For Maya Fuhr, there was an immediate spark when she met Chris Levett. “I had just moved to Toronto from Montreal, and it was one of my first commercial photography jobs like 11 years ago,” she says of the unexpected meet-cute. They had both been hired by Topshop for its new store opening, she as the photographer and he as the videographer. “It was just magnetic energy when I walked towards him. It was like I had known him for a thousand years,” she recalls. They both walked away from the day with a similar feeling. “I left our interaction, went around the corner and I told a friend that I just fell in love,” she admits. And that was the beginning of the end.
Levett caught her by surprise when he proposed barefoot on the beach in California by her favourite hotel in front of the ocean. The ring has an heirloom diamond from Fuhr’s grandmother Stella in-between two rubies, set flush in white gold. “I’m a very spiritual person, and I’ve always loved the number three,” she says. “The fact that it has these three [jewels] in a row, symbolizes a lot of things for me. He just nailed it.”
When it came to wedding planning, Fuhr started with the venue. They wanted something idyllic and rooted in nature, so she chose Malibu, and discovered you can marry there at an AirBnB. “It was so serendipitous. The venue I found was perfect,” she says. When the host offered to tour them around, Fuhr felt that instant connection again. “The whole property is this beautiful sacred Chumash land. You can just feel the energy in the eucalyptus trees.”
As an artist herself, Fuhr forwent any Pinterest boards. She took a more tactile approach to the details. “I have a very visceral, texture and colour driven kind of approach to aesthetics,” she says. She often put pen to paper to draw out ideas, and knew she didn’t want any traditional whites. Instead, she used nature as her starting point to lead the way forward. Fuhr was drawn to flowers and fabrics in shades of peach, pink, mint, and ivory. “It was very romantic with some Renaissance elements mixed with a bit of 1980s,” she says of the artistic vibe.
“I wasn’t sure about what I was going to wear for a very long time,” says Fuhr. “Finding a dress was a lot more daunting than I ever imagined,” she admits. She opened up to a friend and shared a picture she drew of what she had in mind. It just so happened that the friend had recently discovered Maxime Chercover who designed something similar in a collection for her sustainable brand, Sagradesa. “There was a dress that she had created that was exactly like my drawing, but with stuffed animals and buttons pinned to it,” she says. “It was a crazy weird dress, but I was like, ‘My God. I finally feel like someone understands!’”
Fuhr reached out to Chercover, who happened to be in town. They met up at Fuhr’s studio and collaborated on a design using some 1940s satin fabric Fuhr had leftover from another wedding dress. “Maxime started draping it on her and drawing what she envisioned, and she took from designs she had already created and then incorporated the satin,” says Fuhr. The final look was a striking corseted top with a short, skirted bottom in the front that pooled perfectly into a longer, scalloped design from behind. She finished it off in the back with a bow, and Fuhr accessorized with a short, gauzy veil made by her sister and frill-trimmed socks with vintage Ferragamo kitten heels. Her best friend Dusty Lee did her makeup.
For the night’s various vendors, it was important to Fuhr to support small, local businesses. “I’m never someone who will choose a caterer or designer because they’re trending,” she says. “I like to be the reason someone gets a big break because I know what that’s like as a creative.” Levett chose Aloha Catering, one of the couple’s favourite spots to eat, for a Hawaiian spread of barbecued chicken, pulled pork, salads, and macaroni. Close friend and artist Camille Jordoin-Eng put together an amazing grazing table of charcuterie, cheeses, spreads, and fruits for guests to snack on throughout the night. Fuhr opted for Café Esmeralda Cakes & Bakery in Los Angeles to create a three-tier red velvet cake. “It wasn’t sweet like wedding cakes usually are,” she said. “It was sugary and stuck to the roof of your mouth, but the icing was so creamy and subtle.”
One of the most important parts of the evening was photography. Fuhr’s former assistant, Milan DiLeo, took photos given that he understood her preferred aesthetic, and has a strong vision himself. They also involved her guests in the process. “We had such a creative group of friends, so we put disposable film cameras on every single table and a Polaroid camera so that everyone could document it in their own perspective,” she explains. Each one through their own lens.
