Love at First Site (Visit): Inside Toronto's Vegas-Style Elopement Chapel, Two of Hearts Chapel
Hannah Stein reflects on building a love letter to Toronto, creating a space where couples can celebrate with authenticity and pizzaz
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Most often, we think of weddings as celebrations of the devotion between two people. Yet, before we can devote ourselves to a partner, we first have to remain devoted to the life we want to build.
For Two of Hearts Chapel founder Hannah Stein, that meant refusing to accept a version of a wedding that was aesthetically basic and boring, not to mention egregiously overpriced. Overwhelmed and underwhelmed by lacklustre "big wedding" options, she imagined something more fun. A place where couples could celebrate on their own terms, leaving with treasured memories instead of years of debt.
So, she created a space where couples are invited to begin the next chapter of their lives surrounded by whimsy, leaving behind the pressure of a traditional wedding in favour of the simple luxury of enjoy the moment.
One year after opening its doors, we connected with Hannah to reflect on her journey into the wedding industry, the joy of building a business unlike anything else in Toronto, why the most meaningful ceremonies are often the least complicated and what witnessing dozens of love stories has taught her about devotion—to one another and to ourselves.
In the Dressing Room with The Devil Herself: Emma Vauxdevil on Creating Cobweb Cabaret
As gothic burlesque's most distinctive production captivates audiences, Emma Vauxdevil reflects on the conviction that transformed an improbable idea into a world of its own
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
If you'd asked someone to predict where a Texas cheerleader would end up, gothic burlesque provocateur probably wouldn't have topped the list.
Then again, Emma Vauxdevil has always known how to make an entrance.
Like any accomplished burlesque performer, Emma understood the power of the slow reveal. Years of relentless practice, careful refinement and unwavering devotion to her vision preceded the moment audiences met "The Devil Herself."
What began as dress-up in front of a childhood mirror eventually became Cobweb Cabaret, a gothic burlesque production built with uncompromising artistic direction. It stands as proof that some dreams aren't found; they're built so boldly that other people eventually discover they were searching for them all along.
Ahead, Emma reflects on the winding road from growing up in Texas to taking centre stage on the West Coast, reflecting on the perseverance that forged an improbable dream into the career she couldn't imagine living without.
Insatiable Cravings: 20 Films About Excess & Obsession
Love. Power. Wealth. Beauty. Status. Some appetites grow stronger once they're fed.
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Hunger comes in many forms. Sometimes it's for success, sometimes it's for status and sometimes it's for another person entirely. These films and series examine the consequences of gluttony, following characters whose relentless pursuit of "more" ultimately becomes their greatest downfall.
15 Foodie Films to Devour for Culinary Arts Month
Sink your teeth into these on-screen stories
By: The Lace Ledger
Food has always been one of film and television's most versatile supporting characters. It can bring strangers together, drive people apart, mark celebrations, conceal secrets or become an art form in its own right.
To celebrate Culinary Arts Month (July), we've rounded up 15 films and series where every plate, kitchen and restaurant adds something memorable to the story.
Southern Gothic: 38 Films & Series for Lovers of Beautiful Ruin
Religious fervour and oppressive summer heat shape some of the most compelling stories ever put to screen
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There is a particular kind of story that could only emerge from the American South. The air feels impossibly heavy while the landscape seems suspended between beauty and neglect. Family histories stretch across generations, gathering secrets, scandals and old grievances along the way. Even the grandest homes appear to be in conversation with their own decline.
Southern Gothic thrives in that uneasy space; it’s a genre preoccupied with the complicated relationship between people and place. The characters who inhabit these stories are often haunted long before anything supernatural enters the frame. Sometimes the ghost is a family legacy. Sometimes it is a community unwilling to change. Sometimes it is history itself.
From literary dramas and doomed romances to psychological thrillers, crime sagas and folk horror, Southern Gothic has produced some of the most atmospheric works in film and television. These selections explore the genre in all its forms, revealing why audiences remain drawn to stories where beauty and ruin are so often found living side by side.
The PRIDE Guide: 19 Queer-Owned Alternative Brands We Love
These independent labels create everything from jewellery to fashion, fetish and art
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
While we love the celebrations and parties, PRIDE Month has always been about more than rainbow branding and corporate campaigns. It remains rooted in visibility and the ongoing support of queer people building lives, art and businesses on their own terms.
This month, we’re spotlighting independent queer-owned brands shaping alternative culture through fashion, jewellery, fetishwear, literature, leatherwork, design and more to shop all year.
Backstage with Dr. Lindsay Byron: Pole Stories & Plot Twists
The award-winning stripper, scholar and pole community pillar discusses how connection became the foundation of her life's work
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
One of the great frustrations of being a woman is how often the world asks us to pick a lane. Be serious or be sexy. Nurturing or ambitious. Disciplined or spontaneous. Practical or romantic. Lindsay has spent much of her life proving that these categories don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
Over the course of sixteen years as a dancer, she became one of the most celebrated strippers in Atlanta, earning the title of Best Stripper in Atlanta in 2015 while simultaneously completing a doctorate in literature. Behind those accomplishments was a young woman navigating profound loss, family challenges and the social consequences of being labelled long before she had the opportunity to define herself. Rather than allowing those experiences to dictate the course of her life, she alchemized them into momentum.
Today, Lindsay is best known as the founder of Stripcraft and StripTrips, where she continues to champion pole culture and community through education, mentorship, sentuality and unforgettable experiences around the world. From academia to the strip club, from viral storytelling to building one of the most recognizable brands in the pole community, her journey is a testament to resilience. We caught up with Lindsay to discuss stripping, stigma, literature, entrepreneurship and why she believes some of life's most meaningful connections can begin in the most unexpected places.
On the Road with the Oddities & Curiosities Expo
From a small hall in Tulsa to a multi-country tour, Michelle Cozzaglio takes us inside her traveling artist-led market grounded in community
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
It didn’t start as a multi-country tour. It started in a Legion in Tulsa, with a handful of vendors and a nagging concern, internally wagering whether anyone else would show up for something this specific.
They did. And, they kept coming back.
Since then, the Oddities & Curiosities Expo has grown in size and in reach, expanding across cities, borders and communities that all recognize the same pull. What began as a focused market has evolved into something larger, without losing the distinct feel that made it work in the first place.
At its core, it offers connection for a subculture that seeks the strange. A place to meet the artists, spend time with the work and be surrounded by people who already understand what drew you there.
We sat down with co-founder Michelle Cozzaglio to discuss how it all came together, and what it takes to keep that energy intact as it continues to grow.
Baby Bats: 19 Kid-Friendly Gothic Films and Cartoons
Spooky Saturday morning cartoons, mischievous monsters and friendly ghosts for the next generation of storm clouds
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Saturday morning has always come with a certain kind of magic.
Cartoons flicker on before the house fully woke up. In some lucky houses, ghosts, witches and strange little families moved across the screen with enchanting whimsy, inviting viewers inside a strange world all their own.
For parents looking to expand children’s programming beyond the usual rotation, this watchlist offers something with slightly more depth. Stories where the unusual is not something to fear, but something to enjoy.
This haunted curation spans generations, including familiar classics alongside newer programming that approaches the strange with the same sense of curiosity.
17 Fierce Mothers of Film & Television
A Mother’s Day watchlist honouring the absolute weapons who protected their children with strategy, violence, wit and conviction
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
This Mother’s Day watchlist is built on a special kind of devotion. One forged through sweat, blood, fire and deep inner strength of matriarchs that would do anything … and we mean anything … for the ones they love.
Motherhood is often framed as soft. And, it can be. It can also be something far more strategic. These women raise dragons, run empires, survive the end of the world, or dismantle anyone who mistakes care for weakness.
What they share is precision. Love becomes a decision. Protection becomes a method; nothing is left to chance.
Feathers, Fringe & Film: 13 Films to Celebrate National Burlesque Day
Sure to make you shiver with antici... pation
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Somewhere between the first flicker of stage light and the final reveal, burlesque finds its rhythm.
A feather catches the air. A glove slips, slowly. A room full of people leans forward at the the edge of their seat.
This is the art of the tease. Not rushed. Every movement considered.
Film has always been drawn to this world for good reason. The costumes alone deserve their own billing.
This watchlist moves through that spectrum, from classic showgirls to nightclub camp to iconic performances that win the hearts of new generations with every passing year.
Consider this your invitation to sit front row, the show is about to begin.
11 Gothic Honeymoon Destinations for the Dark Romantic
From the lantern-lit streets of Edinburgh to the volcanic shores of Bora Bora, these destinations frame dark romance through architecture and atmosphere
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Picture this: day one of your honeymoon arrives and you wake aboard a cookie-cutter cruise ship pointed dutifully toward the Caribbean. An bountiful buffet appears each morning while sun-soaked afternoons unfold on a crowded pool deck, interrupted only by hurried excursions through bustling tourist corridors that sell identical souvenirs.
If that version of escape feels a little light on substance, you’ve arrived in the correct corner of the internet.
The dark romantic prefers cathedral bells to steel drums and cobblestone streets to poolside bingo, which is why the following destinations offer a very different kind of honeymoon.
Here are 11 gothic escapes where architecture and atmosphere transform travel into a trip rich in dark romance.
Morning After Dread: Understanding Hanxiety and What Helps
A clear guide to navigating post-drinking anxiety, body signals, science-backed coping tools and the products that can help
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Your pounding headache and rising nausea jolt you awake long before your alarm.
Your chest feels tight, a knot of dread coils in your gut and a single thought crawls in: did I say or do something embarrassing last night? Is it as bad as I think?
This experience — a signature blend of hangover and anxiety, now lovingly referred to as hanxiety — is familiar to many, especially after nights of heavy drinking, when physical and psychological distress overlap.
Hangxiety symptoms can include the obligatory nausea, shakiness, headaches, etc. paired with racing thoughts, shame, regret and fixation on what could have gone wrong the night before, often worsening as blood alcohol drops and brain chemistry rebalance begins.
It doesn’t help that, even on a good day, anxiety disorders are common with over 359M people worldwide affected and counting according to the World Health Organization. Adding stressors such as sleep loss and dehydration to a possibly already-anxious foundation can be challenging.
If you find the morning after harder than the night before, you are far from alone — here is what to do next.
Heretics and Headliners: The Women Who Rewired Rock
From the architects to the agitators shaping the genre now
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Right now feels different.
Not quieter, not softer, not diluted; but, volcanic and disruptive.
Women are not entering rock again. They are reclaiming it, backed by decades of women who screamed into rooms that were never built to hold them.
Women have been consistently ranked among the most influential rock musicians of all time, with Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith and Joan Jett shaping entire movements rather than moments.
Today, that lineage is no longer symbolic. It is audible in festival lineups, metal charts, touring rosters and a new generation of artists whose rage is articulate, intentional and unapologetically feminine.
This is not a revival. It is an expansion.
House of Steam: Inside Canada’s Most Haunting Winter Hydro Spas
The Canadian winter is a creature of contrast: frozen air that bites, trees stripped to bone, stillness that feels older than snow.
Step into steam rising against that cold, and the world realigns — warmth unfurls muscle tension and settles thought like a cathedral organ.
Outdoor hydrotherapy in the depth of winter feels mythical. Water that heats the skin becomes a balm, cold plunges elicit a sharp intake of breath and the virgin white surroundings focus every sensory moment.
This is not mere relaxation; it is a pilgrimage into sensation, a communion with heat and ice that feels sacred.
Hide Under the Covers: A Goth-Coded Psychological Thriller Watchlist
Fourteen films designed to unsettle the mind
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
National Cuddle Up Day (January 6) does not necessarily require sweetness. It asks for closeness, lowered lights and something unsettling enough to make you pull the blankets higher.
Psychological thrillers thrive in this space.
They trade jump scares for tension, spectacle for intimacy, comfort for proximity; these are films that crawl under the skin slowly.
The Mind, Reframed: A Watchlist Inside the Psyche on Screen
How 26 films portray mental health, harm and healing
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Film has long been fascinated with the complicated workings of our inner selves. The portrayal of mental health on screen ranges from being cast as mirror for our deepest fears to empathetically-driven epilogs or funhouse distortions, depending on who is telling the story.
Some narratives offer care and complexity, while others lean into spectacle at the expense of truth.
This watchlist examines how mental health is framed across genres, decades and tones, from compassion to controversy.
End the Year with Grace: A Conversation with a Modern Mystic, Molly Zancanaro
Reflections on revelation, Reiki and the rituals that bridge one year to the next
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
The year ends softly for those who know how to listen. The light thins, and time seems to breathe between hours.
We spoke with a modern mystic, Molly Zancanaro, about the quiet work of closing the year with grace and intention. Her practice blends spiritual intuition with energy work. Specializing in Reiki healing and tarot, she reminds others that ending the year doesn’t mean that we have to resolve the past to move forward; but simply release carrying what no longer belongs with us.
In this conversation, she shares her story of self discovery and finding her online community, and then invites us to peak behind the curtain of a session to gain a deeper understanding of the energy and intuitive work she does. She also shares a simple ritual we can each use to welcome the new year as 2025 comes to a close.
My Bloody Valentine: 12 Action-Soaked Love Stories for the Darkly Romantic
From True Romance to The Killer, these films prove that devotion and destruction often share the same heartbeat
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Love doesn’t always show up with a boombox and a song. Sometimes, it screams through smoke, gunfire, broken glass and certain destruction.
Violent Hearts is a collection for those who crave their romance with consequence—where obsession feels like fate, and tenderness hides behind a trigger finger.
These aren’t horror films, exactly. They’re stories where love is both weapon and wound.
Paper Cuts: The Sharpest Magazine Subscriptions for 2026
A canon of moody reading for an elegant year ahead
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There’s a distinct thrill in finding a fresh issue waiting on your doorstep, its glossy pages still cool from the morning air. You flip it open and feel that familiar pull—a monthly ritual that settles beside you like a well-dressed companion. Your drink your coffee. Or tea. Or something stronger. The world softens as you read, and the conversation expands until you feel like you’re sitting with an entire community all at once.
A magazine can do that. It can widen the doorway the moment you leave it open a crack. It can remind you that inspiration can arrive bound, printed and right on time.
Here are our curations, chosen for the gothic archetype that shapes your story.