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.

Bold and Beautiful at the RCM

It's always so gratifying to see months and months of planning and dreaming come to life... and even more exciting when it becomes immortalized in print! We were thrilled to see the wedding of Lauren and Jim at the Royal Conservatory of Music appear in the current issue of WedLuxe Magazine, featuring every bold and brave decision our colour-loving clients made. Seriously... how many brides do you think choose red chairs for their weddings?!! We were a match made in heaven. Scroll down to see some of these glorious details...

Event designer and florist Lidia Tacconelli went to town with this riot of colour. When Lauren presented us with her ombre concept, Lidia took it and ran... Check out the gradual changing of colour of the flowers moving down the shelves on the left of this photo. She did the same with the flowers going up the aisle in the church too.

I love the layering you can see in this photo: the vintage, moiré silk ribbon on top of a custom taffeta coral runner, which in turn, lay on a soft pink (yes, it's pink) lace runner. Notice the four different candle holders in the foreground too and then the custom lucite trough holding the flowers.

The place card table had gradating rings of carnations... I think Lidia said there were close to 900 of them, fitting together to have the place cards sitting atop. In the detail shot, you can see one of the illustrations that Jeff Jackson did for us. 

A hundred years ago, when I was a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Jeff was a GOD in the world of illustration... when Lauren told me he is married to her cousin, I knew we had to take full and shameful advantage of that relationship! He illustrated the anemones that we used in the invitations, menus, place cards, as well as the table numbers, the "Lauren + Jim' crest and the best piece of all: the map showing all the important places pertaining to this wedding and their lives... including the dog park where Jim had proposed months before. You can see more of Jeff's work here.

Finally, we finished off the night (and the ombre look) with the cake. You will see that Bobbette & Belle even gradated the colours of the filling between layers. It was a mouthwatering combination buttercream AND cream cheese icing. People went bananas... now I can't have them put anything else in to their cakes!!

The happy couple... A very special thanks must go to Lauren, her mom and sister for being so open, receptive and enthusiastic about everything we suggested. It was a true collaboration and I loved every moment of working together. And special, special thanks to Anthony Manieri from 5ive15ifteen Photo Company for preserving the memories so beautifully for as all with  the gorgeous photographs.

Pick up a copy of WedLuxe on newsstands now or click here to read the online version of Lauren and Jim's story.

Lindsay + Jamie: Before and After

We had such great response to our previous 'Before and After' post that I thought we should do it again, this time with the wedding of Lindsay and Jamie that was so beautifully captured by Anthony Manieri of 5ive15ifteen Photo Company and gorgeously featured in the Winter/Spring edition of WedLuxe magazine. I've started this post with an 'after' shot first (because it just looks better as the first image!), but from here on in, we'll go to 'before' pictures first...

 

Here's the view, looking in the same direction, taken the day before, just as they were starting to rig the ceiling with all the AV equipment. This is the order in which a tent wedding comes to life: 1. Floor, 2: Tent, 3. AV/electrical and chandeliers, if required, 4. Draping, 5. Carpet, 6. Furniture, 7. Floral/decor and finally, 8. People!

Now we move to the big day itself... You can see that the ceiling is draped, the carpet and tables are laid and Gisele and Co. are starting to load the floral in. Way off in the distance, you can see the chairs are already in place for the ceremony later that afternoon...

This shot shows how everything came together on the tables... our 'Garden Inside a Tent' concept come to life... I always say that once clients have planned a wedding, they'll never attend another one in quite the same way! After you've spent months and months on every little detail, down to which rose will sit in which way on which linen napkin, you notice things you never would before planning your own...

The Money Shot: Gabi kept the vinyl tent sides on to keep guests out until Anthony had finished taking photos. This picture shows the massive floral pieces hanging over the dance floor; they were covered with hydrangea, roses and phalaenopsis orchids and the actual structures mimicked the boxes on the tables that held the topiaries.

And finally, our charming couple, twirling around the dance floor for their First Dance... To read their wedding story as it appeared in the pages of WedLuxe Magazine, click here.

Just a Little Flower Arrangement...

Now that the latest WedLuxe magazine has finally hit the stands, we are thrilled to share some tid bits from Shelby and Graeme's gorgeous wedding at the Royal Ontario Museum last June.

I don't think the photo needs a whole lot of explanation, but I did have Sarah and Gabi go and stand next to the arrangement, just so we could demonstrate the full effect of it's massiveness! Now, before you go wondering if they're both vertically-challenged, the answer is a resounding no! They are each 5'8" and they're in slight heels... See what I mean?

This was the first thing guests saw when they arrived. For the evening program, we flipped things around a little; cocktail hour was first (here in the Rotunda with this arrangement towering over everyone's heads), followed by the ceremony and then straight into dinner and dancing.

To read more about this wedding, you can pick up an issue while it's hot off the press at newsstands now or click here to read the online version.

Prest-O, Change-O

At every event we help organize, we always try to make our designs do double-duty -- we can't help it; at the end of the day, we're practical girls! With this very purple wedding we did last year, we envisioned an escort card table that would turn into a late night dessert station as the evening progressed.

Lidia Tacconelli and I designed thick, lucite 'boxes' that spanned almost the entire width of a 30" table and then set to filling them with delicate, white dendrobium orchids. In the end, it took almost 6000 of them to achieve the look we had imagined.

Later in the evening, we colour-blocked the fruit to correspond with it's matching tart... and we asked the chefs at The Granite Club to scoop the fruit into bite-sized balls that could easily fit onto the skewers we provided on the side...

Guests loved that they could wander around easily with the skewers instead of cumbersome plates and the tarts were a big hit too. You can read more about this wedding in WedLuxe Magazine or by clicking here to see the online version.

Thank you to Storey Wilkins for always shooting our details so beautifully.

Canon Theatre Transformation

When the lovely, talented and funny Bruce Patterson of Cloud Nine Creative suggested doing a time lapse for a wedding we did together back in March, I got so excited. We do a lot of 'transforming' of spaces at SpectacularSpectacular and I have always wanted to film the process, because our clients tend to turn up when it's all ready to go and have no idea what has gone into making the magic happen. Plus (I have to admit) having a time lapse is a really cool memento for us too.

When Bruce sent me the finished product, it was even better than I ever could have imagined. Click below, make it full screen and enjoy! You can also read about this wedding in the new issue of WedLuxe Magazine, available on newsstands now.

Canon Theatre Timelapse V2 from Cloud Nine Creative on Vimeo.

Sarah & Rob in WedLuxe

We were so excited to receive the latest issue of WedLuxe Magazine last week and this edition did not disappoint! We were thrilled to see that the wedding that won us the title of "Wedding of the Year" was featured so beautifully. This was a truly spectacular event... it took place on the family farm, 2.5 hours outside of Toronto last summer. The setting was magnificent; Event Designer Bill Fulghum outdid himself and Jackson Huang of Ikonica managed to translate the beauty and feeling of the day into his photographs so perfectly. This was a big production, made all the more challenging because of the distance from the city -- nothing could be forgotten! Over 120 worker bees were onsite day-of to make sure everything went according to plan. Our favourite part? The main tent was filled with over 5000 peonies -- it was difficult to even describe the scent accurately. About as close to heaven on earth as I can imagine... You can read all about it in the magazine, click on the web version or see more photos on our website.
Thanks, Jackson, for letting me use your photos left, right and centre!