Grand Cru, Too

Here are some decor shots from the same Grand Cru party, courtesy of photographer Kelly Fischstein. Event designer Bill Fulghum created a sexy, sophisticated environment worthy of the world-class food and wine that would be served to the 32 lucky guests.

Advanced Tent provided a sleek black tent, which Bill softened with shimmery taupe drape at both ends and specially-focused lighting. The 3 chandeliers from Contemporary Furniture Rentals were especially significant -- the wooden arms are held together with metal ribs, re-purposed from antique wine barrels.

Lastly, a better view of the lovely flowers in seasonal colours, provided by Emblem. Roses, peonies, dahlias and cymbiduim orchids all worked together to provide the pop needed in an all-black tent.

My favourite comment of the night came from our host, who exclaimed (about 10 times): "I can't believe this used to be my backyard!" Talk about a transformation...

The Veuve From Here

Take a look at what I stumbled upon on my annual trip to Art Basel Miami last week: a Clicq' Up Lounge! At first we thought it was a mirage, after a full day of wandering through art exhibits and installations... but no. It was real. There, in a parking lot in Miami's sensational Design District stood a makeshift Veuve Clicquot lounge. Can you imagine our squeals of delight?

Yes, that's a refurbished Airstream trailer, serving crisp, cold and thirst-quenching glasses of The Veuve. Needless to say, it only took one glass of the magic elixer to re-energize and send us back on our merry way. And people wonder why I love Miami??? Champagne Parking Lots!

The View From Here

How much fun is this? Event Designer (and all around Man of Style) Bill Fulghum saved all his Vanity Fair magazine covers for years until he had enough of them to wallpaper an entire wall in his powder room...

A slightly better perspective on how many covers there are (I couldn't physically get further away to show the full view -- a result of my limited lens on the trusty iPhone and the fact that it is, ahem, a tight powder room). The wall is a good 8 feet high and 10 feet wide!

And finally, a close up of his BF, Anderson Cooper. Oh wait... Anderson hasn't come out yet? Anyhoodles, it can't be a coincidence that Anderson's cover is completely front and centre... BTW, Angelina Jolie seems to be winning the Cover Count: she has 4 on his wall, with Madonna in hot pursuit with 3!

Pretty in Pink: Part 1

Our client who was throwing a Bat Mitzvah for her daughter at The Royal Conservatory of Music had a vision for a really cool, really pink Sweet Table... but the first quote we got to execute her vision was $17,600...

Have I given you long enough to digest that? Probably not.

Alas, the lovely Laura Long from Daniel et Daniel hooked us up with the supercrazytalented Lisa Phillips from 'Hi Sweetheart' and we set upon creating our very own epic table. And epic it was... so epic, in fact, that this has turned into my first ever 3-part blog post.

Lisa created these adorable Mini Cupcakes with our guest-of-honour's initials in delectable little shortbread cookies.

Laura and her chefs learned how to twist Cotton Candy onto teeny sticks; and I think they learned that trying to make them 'mini' made for a mountain of work... You should've seen them all in the kitchen, with the candy spinners -- it's clearly not as easy as you might think.

Another creation from the genius mind of Lisa Phillips: Mini S'mores Cups!

This photo shows the Pièce-de-Résistance: The 6-layer, Pink Rice Krispies Squares-Cake! Lisa had made a small version for the mock up and the client and I both went bananas when we saw it... we squealed, "Make it bigger! No, BIGGER! It needs to be the centerpiece of the entire table!" We had servers on hand, plating it, just as you would a real cake.
Thank you to Jackson for the downright delectable photos.

Pretty in Pink: Part 2

Here's a photo of the whole table -- it was so long it was almost impossible to get the whole thing in a single frame! You can get a sense of the length of it if I tell you the Pink Rice Krispies Square-Cake (which you can see at the top of the shot) was only half-way down...

A close up of the hand-made marshmallow kisses. They were ooey, gooey, soft and chewy (and had the most delicious, peppermint-y taste). The kids went nuts for these.



Pink Kettle Corn in gorgeous white lacquer trays that Exclusive Affair Rentals bought just for the occasion...

Little Mini Donuts were made in the Daniel et Daniel kitchen and tasted even better than they looked...

I can still barely look at this photo! It was taken literally 30 seconds after the Sweet Table opened. All those hours of work and planning were destroyed in a nanosecond after the kids descended on it. Instant chaos + destruction = heartbreak! The worst part? I don't even think the kids noticed how freaking awesome it was -- they were too busy grabbing as much as they could!!! Le sigh...

Pretty in Pink: Behind-the Scenes

Being a planner means I can't leave anything to chance... and to that end, the night before the event, Lisa Phillips and I carted all the loot to the RCM to do a dry run. Here are some of those photos:

We started playing with what should go where on the ugly, linen-less tables. Dubble Bubble, Pop Rocks and White & Pink Gumballs are at the forefront of this one.

We couldn't figure out how to use the tall Pixy Stix; they just weren't working anywhere on the table, till I came up with the solution: using them as dividers between the platters!

What a charming Candy Striper! This is Kristin Campbell, Facilities Rental Manager at the RCM, wheeling all the candy to her office to lock away until it was needed for the event the next day.

Lastly, here is the 'map' of the Sweet Table that I went home and drew out for the next day, just in case I was called away and couldn't supervise the set up...

Steam(whistle)ing from a Hot Oven

Written by Gabi Slaninova

We recently did a wedding at Steam Whistle Brewery. A new venue for us, it inspired us to think outside the box a little. Throughout the planning process, our focus was to create an organic and natural feeling in the space using real linen, ferns, large white dahlia, herbs, moss and anything that reminded us of a beautiful walk in the forested country side of British Columbia where our bride grew up.

I have always been a big believer in the fact that food at a party should be part and parcel of the overall feeling you're trying to evoke. Deirdre Anderson of L'Eat Catering came up with the most amazing idea to complement the vision for this wedding. I have never seen this done before and I almost died when I first tasted her idea come to life at the menu tasting: mini home made pies. Lattice-topped, perfectly sweet and totally scrumptious! Really, it’s so obvious when you think about it. What feels more like ‘home’ than a fresh, homemade pie? A cart carrying warm blueberry, peach and apple pies emerged from the kitchen shortly after the dancing began and a smell reminiscent of grandma’s house wafted behind it. It soon drew a crowd and it was all we could do to photograph it in time before the pies began disappearing.

Presentation is everything in our business. L-Eat literally set out to transform the pie cart into a work of art! Deirdre used the charming antique cart (belonging to Steam Whistle), brought matching wood to create levels, put the signs for the pies under covered glass cake plates, added amber candlelight and even brought bushels of freshly picked apples to complete the look!

Miss Missoni

Talk about a timely party! When we came up with a "Missoni Theme" for a birthday luncheon my client was throwing, it was long before we heard that the famous Italian fashion house had teamed up with Target to do a line of housewares and fashion! But. We are nothing if not festive girls (client included) and five days before the party, my client asked her daughter-in-law to head to Buffalo to pick up some things for our shin-dig... and you might say she got a little carried away! And thank goodness for that, because it TOTALLY added to the overall experience for the guests...

We did custom (digitally printed) place mats for each of the invitées, all based on famous Missoni fabrics. We had fun mixing it up with 5 different patterns and then contrasting menus. The daughter-in-law also picked up platters, mugs, tiered cake trays and even cosmetic bags & scarves, which we used for favours.

We went all out with the Italian fashionista theme, serving prosecco in colourful champagne flutes from Chair-man Mills while shmaltzy Italian music played in the background. Think 'O Solo Mio,' 'Volare,' 'That's Amore' and the like...

The dessert was probably my favourite thing that day: Tina Nyguen over at Noble Culinary made me a Missoni Bombe to serve to all the ladies (who don't eat much to begin with)... Veritable Missoni stripes of Mango, Blueberry, Blackcurrant, Lemon and Strawberry sorbet! Each layer had to be made and then left to sit and freeze in the mold before the next layer could be added. Bellissima!

Finally a shot of the whole table, complete with the customized place mats and flower arrangements in the mugs from Target! There were three different patterns on the mugs, so Lidia Tacconelli of FIORI did three colour versions to complement them. The original plan was to give the mugs away but then my client decided she liked them so much that she couldn't bear to part with them!