Secondhand Books and Ice Cream Cones Were Served at This Wedding in a Portuguese Palace
Actor Jay Baruchel and model Rebecca Jo-Dunham’s romance is a modern one. “We met on a dating app called Raya,” Jay says. “Incidentally, Rebecca was the first and only person that I’ve ever gone on a date with via an app.”
“I liked his profile because he had Slowdive playing when I viewed his gallery,” Rebecca says. “We ended up walking down the aisle to them.”
Depending on who you ask, the timeline for the couple’s courtship varies. “We dated for probably six months or something in that vein before I proposed. Hard to remember because in my mind I was already married to her almost as soon as I met her. Which, in hindsight, could have been super creepy had this not panned out!” Jay says.
“[It was] three months! But I told him we needed to wait, or my dad would kill him,” Rebecca jokes. “Six months later he bought a ring and proposed to me in our living room.”
“I had concocted this rather harebrained scheme that had me proposing to her once I bent down to pick up dog poo but ultimately decided against that for reasons that are probably obvious,” Jay says. “Namely, it’s severely unromantic.”
The actual proposal wasn’t necessarily all-out romantic anyway, but had a very positive outcome nonetheless. Jay and Rebecca were actually in the middle of an argument when he pulled out the ring that had been in his dresser—he’d been waiting for the right time for weeks. “It was sort of a deus ex machina/trump card that won me the argument,” Jay says. “It worked but I also know that no future argument will ever end as easily as that one did.”
They had looked at rings together, but Rebecca had no idea as to when he was actually planning on popping the question. “It’s funny because after he proposed he asked if it was the right ring,” she says. “I realized it wasn’t—but I kept the one he proposed with because ultimately it was the one that had meaning for me.”
The aesthetic for the wedding was inspired by the tea party in Alice in Wonderland, and Rebecca ran with a modern fairy-tale vibe, planning the entire weekend in Portugal herself. “We wanted that laissez-faire feeling,” she says. “We wanted to make all of the details very intimately us and a reflection of our relationship. With the help of my friends and family, I designed and coordinated the wedding myself. I had an amazing team who really understood my vision, and I trusted them as artists and let them create freely.”
The venue was an easy choice for the couple. “Palácio do Freixo is beautiful and getting married in a hotel made the whole thing much easier to plan,” Rebecca says. They were legally wed in their kitchen on September 9, and then in Portugal on September 21—two years, to the day, after their first date. “We knew that getting married legally in Portugal would be difficult, and directly after our wedding we were heading to Montreal for Jay to film a new TV show,” Rebecca says. “It ended up being perfect—three of our close friends and our four pets watched [the initial ceremony], and I got to wear my Nana’s baby blue wedding gown that day.”
For her Portugal wedding dress, Rebecca searched endlessly. “I went to every bridal salon in Toronto and really could not find what I was looking for,” she says. “I wanted something fashion-forward and a little bit edgy while still making me feel like a bride.” She toyed with wearing a suit, but ultimately knew she’d only have one chance to wear a wedding dress, and that she should take it.
The last dress she tried on at an Inbal Dror trunk show made her mom and godmother cry. “We knew it was the one!” Her veil was borrowed from her mother’s twin sister, Karen. “The ceremony look was inspired by vintage European brides with a very Spanish-looking veil,” Rebecca explains. “We wanted to be comfortable, to feel like a slightly fancier version of ourselves.”
The ceremony was set to take place in the Italian garden on the property, but sudden rain meant they had to move inside last minute. Instead, they got married in the frame of French doors that were wide open, overlooking the garden. “Rebecca walked in to Slowdive and my heart stopped,” Jay says.
Coyote Flowers built a beautiful installation that crawled up the wall, with natural plumes and urns that overflowed with different species of white flowers and foraged flora. Jay’s sister, Taylor, served as the officiant. “We wrote our own vows, which was a little scary due to Jay being a professional writer,” Rebecca says. “But looking deep into Jay’s eyes was incredibly romantic and also the most peaceful thing I’ve experienced.” After they kissed, their friends and family showered them with rice and cheers.
