about Naiman’s Ashkenazi roots. Naiman, for his part, had to understand what it means to be an ally and collaborator when it comes to conversations around anti-Blackness.
Naiman is a chef and Edwards a nurse, so when the pandemic hit they both saw drastic changes within their fields. While she witnessed the horrors of COVID-19 first-hand, he went through fluctuating periods of employment. Yet through it all, he remained optimistic and compassionate, especially because he recognized how difficult burnout was for front-line health-care workers.
Even when money was tight and Edwards was pursuing her post-graduate degree, Naiman was supportive, making tea for her late nights of writing, cooking their meals and packing her lunches. “I tried to devote my time to making our home a little better,” he says.
All these things, Edwards says, made her fall even more in love with him. So, after surviving multiple lockdowns together, the couple began toying with the idea of getting married. They settled on an eco-friendly pop-up wedding. “Regular weddings generate a lot of waste by throwing out a lot of the decor at the end of the night,” Edwards says, “but pop-up wedding companies often reuse much of their decor.”
Dizzy with joy, the couple booked a date and ordered outfits before realizing Naiman hadn’t formally proposed, and neither of their families knew what they were up to. Soon enough, though, Naiman told his parents and asked Edwards’ parents for permission to propose. In early May, he popped the question at home, while the two were having breakfast. “Of course, I said yes,” Edwards says, “because we had already booked a wedding.”
The couple got married on July 17, just a day after Ontario moved into Step 3 of its reopening plan. That meant they were able to accommodate 32 of their closest friends and family at Toronto’s Campbell House Museum, where they celebrated with an English garden theme.
With Naiman’s family being Jewish and Edwards’s Jamaican, they affectionately refer to the nuptials as “our big fat Jewmaican wedding.” So, to honour their heritages, there were a few traditions they wanted to include. “We had the wine glass that Alan broke,” Edwards says. “And we incorporated the Afro-Caribbean tradition of jumping the broom, which signifies leaving your old life behind and jumping into your new life.”
Edwards walked down the aisle in a custom champagne dress with embroidered daisies, while Naiman wore a green linen suit and his grandfather’s monogrammed cufflinks, because they share the same initials. He also baked the three-tier wedding cake, incorporating blood oranges and sorrel hibiscus flowers native to Jamaica.
For a wedding that was planned backwards, everything progressed beautifully. “It was really special because random people were walking by stop to watch us and cheer throughout our ceremony,” Alex says. “Even Toby was there, grinning in his silly but adorable dog suit. We couldn’t have had a better day.”