Before...

I always think it's fun to show how our events come to life -- and this was a biggie, perched high up on a very steep hillside above beautiful Lake Muskoka. The amazing Dennis Large and his crew from Advanced Tent built a level floor that was flush on one end and over 8-feet off the ground on the other... The first 3 photos were taken by our excited clients, who documented every step of the massive structure going up...

And now the fun begins... the decorative elements were unwrapped and put aside until we were ready for them. An elaborate metal grid was constructed (under the watchful supervision of Lidia Tacconelli of Fiori) from which the lanterns would be hung later. Guests only saw the pretty candles suspended from the ceiling -- no one would have known the work that went into ensuring that the structure could handle not only the weight of a) the metal grid, but also b) the thousands of pounds of lanterns and pillar candles suspended from it. Yes... it's true: wedding planners not only have to deal with hysterical brides and family politics, we have to understand engineering and physics too!!

While this shot isn't particularly pretty, you can see how all the chains were hung from the metal grid -- waiting to be adorned with dozens of pretty lanterns. It fell to the wonderful Alan Bisson (formerly of Visual FX) and his guys to cut holes in the draping to drop each of those chains through... hours and hours of painstaking work. And after that, the lanterns had to be hung. And after THAT, each of those lanterns had to be lit! I was pretty grateful that job didn't fall to me...

Finally, after months of planning and days of construction, the wedding day was finally here -- I awoke to the sounds of torrential rain and drove like a maniac at 6:30am to the site only to have my worst fears realized. The AV guys (working into the wee hours of the night before) hadn't closed up the sides of the tent. It may look like shadows under those tables, but, no -- that was rain. The carpet was completely soaked. The carpet, however, wasn't the worst part...

THIS was... this was the area that was due to be vinyled for the lounge and dance floor, just hours later. I'm sure you can imagine that adhering vinyl to a soaking wet floor is just about, well, impossible...

Luckily, our clients had some amazing property managers on hand who quickly ran to town and rented a ShopVac. It took one guy close to three hours to get all the moisture out from the floor and carpet. Happily, by the time the guests got to the tent that evening there wasn't a sign of the morning excitement, but it just goes to show: there's no such thing as a wedding without a little drama!

and... After

And here are some of the professional "After" shots in the tent...  No signs of the effort from the previous post that went into making our vision come to life! You can make out the white vinyl underneath the sofas at the front of the tent; it ran along the entire lake side --  the lounge and bar were on the right side and the band and dance floor were on the left.

 

 

Natural linen tablecloths adorned the tables and vases were wrapped in birch bark to bring the outdoors into the tent. The bride and her family were very clear that they did not want an explosion of flowers in the tent; the setting itself was extraordinary... the interior of the tent needed to complement it, not compete with it. It ended up being really lovely -- beautiful but slightly understated too.

I applauded David Williams from Storey Wilkins Photography for getting high up onto a ladder and right into the lanterns for this shot... Those are real (and heavy!) pillar candles in those metal frames. Each different lantern and it's candle were weighed in advance when Lidia and Co. were figuring out the weight load the structure would have to support. Working with 'old' pros like Lidia are key on complicated, out-of-town events: she even went so far as to have extra panes of glass cut for the lanterns, just in case anything should break in transport or while being hung. Love that.

As the sun started to go down, the lanterns really came to life and became the stars of the show (although the bride, having changed into her full-length, bronze Oscar de la Renta showstopper might disagree with me!) It was warm, romantic and very intimate. Having North 44 cater a mouthwatering 4-course meal complete with wine pairings only added to the overall guest experience too...

This is a fun shot, looking up into the tent (especially given the 'before' photos) -- taken from the fire pit, where guests assembled a few hours later to watch the firework show.

This shot is just a snippet of the spectacular firework display shown that magical evening, being set off from a barge floating down on the lake, hundreds of feet below. They could be seen from miles around -- even the lady at the liquor store in Bracebridge (when I was returning unopened alcohol the next day) asked me about them! The funny and (slightly stressful) part to this story was the timing of the fireworks -- designed to go off immediately following the father-daughter dance: alas, the speeches ran long (quelle surprise) and the barge kept drifting out of sight in the strong current. It was poor Gabi's job to keep on the cell phone with the barge driver to pull him back into view. Trees, islands, the wind and 'long-winded' speakers -- everything conspired against us that night. Thankfully, she got him into position, with literally seconds to spare...

Thank you to Storey and David for the photos. What a weekend -- what a celebration!