Zahra & Don, Take Two

This is the story of a boy and girl who fell in love, got engaged, planned their wedding and then abruptly called it off, three weeks before the big day. 

Rather than their tale ending right there and then (as I believe, statistically, most do), I'm happy to report that they went away, worked on their relationship and made everything right. And 11 months later, we all picked up where we left off and had the most glorious day. Here's the recap; almost two-and-a-half years in the making...

The importance of having great chemistry between a couple goes without saying; but it's equally important to have it with your wedding planner too. It was true love between the three of us from our very first meeting and we quickly discovered that we shared the same zany sense of humour. So when we were discussing what to do with the invitations the second-time-round, Zahra lamented that "her first invitations were so perfect, she couldn't think of a thing she could improve," That's when I suggested that we do the exact same invitation, only with the old date crossed off and the new one 'written' in. We howled at the idea and then decided it was the perfect solution and, with the help of Christine Flynn from Love the Design, we did just that! Letter pressed and all!

So now, the big (new) day was upon us and everything was how it should be: an amazing couple was finally prepared to proclaim to their friends, family and themselves that they were ready for the next part of their adventure. We gathered at the Royal Conservatory of Music and started it off with one of the most memorable and meaningful wedding ceremonies I have ever witnessed.

When we originally toured the venue together, Don mentioned that he had spent 10 years of his youth taking piano lessons there -- that's when I stopped, looked at them and said, "You need to play her down the aisle." And that's just what he did. He went home, dusted off the old piano and started practicing again. For over two years, we didn't tell ANYONE of our plans -- Zahra says that, to this day, it was the hardest secret she's ever kept. 

It was so top secret that the day before the wedding, we held two rehearsals! The first was the real one with just Z&D, their officiant, the photographer and videographer in attendance. To any future brides out there reading this, trust me: you'll always get the best coverage when your photographer and videographer know what's coming. Anyway, I digress. The other reason for the real rehearsal was for me to get the timing right: Don chose to play Bruno Mars' "Just the Way you Are" for Zahra and he wanted her to arrive at the top of the aisle at the exact moment where the lyrics say "And when I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change..." I had to send Zahra on her way so that she could be AT the right place in the room, IN the right place in the song for Don to look up and see her face for the first time on their wedding day.  

Are you getting shivers yet?

So then we held the fake rehearsal, where we were joined by the wedding party and the families. I was surprised that only one person asked if the piano was going to stay in the room for the next day, to which I replied that "I wasn't able to get it out of the room (partially the truth), so we're just using it as a prop, since we're in the Royal Conservatory!" And he accepted this answer... 

So on the big day, the ceremony started, everyone came out as planned, to a cello and ukelele. The parents, the groomsmen, Don, the bridesmaids, the flower girls and then, only when they were all in place, did Don walk over to the piano, sit down, lift the lid and slowly start to play.  

We sent Zahra on her way and she surprised me by doing something she hadn't done the day before in our rehearsal: she kept her head down all the way to the top of the aisle until the exact moment in the song where Don was to look up -- only today, they BOTH looked up at that time and the reaction was crazy! Everyone started crying -- and I mean everyone -- grown men, elegant women, crusty grandmothers, all doing the full-on Ugly Cry. If it hadn't been so darned moving, I probably would have been laughing my head off at the room full of bawling guests!

When Zahra reached the piano, she stood behind Don and placed her hand on his shoulder while he finished the song. As it got closer to the end, she joined him on the bench and then he smiled at her, the signal for her to reach down play the last, single note. It was monumental.

So this brings me to my take away lesson from this wedding: as the spectacle and production values associated with weddings these days seem to be spiraling out of control, I think this is the perfect illustration of how the simplest and most honest experiences often resonate the loudest. Now, don't be fooled into thinking this was any kind of low-budget, DIY wedding, because it certainly wasn't... but even though the decor was stunning and the food was delicious, what part of this wedding do you think every single guest will remember forever? 

Yup. That processional... and the best part? 

It didn't cost a thing.

Alas, I'll stop now before you get even more emotionally invested in this tale, as this was a SpectacularSpectacular, after all, and there are still many more great things to share from Zahra and Don's wedding with you all... albeit not quite as sentimentally charged as what I just described above!

Design-wise, Lidia Tacconelli and I were thrilled when Zahra told us she loved yellow... it's such a happy, joyous colour and I think it's a shame that more people don't use it. Anyway, Lidia seemingly purchased every single yellow garden rose in the province to pull of this simple but effective design; the consistent and graphic repetition of black, white and hits of yellow worked beautifully in the stark, modern room at the Conservatory. Some of the roses were so big, people thought they were peonies!

Bobbette and Belle made the cake and incorporated our flowers into the design -- look at that sugar flower! I would have sworn Lidia had plucked it right off one of the tables...

Finally, I'll leave you with one of my absolute favourite design features: we arranged the chairs at the tables like the keys on a piano, as an homage to Don and his performance earlier in the day... I don't think one single guest noticed this small detail, but I can tell you that it delighted Zahra, Don and myself to no end! Partners in crime, from beginning to a sort-of-end, to back in cahoots and then, finally, to happily ever after. It was an honour to share every up and down (but mostly up) moment with you both...

What was it I was saying about chemistry? Just look at these two...

Special thanks to our friend Jackson -- you were there to document our entire journey together: from the engagement session, to the disappointment, the eventual perfect day, the trash-the-dress session, and now, little baby Story's portraits. Thank you!

Putting the Fun Back into FUNdraising

Back in November, we planned a cocktail reception for the Lung Cancer Canada annual gala at The Arcadian Loft. Our mandate was to design an evening that was as far-away-as-possible from the typical sit down dinner/rubber chicken affairs that too many gala-goers have to endure. We were also asked to come up with something novel to replace the omnipresent Silent Auction... And to that end, we incorporated a "game" into an otherwise elegant and on-point evening. 

I can't take credit for the idea: my mother used to do this at my birthday parties when I was but a young 'un. Everyone would sit in a circle and pass a present (wrapped in multiple layers of paper) around, while some random song played on my 45RPM record player. When the music stopped, the person holding it would unwrap a layer and so it would go until the final layer revealed the prize inside. We thought it might be fun to try this on a larger scale -- because, really, who doesn't love to open presents? -- all while raising funds for lung cancer research. I'll show you the pics from the game, but first, a little background:

The Lung Cancer Canada logo is a pair of green leaves, attached to look like a set of lungs. The symbolism of the leaf was a big part of our mandate that evening. This photo is of the pins that were given out to guests when they registered that evening.

Decor was kept simple, both for financial and esthetic reasons:  vases, filled with salal leaves and green votive candles everywhere.

A big, (wo)man-made tree stood in the centre of the room, representing The Grove, a memorial area in Sunnybrook Park where trees are planted in memory of people who have lost their battles with lung cancer. You can see some of the leaves that we 'sold' that evening to play our game dangling from the branches.

The next photo lists the prizes to be won and the costs associated to join the fun. This is something we stressed very heavily to the committee: we didn't need a lot of prizes, but we needed really, really great ones. There was nothing on that list that was worth less than $500; the Grand Prize was a diamond necklace worth $2200! Talk about a good return on a $20 leaf!

So here's the promised explanation of the gist of the game: there were 11 presents, all wrapped in different shades of green on the table. Guests needed to 'buy' leaves from volunteers wandering the room; and could, in turn, redeem each leaf to unwrap ONE layer of paper on the present of their choice. What people didn't know was how many layers of paper there were on any given box... some had as many as 47 (and yes, Gabi and I had the pleasure of wrapping each and everyone one of those!) and some had as few as 10. An important rule was that people couldn't touch the parcel before taking off a layer, because you could feel which ones had a lot of padding... And that would be cheating...

And so, once the speeches were done, our little corner of fun opened up and it was so exciting for Gabi and I to see the great response to our idea. Not to mention the gratification for the seemingly endless hours we spent wrapping... Here are a few of shots of the first people to partake:

Here's a picture of the very first winner, who won a $500 gift certificate to William Ashley! Look at the smiles on their faces -- one of the best parts of this game was how people reverted to their childlike selves:

Next I'm going to show you an uninterrupted series of pictures of a woman who THOUGHT she'd won, only to discover that we'd tricked her. Here's the reason: some of the wrapping was getting so thick (and you could visually tell there were a lot of layers on there), that we started putting boxes inside boxes, so that we could start with a clean slate, wrapping wise. Watch the progression of her experience:

What a fun part of the night it was -- people LOVED it and it created excitement all 'round. We sold out of leaves sooner than we ever could have imagined; the response was that enthusiastic. Gabi and I looked at each other at the end of the evening and said, "Could you imagine how much more we could've raised if we'd had more prizes and more people to help us wrap these damn boxes?!!" Alas... It's good to set goals and now we have something to work towards for NEXT year!

Very sincere thanks to our friend T.H. Jackson Huang from IKONICA for donating his time and talent to take photos for us. And to DJ Michael Coombs for spinning the tunes and giving the space a great atmosphere from the moment it kicked off. And to Gisele Sterling from Sterling Kjargaard for tying all those ribbons on the leaves, making our tree and for working so tirelessly, even with such a small budget. Go team!

Erin & Robert in WedLuxe Magazine

The latest issue of WedLuxe Magazine has just hit the newsstands and we are so thrilled to finally be able to share this spectacular wedding with the world. Guests were treated to three individually-designed areas in the family's backyard: the all-white ceremony space where we covered the pool in lucite, followed by the serene cocktail tent, all done in shades of soft grey and white. Finally, guests entered the pièce de résistance: the lavender and white dinner tent with the jaw-dropping 12 x 60 foot canopy of  trailing wisteria over the dance floor. I know we've done a great job when I wish I was a guest at a party!

Click here to read the online version -- there are even more delicious photographs here than what appeared in the print version. All the images you will see were expertly captured by our friend T.H. Jackson Huang at Ikonica.

A Winter's Tale

Another oldie but goodie... this is the beautiful winter wedding we did in Lake Louise, Alberta, almost 2 years ago. I wrote about the skating party we threw on the frozen lake in a previous blog post, but realized I never posted photos of the actual dining room...

The dinner reception was held in the storied Victoria Room at the Chateau Lake Louise, complete with its oddly charming 'Ode to the Swiss Alps' decor. Yes, those are pastoral scenes with milk maids and men in lederhosen hand-painted on the ceiling arches... It's a big room, with fabulous, big stone fireplaces at either end.

As event planners, we are hardly ever allowed to used 'open flame' -- i.e.: candles whose flames are not contained within a glass container/votive. I couldn't believe it when the Chateau Lake Louise said we could use tapered candles --  that became the starting point for the whole design. My bride had a vision of silver candelabras running down the long tables and I must say, it was so cool to be able to do that. I don't think the rental company had ever rented (or had to assemble) so many of them at a small wedding before. There were three different sized candelabras on each of the four long tables, and boy, it took a long time to light all those candles.

I had the actual candles shipped from Toronto and was so worried about breakage that I ordered about 6 dozen extra; I could think of nothing worse than being trapped in a potential snowstorm on the top of a mountain  with no way to get more candles if needed. It turned out my worries were for naught: not even one candle arrived broken. I was so impressed!

Heather Simms from The Nosegay in Calgary did a lovely job with the all-white flower vision: each glass vase held a single kind of white flower: tulips, ranunculus, amarylis, anemones, hydrangea, roses and, honestly, it was so long ago now, I can't remember what else!! But, as you can see, there were a lot of them... Heather and her team were real troopers -- they drove up to us in a ferocious storm with all the precious cargo on a drive that should've taken 2.5 hours and instead took 5. Ahhh... the joys of destination AND winter weddings...

I love this photo... it shows a close up of the table setting AND the million-dollar view in the background.

This is a close up of the menu that carried on our winter-wedding-themed stationery, created by Julie and Christian of Pantry Press. Everything we did represented 'tracks' pressed into fresh snow: The invites themselves had ski and dog tracks (taken from a real photo my bride and groom took after they skied down a run, accompanied by their black lab, Fernie). The weekend activites card showed footprints going to and from snow angels and the travel detail insert showed skate tracks in the ice. So very, very Canadian of us!

These photos are kind of fun... showing the room once all the guests sat down for dinner. "Sat down" was a relative term, as there was a whole lot of shakin' going on that night.

Finally a couple of shots of my wonderful couple. Baby, it might have been cold outside, but inside it was cozy and warm and everyone felt the love radiating from them, all weekend long.

Thank you to our friend Michael Greenberg for coming along on our Rocky Mountain Adventure and preserving the memories so beautifully. It was magic, pure and simple, and you captured every moment of it.

Arboriculture 101

Once Upon a Time, someone had the brilliant idea to incorporate the apple orchard we were putting a tent into, into the tent...  The trouble is, this build is so complicated (multiple, massive tents with different flooring elevations), that the tents started to go up 5 weeks before the actual event.

So the family's arborist swung by and offered up a dire warning: If we didn't leave some roof panels off so that they continued to be exposed to natural light, the trees wouldn't have any leaves left on them by the time the wedding day came around. Oh oh.

One of the things I love most about my job is that we learn something new (and usually VERY random) on every single project. This particular wedding is one of the biggest we'll do all year, with hundreds of people involved... but all anyone can talk and fret about is four apple trees!!

Herein lies the problem: the event is still a week away, but as of two days ago, the roof panels HAD to go back on; A/V work had to be completed, draping need to be done... not to mention carpet and flooring needs to go in -- none of that can happen if the roof panels are open.

So the lovely arborist, Patrick from Arborcon, started consulting experts from all across North America to see what the solution would be. No one wanted to hurt these poor, innocent apple trees who, through none of their own doing, suddenly found themselves plunked inside a dark tent. Especially since I had personally promised my client that "No trees will be harmed in the making of your wedding..."

The answer: UV-emitting lights that cast the RIGHT combination of light on the trees (who knew that that was such an important balance?) But of course it wasn't as easy as that sentence might imply -- the first lights we got didn't do the trick. They were very expensive and pulled a ton of power off the generator; not to mention they didn't radiate enough of the 'right' light. The arborist deemed them unacceptable. So we kept looking and found these ones. It's hard to tell the scale of this from these photos, but those lights are about 20 feet up in the air. 

You think brides are demanding? You should meet my apple trees! I can't wait to share the professional photos of the finished tent once the wedding happens. By the way and in case you're wondering, absolutely no one is concerned about the four oak trees at the corners of the sunken dance floor... Apparently oak trees 'push their leaves' at a very different time of year.

Again... who knew?

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!