What is 'à la Piscine?'

Last month, my sister and I had the privilege of visiting our Auntie Liz at her home in the South of France. It was only 8 days, but my God, we packed a lot into our limited time together. Her house is near St. Tropez, but we also spent a night at the famed Negresco Hotel in Nice and it was while we were there that we were first introduced to 'à la Piscine.' 

We were out for my sister's birthday dinner and thought a glass (or two) of champagne was in order. We noticed you could get a regular 'coupe' (glass), or the à la Piscine (by the pool, in French) version for an extra 3 Euros. Curious, we asked our server what that was...

He explained (in French) that it was served with ice, which immediately went nowhere with us. (I was thinking -- they want to charge me 3 Euros to put ICE in my champagne? No way!) Not to mention that it would dilute the magical elixir... He tried a little harder, telling us it was "extremely popular in France," but still, we didn't bite. 

We returned to St. Tropez and really didn't think about it again until we were sitting at Senequier (pictured above) at the Port, having our daily glass of rosé with lunch and noticed we had the option to have it à la Piscine too! So, it wasn't just champagne the French were adding ice to these days, it was rosé as well? What on earth? But still, we didn't try it...

By now you may be wondering where this post is going and what it might have to do with the events we help plan. Well, your patience is about to be rewarded...

When we returned home to Canada, we were telling the rest of our family about this crazy French Trend we kept seeing -- only THIS time, my sister decided to Google it and we were shocked to read the key piece of information the server in Nice neglected to mention: the "ice" is actually frozen little cubes of champagne! Or rosé, depending on what you're drinking... Now the extra charge for "ice" made sense: frozen alcohol, floating in the alcohol! Oh la la! 

Needless to say, we wasted no time getting to a liquor store to purchase specimens and have just spent the entire long weekend perfecting the technique, because I plan to serve this at all my parties this coming summer! 

Here's what we learned, after bottles and bottles of experimentation, all in the Name of Science:

1: It takes almost half a bottle to fill an ice cube tray (and really, this tray's partitions were too small -- you want to make bigger cubes).

2. We tried it both in the old-school coupe glasses and the more modern flutes; it works (and for some reason tastes better because of the ice-to-volume-of-champagne ratio) in the taller glasses.

3. You'll want to make a fair bit of "ice" -- because the alcohol content won't let it freeze completely; it therefore melts faster than regular ice.

4. It works beautifully with rosé too. I love how the cubes look like little blobs of jelly...

5. The French are really on to something here: for the hot summer months, both of these drinks tasted that much more refreshing, just because they were colder. And somehow, the frozen cubes added a little bit of je ne sais quoi  that we never realized was lacking before!

6. Vive la France!

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.

Lindsay + Jamie: The Lovely Details

We always hope and wish for good weather for ALL our clients, but there are some weddings that just wouldn't be the same if it rained -- and this was one of them. The ceremony spot, quite literally, clings to the bluffs, hundreds of feet above Lake Ontario; there is no other venue quite like it in Toronto. The rain plan would've seen the ceremony take place inside the club house -- which would have been heartbreaking! Happily, the skies were bright and the sun was shining down on this gorgeous day last August.

I love these sun-dappled photos of Lindsay being escorted by her father to the altar where Jamie awaited. Poor Gabi drove herself crazy following the weather reports all week -- I kept reminding her that the ONLY time that mattered was a 2-hour window on Saturday afternoon!

Now THIS is a kiss! I always think (after the fact), that I really should suggest that my clients practice their Big Kiss beforehand... So many are fast and furious, when really they should be slow, deliberate and almost sensual. Clearly, Lindsay and Jamie needed no such advice...

The ceremony programs doubled as fans; while hardly an original idea, it's downright genius on a sweltering summer's day. One of my favourite details was found on the back, where the wedding party was listed out. It looked so formal and serious, but next to the Best Man's name it said: "My Brotha from Anotha Motha."

 Event Designer Bill Fulghum designed a gorgeous lattice structure that Gabi painstakingly tied all the placecards to. The bows had to be tied in a way that guests could easily untie them using one hand (while holding a yummy cocktail in the other)!

Pulling off a wedding of this magnitude in such a short period of time takes A Village. Very special thanks must go to all our partners who helped create the wedding of Lindsay and Jamie's dreams: Event Designer: Bill Fulghum, Florals: Gisele Sterling, Invitations and Day-of Stationery: Pantry Press, Tent: Advanced Tent, Draping: Micki's, Audio/Visual: Visual FX, Cake: Roxy Cakes, Rentals: Contemporary Furniture Rentals and Chair-man Mills, Band: Lady Kane and last but certainly not least, our Sexy Beast of a photographer: Anthony Manieri from 5ive15ifteen Photo Company.

You can read the story that appeared in the Winter/Spring edition of WedLuxe Magazine by clicking here.

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!