The Single-Flower Bouquet

The Local Favourite: The Late-Spring/Early-Summer Peony


The-a-Little-More-Exotic: Gloriosa Lily


The Classic: Phalaeonopsis Orchid

There is something so simple yet impactful about choosing a single flower and using it over and over again in your bouquet. Here we've shown some of our favourites... all designed by the wonderful Bill Fulghum, formerly of Church Street Flowers and now of William Fulghum Designs. The single-flower bouquet adds colour and drama but doesn't fight with the dress... and, most importantly, photographs so beautifully...
Photography credits: Leigh Tynan for the first and Storey Wilkins for the last two.

Sneak Peek at our New Colours

We're updating our colours for our corporate identity -- a relatively inexpensive way to get a whole new look! We've had the old ones for 5 years now and it's time for a change. The main colours are putty and persimmon; I chose the combination from a decorating magazine: there was a persimmon couch next to a putty-coloured wall and I knew at once that it was the new look for our company. I always tell brides to look at everything when they're searching for their wedding colour palette, not just the wedding magazines -- and this is the perfect point in case. You'd be amazed where you can find your inspiration; we had a bride that picked hers from a wallpaper she saw in a restaurant! Our new colours should go live on the website either today or tomorrow, so check back soon!

Fifty is the new Twenty-Five?

With this post, I'm going to try a new format: describing the photos as I go along. We did a 50th wedding anniversary party last month and what a wonderful celebration it was! Given that we make our living planning a lot of weddings, I was amazed when I heard a speaker give the following statistic that night: Only 5% of all marriages in North America make it to 50 years together -- isn't that crazy? What a milestone this particular "Bride and Groom" have reached! For the party, the invite definitely set the tone for the joy and merriment that was to come...

The bride and groom love to dance... so we put together a package that included the invite printed on a real 45-rpm record, a necklace to identify which part of the family that recipient was from and, lastly, cab chits to and from the party. On the front of the package, we showed a bunch of fun facts from 1959, the year they were married.

We kept the theme going on the back of the menu where we included more trivia from each decade they've been married. During the dinner, we had professional dancers do a dance with each corresponding decade and, needless to say, much shimmying and boogieing ensued.

To see the bride and groom celebrate with all their siblings, children and grandchildren was a marvelous thing to witness -- 3 generations of one family coming together to eat, drink and dance the night away -- and a wonderful reminder of why we wedding planners do what we do! Love!

Thanks to Leigh Tynan for capturing all the warmth, love and FUN in the room so effortlessly.

Not Quite Your Mother's Heels...

Thought I'd share a couple of the fabulous works of art some of our recent brides have been sporting with fellow shoe-obsessed readers out there! Question, though: is it just me or are our brides' heels getting higher and higher? It always amazes me that the ladies that wear these platforms seem to be able to last all day and night in them -- I am not nearly that talented (or coordinated!), I can assure you. Good thing, given that some of these shoes cost more than my mortgage payments, they can be worn again and again after the wedding day...
A big thank you to Mike and Rebecca from 5ive15ifteen for capturing details like these...

A Gift that Makes Scents

Brides are always asking us for suggestions for bridesmaids gifts and now, one of our very own clients has come up with the perfect idea! Aromachology is a new perfume line whose formulations use an innovative scientific process to create a customized fragrance to fit each client's personality. How cool is that? Each person fills out a quick "Scent Profiler" questionnaire which puts them in one of 5 distinct personality groupings; then they get to choose up to 3 different top notes to make a completely unique and custom fragrance. What a great idea for a party as well... the lovely ladies at Aromachology will bring their scent bar to any place you and your friends are gathered to celebrate! Details can be found at their website.

Kookoo for Coconuts

For the morning-after-the-wedding Hangover Brunch this past weekend, we offered our very groggy guests some instant relief at their very own Coconut Station! When I heard that coconut water was one of nature's greatest electrolytes, I thought this would be the perfect thing for wedding guests needing a little pick-me-up after a night of partying. Amazed onlookers watched as Chef Neal Noble from Noble Culinary wielded his cleaver with frightening precision, then delicately inserted a eco-friendly straw and -the perfect finishing touch- a paper umbrella! It was hilarious to listen to guests' comments while sipping from their individual coconuts -- most people were surprised to learn how mild the water tastes; so many thought it would be more like coconut milk or that dessicated, dried stuff on cakes and pies. For the really adventurous though, when the water was finished, Chef Noble would crack the whole shell open and offer a bio-degradable spoon to scoop out the coconut meat. Our Coconut Station proved to be the biggest hit of the day with some guests coming back for seconds and thirds!
A big thank you needs to go out to Tina from Noble Culinary for telling me about this amazing idea and then getting such a luverly-bunch-of-coconuts!

Veni, Vidi, VINO!

We had a great time planning this surprise 50th birthday party for a serious wine lover... and, darn it, having to taste all the wines we would serve that night was such a difficult part of the job! The invitation (above) was die cut in the shape of a bottle and we joked that the honoree had now reached "Vintage Status" and that he was "full-bodied, well-balanced, silky and smooth with a great finish." Wine expert Tony Aspler was on hand to conduct intimate wine tastings and North 44 catered with food that almost (almost) surpassed the wines that evening. The theme carried through to the cake (made by North 44 pastry chef Julie Montgomery) -- the entire thing was edible -- even the 'wood' shavings as well as the outer crate.
Thank you to Leigh Tynan of Tynan Studio for the photos.

Back Door Bride

In the spirit of showing you behind-the-scenes at events we've done, these fun photos were taken at a wedding we did at The Carlu, Toronto's finest example of the Art Moderne style of architecture and design. The Carlu is a sleek, sophisticated and extremely well-run venue, but a tough place to sneak a bride into without guests seeing her before the ceremony unless she's there well before the guests start arriving. Due to time constraints, that wasn't going to be possible, so we had the grand idea of bringing Gillian and her bridesmaids through the underground parking lot and up the freight elevator. You can see from the pictures that we had a great group of ladies who embraced this idea wholeheartedly and got right into the spirit of things... and the fabulous Storey Wilkins was more than willing to go along for the (literal) ride!
Special thanks to Gill & Dan and your fantastic wedding party. That was a whole lotta fun!