Spring Has Sprung!

Ahhh... the Prima Vera of Spring! There's nothing quite like it, is there? A season of renewal, hope and happy thoughts of warmer days ahead. We did a rehearsal dinner this past week at Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner Museum that felt so fresh and spring-y, I just had to post about it; even if all I have at this point are my less-than-perfect iPhone photos.

I've always wanted to do a party with ferns -- yes, all and only ferns -- and was so happy when our client enthusiastically agreed. Lidia Tacconelli of FIORI did up long, woven metal baskets, filled with 3 different kinds of ferns and interspersed a few mushrooms within to surprise guests as they sat and ate their yummy meal. The result was unexpected, fun and whimiscal... just like the bride herself.

This is a closeup of the cheery wallpaper Lidia sourced to run up and down the tables. It added a real pop to the overall effect, plus it introduced several shades of green for us to incorporate throughout the design.

This photo is fun because you can see virtually every shade of green that we played with: the front and back of the place cards, the menus tucked into the napkins, the wallpaper, the planters of ferns, the votives and, finally, the linens underneath. We always design parties so that the different layers of the experience get revealed to guests at different points of the evening. And we always add many interesting things to look at in case the person seated next to you turns out to be a dud!

Chef Kennedy even incorporated my fern theme into the menu by putting fiddleheads into the salad course!  A small detail that probably few noticed, but thrilled me to no end. I love to have little touches like that interspersed through our parties.

The overall effect was so happy and joyous; everything a party in springtime should represent. Plus it was the perfect kickoff to a busy weekend of All-Things-Wedding... if this was the rehearsal dinner, can you imagine how great the wedding itself was?

Natasha and Graeme Get Married

We were thrilled to see the wedding of Natasha and Graeme appear in the  Real Weddings Special Edition  of Weddingbells magazine. The editors captured the fashion focus of this particular wedding beautifully -- the only thing not really shown here is how super-stylin' the guests were too... this was one Seriously Glamorous Group. Every time I thought I'd seen the best dress, another even better one would saunter past. I felt downright frumpy!

I'll post more photos when I get them from the Ever-Fabulous Storey Wilkins, but in the meantime, check out the single table for 150: it spanned two rooms and ran through a doorway. We placed Natasha's parents at one end and Graeme's parents at the other! Our bride and groom sat in the very middle, at the threshold between the two rooms... It was sensational.

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!

and... After

And here are some of the professional "After" shots in the tent...  No signs of the effort from the previous post that went into making our vision come to life! You can make out the white vinyl underneath the sofas at the front of the tent; it ran along the entire lake side --  the lounge and bar were on the right side and the band and dance floor were on the left.

 

 

Natural linen tablecloths adorned the tables and vases were wrapped in birch bark to bring the outdoors into the tent. The bride and her family were very clear that they did not want an explosion of flowers in the tent; the setting itself was extraordinary... the interior of the tent needed to complement it, not compete with it. It ended up being really lovely -- beautiful but slightly understated too.

I applauded David Williams from Storey Wilkins Photography for getting high up onto a ladder and right into the lanterns for this shot... Those are real (and heavy!) pillar candles in those metal frames. Each different lantern and it's candle were weighed in advance when Lidia and Co. were figuring out the weight load the structure would have to support. Working with 'old' pros like Lidia are key on complicated, out-of-town events: she even went so far as to have extra panes of glass cut for the lanterns, just in case anything should break in transport or while being hung. Love that.

As the sun started to go down, the lanterns really came to life and became the stars of the show (although the bride, having changed into her full-length, bronze Oscar de la Renta showstopper might disagree with me!) It was warm, romantic and very intimate. Having North 44 cater a mouthwatering 4-course meal complete with wine pairings only added to the overall guest experience too...

This is a fun shot, looking up into the tent (especially given the 'before' photos) -- taken from the fire pit, where guests assembled a few hours later to watch the firework show.

This shot is just a snippet of the spectacular firework display shown that magical evening, being set off from a barge floating down on the lake, hundreds of feet below. They could be seen from miles around -- even the lady at the liquor store in Bracebridge (when I was returning unopened alcohol the next day) asked me about them! The funny and (slightly stressful) part to this story was the timing of the fireworks -- designed to go off immediately following the father-daughter dance: alas, the speeches ran long (quelle surprise) and the barge kept drifting out of sight in the strong current. It was poor Gabi's job to keep on the cell phone with the barge driver to pull him back into view. Trees, islands, the wind and 'long-winded' speakers -- everything conspired against us that night. Thankfully, she got him into position, with literally seconds to spare...

Thank you to Storey and David for the photos. What a weekend -- what a celebration!

Winter Wonderland, Part 1

Well, winter has finally come to Southern Ontario, so I thought it only fitting to have the last post of 2011 be a look back at a gorgeous 3-day winter wedding weekend we planned last April at the Chateau Lake Louise in the middle of Banff National Park. However, this post isn't about the wedding itself at all, but about the skating party we threw on the Friday afternoon -- a quintessentially Canadian event, if ever there was one...

Every guest received a Wedding Scarf that we asked them to wear throughout the weekend. We thought this was a good idea to a) keep people warm and b) to help them identify themselves to one another in a very large hotel... And it worked! Strangers met strangers and new friendships were formed, just because of the reversible houndstooth/plaid scarves! I was thrilled to see everyone turn up to skate on the frozen lake, proudly sporting their new wedding attire...

When planning for this skating party, one of the things I really struggled with was what kind of music to play, mostly because of the magnitude and majesty of the setting. Whatever we played had to have some kind of presence and drama. So I decided that it could only be opera... however, not snobby, elitist opera, but easily recognizable arias. Not being any kind of expert, I snooped around on iTunes and found "The 66 Most Beautiful Opera Arias." It couldn't have been easier -- the selection was perfection. Yes, with the click of one button, iTunes made me look like a GENIUS (not to mention a true aficionado).

We set up 4 massive speakers, turned them towards the lake and pressed 'play' on the trusty iPod...

Holy Crap.

I tell you, I have seen a lot of cool things over the course of my career, but listening to that big, bold, beautiful music booming out of those speakers while watching the little specks (relative to the size of the mountains, of course) glide around on the ice was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. And so simple, really. Dramatic Music + Stunning Setting = Overwhelmingly Profound Experience.

I love this photo, taken by the man who so expertly captured the mood out there, Michael Greenberg of Phototerra Studio. This guest, wearing a vintage Toronto Maple Leafs sweater (and wedding scarf, of course!), lost in the music and the moment...

We served lots of yummy things out there, including hot cocoa, coffee and tea. We stuck custom labels on the cups with the tag line "To Warm Your Tummy." (FYI, in case you're wondering, the sticker on the bag with the scarves for each guest read: "To Keep You Warm and Cosy.")

We had our own little wedding crasher! He was everywhere! Michael even managed to catch him mid-flight, overseeing the guests twirling around the lake below him; take a look at the next shot and the dire warning on the signpost:

Winter Wonderland, Part 2

Another classic Michael Greenberg shot: this is Ian, our bartender, essentially wedged into a snow drift with some snowmen to keep him company. And to think I was worried there might not be any snow left at the beginning of April. Ha!

But back to this photo. At first, our guests only were drinking the hot stuff, shown in the post above, but once the skating ended, Ian got a whole lot busier and a whole new party started at the base of the Victoria Glacier...

A cutthroat game of hockey took place a little ways away from the recreational skaters. Oh yeah, baby: Canada vs. USA.

Am proud to report the trophy did not go to the visiting team...

My bride and groom... showing everyone how it's done.

And what would a party in the Canadian Rockies be without a little homegrown brew? Molson Canadian and a local beers Big Rock from Calgary and Kokanee from B.C. were on offer.

Finally, this last photo is one of my favourites from the whole weekend. We had everyone drop their skates outside the Poppy Brasserie before going inside for a yummy dinner of fondues, sauerkraut, strudel and any other stereotypical alpine/mountain-y dish we could think of! And, in case you're wondering, the soundtrack for the first 45 minutes of the dinner was none other than... Swiss yodeling! Yodel-leh-hee-hoo.

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.

The View from Grand Cru

Written by Gabi Slaninova

In October, we helped coordinate an event for the Grand Cru Culinary Wine Festival. The concept for Grand Cru is a fantastic one: to unite esteemed chefs with sought-after wine producers, philanthropists, business leaders and scientists for an unforgettable evening of fine wines and glorious cuisine... all to raise money for the University Health Network. This year, there were 27 separate dinner parties going on on the same night around Toronto, all held and hosted in private homes. We were lucky enough to be a part of the party that showcased the talent of Chef Michael White (of Marea in New York City fame) and the wines from the 600-year old Antinori family vineyards. This particular post is about those amazing wines that night...

As we were setting up for the event, the bartender brought me a crate of wine and asked if I had a crowbar to open it. He wasn't kidding! There were 7 separate wines that night and each one came with its own challenging packaging. Check out the layers of protection on this bottle of Pian delle Vigne Brunello di Montalcino 2004:

First, the outer cardboard packaging, with layers of branded Antinori tape. Once you cut through that, you got to 2 wooden boxes, each with a lovely gold latch.

Once you got that open, you were finally presented with the wine. However, we weren't home free yet, as there was a collar- like device that slid into the grooves of the box to prevent any movement whatsoever.

Once we got through all the bottles of Brunello, we got to the pièce-de résistance -- the 2004 Tignanello. We looked around for the handy golden latch, but no luck. Each box was fully nailed down and this time, we really did need that crowbar!

At a loss, I went to the kitchen to ask to borrow a sharp knife, but Chef White's right-hand-man, Chef PJ Calapa, showed me a whole new trick: he came out and slowly pried the box open with a kitchen spoon! Who knew??? But, thanks to PJ, the guests were able to enjoy the Tignanello that was expertly paired later that night with Chef White's scrumptious bolognese. And I'll know to add a kitchen spoon to my Emergency Kit for all future Grand Cru parties!

Thank you to Kelly Fischstein for the first and last photos. What an amazing evening to have met and worked with you for the first time!