Page 70 - S Winter 2025

In a Flash
Inside photographer Maya Fuhr’s bridal journey
from a chance meeting to wedded bliss.
By Carly Ostroff
F or 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
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SMAGAZINEOFFICIAL.COM BRIDAL
Photography by Milan DiLeo
Polaroids by Chris Levett
Hair and makeup by Dusty Lee
Dress by Sagradesa
Veil by Zoe Fuhr