Runway Bride

We had the best time planning this fashion-themed wedding shower for our 'Runway Bride' last year. The bride's mother, sister and Lidia Tacconelli and I schemed, planned and executed the most decadent party -- a fashion- themed brunch on a cold and grey Sunday last November at Malaparte.

Given that our bride loves all-things-fashion, we divided the guests up into 4 long tables, each with their very own designer look...

First up: Chanel with the classic 'tweed' runner (printed digitally, of course, by our friends over at Emerson Design), adorned with the pouffiest, whitest hydrangeas I've seen in a long time.

Next: Missoni. It's hard to tell from this angle, but Lidia arranged the carnations in the famous zig-zag pattern all down the troughs as well.

Dolce & Gabbana had their signature leopard print and red, red roses...

And finally, the Marc Jacobs table, in honour of our bride's favourite perfume: Daisy. To keep the look consistent, every table had the same core elements: black ghost chairs from Contemporary Furniture Rentals, black linens from Around the Table and black lucite troughs from FIORI.

When guests arrived, they were treated to passed 'breakfast' hors d'oeuvre: this photo shows the  yummy, mini-french toast on skewers, complete with real maple syrup in the bottom of the cups.

And look at these little lovelies: Mini lobster and quail-egg benedicts. The chefs at Malaparte got pretty creative with some wonderful breakfast finger foods. And everything tasted even better than it looked.

When the guests sat down, each place had a 'Vogue' magazine that doubled as a place card holder (the mailing label on the bottom right corner had each guest's name printed out) and opened up to reveal the menu that was to be served, all designed like a magazine layout.

Each course was created with the four designers in mind: Marc Jacobs? New York Pretzels & Lox... Dolce & Gabbana? Truffled Gnocchi... Chanel? Crèpes, bien sûr! And finally, our Missoni-themed dessert: Sweet melon and burrata.

We set up a lounge area, complete with Pucci pillows where we laid out the take away gifts: beautiful coffee table books and movies, all with fashion titles.

Finally, as with any wedding shower in a good, Italian family, many of the guests brought home-baked goodies. We had to keep making the table bigger and bigger as people arrived with more and more treats. It got to the point where I couldn't add any more tables to the space to accommodate all the desserts... Yes, people baked that much stuff for our guest of honour.

We did up boxes for the ladies to take bounty from the sweet table home with them, again with our copyright-infringement (eek!) take on the Bergdorf Goodman logo. I like to think of it as free advertising for that wonderful store... yeah, that's it...

Finally, a glimpse of the paper, tissue and ribbon we wrapped the flowers up with at the end of the party. The ladies literally left with armfuls of flowers, books and sweets!

Thank you, as always, to Anthony Manieri from 5ive15ifteen Photo Company and a special shout out to all the Oliver & Bonaccini staff at Malaparte. You all helped us create an experience that few will forget anytime soon...

PS: WedLuxe Magazine featured this shower on their blog last month. Click here for more pics and even more details!

The View From Here

Well you can tell when our busy season hits -- the blog posts come to a screeching halt. It's a good thing to be busy, but I always feel a tinge of guilt when I'm ignoring She Said Spectacular! To that end, I'm going to try a new series entitled, "The View from Here," filled with short glimpses and quick snippets of the parties we do in (almost) real time, snapped with entirely unprofessional, iPhone photos.

"The View from Here" is the perfect description for the first entry in the series... these were taken last weekend at Malaparte at the TIFF Bell Lightbox; otherwise known as the new, permanent home of the Toronto International Film Festival. Perched high above the street is the most stunning terrace where the guests feel like they are partying in the sky. These pictures were taken mid-afternoon, but once the sun began to set and the lights in the surrounding buildings started twinkling on, the effect was truly magical.

The occasion was an engagement party for 225 guests -- people gasped as they came up the stairs and saw the view. (As a professional aside, there are 64 steps leading up above... let's just say the poor Malaparte serving staff got a very good workout that night)...

Not to mention the poor installation guys from Contemporary Furniture Rentals; ALL this furniture was schelpped up those same 64 stairs and then back down again at 2:00am... I think it'll be quite a while before they forgive me for this one!

I love how the happy sunflowers pop against the grey skyline in the background. Once we get the professional photos from the photographer we will share them -- it was such a glorious evening up in the clouds; I can't wait to see the pictures myself.