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!