Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

Inspiration is always around us! In interior design, you can design an entire room based around a rug. Floral design can be based on the vase. Wedding design can be based on an invitation or the bride's dress. Keep your eyes open and have fun with it. This Halloween I found inspiration in my dear stuffed giraffe animal. Take a break from wedding planning and have a Happy Halloween!


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Weddings to Help Find a Cure for Breast Cancer

When cancer touches a person you know it doesn’t just affect the patient, it also affects the patient’s family and friends. I had the unfortunate experience of being affected more than once. My mother did not survive but luckily my aunts did.

During this month of Breast Cancer Awareness, I contacted the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation – Prairies/NWT Region about an ongoing partnership project. The goal was to help newly engaged couples design the wedding of their dreams and contribute to finding a cure for breast cancer. I feel this as an opportunity to help couples and their guests make their wedding special, memorable, and meaningful.

Two pink themed “Pinky Swear Wedding Decorating Packages” have been designed for brides and grooms to begin designing their wedding. With each decorating package sold, $150.00 will be donated to the Foundation by Wishahmon-Wedding Creations. Additional information is available at the Wishahmon website.

As the leading national volunteer-based organization dedicated to creating a future without breast cancer, the Foundation works collaboratively to fund, support and advocate for relevant and innovative breast cancer research, meaningful education and awareness programs, early diagnosis and effective treatment, and a positive quality of life for those living with breast cancer. If you would like to make a donation directly to the Foundation, you can do so by visiting their website.



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Pink Dreamy Wedding

Being the hopeless romantic I am I love to hear how couples first met. Ivy and Robbie definitely take the cake on their love story. For a short while, Ivy was taking the LRT to work from the Dalhousie station. Robbie was transferred to a specific worksite for a couple months and also took the LRT from the Dalhousie station. Robbie noticed Ivy right away and as the days went by, he knew he may not see her again once he was transferred to another job site and didn’t take the LRT from this station at this same time. One day, he finally made his move and introduced himself to Ivy. Hearing this story, my heart was melting. I asked Ivy what was her reaction when Robbie made the first move. Ivy said one word: “Creepy.” (I sat straight up after hearing this response.) Well, I guess Robbie wasn’t that creepy because they started dating and got engaged! (Robbie: I still think you are so brave!)

During our consultation, Ivy and I hit it off right away because we both love the color pink. Ivy even said she wanted the groomsmen to wear pink, but couldn’t ask them. I offered to tell the groomsmen for her! Robbie had to step in once in a while to scale back the amount of pink that their wedding and to put his foot down on the pink groomsmen idea. Ivy wanted a very dreamy wedding. She had over 100 pictures to show me what she liked. My job was to work these ideas into their venue. The wedding reception was at the Silver Dragon Restaurant. If not the first, this restaurant is one of the first restaurants opened in Calgary. I think almost every Chinese person in Calgary has attended a wedding at the Silver Dragon Restaurant at least once. Given it’s familiarity to everyone I knew I had to design something that was different, unexpected, and dreamy.

This wedding was the most challenging wedding I have done to date. There were so many factors that complicated the wedding design. Here were my main challenges:

1)The biggest challenge was the size of the venue. This of course, could not be negotiated. Ivy and Robbie had booked the entire venue for their wedding. They were told that the venue can accommodate 320 guests. However, with only 245 guests, the space was still very limited.

2)The second challenge was the amount of time allowed to decorate the venue. I was originally given two hours to decorate. I ended up using three hours and brought a crew of 15 people. I would have been able to do more decorating if given five hours. The reason for the lack of time is because it was a Saturday and the restaurant needed to stay open for a long as possible for dim sum time.

3)The third challenge was all unexpected the day of the wedding. There was a dispute between the rental company and the restaurant staff regarding how big the head table staging should be; how the dance floor should be placed; chair covers wouldn’t fit on arm chairs; the cake came early; and the booze could not be found. Nonetheless, I became Little Miss Bossy Pants and made a lot of executive decisions that day.

Here are some pictures of Ivy and Robbie’s wedding. I will highlight all the details of their wedding in another post as this one is getting way too long.






Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Pumpkin Themed Wedding!

I think everybody agrees with me when I say that not all of your Facebook “friends” are actually friends you keep in close contact with. When I got a Facebook message from Randi on some random day, I was so surprised that she remembers me! I believe I actually said that out loud! I was so happy to hear from her and to learn she is engaged and getting married to Bill. When Randi asked if I could meet up with them to discuss their wedding décor plans, I happily said I would love to meet up with them and to catch up on the last “blank” number of years.

When I meet up with Randi, I noticed that some things just didn’t change. She was still a foot taller than me. (Okay, a LOT of people are…) What I did learn is how crafty Randi is or has become! She had so many great ideas and had handmade a lot of the décor items. She truly made my job easy. I just had to design and put together her wedding with all of the wonderful décor items she made.

Randi and Bill were going to have a pumpkin themed wedding at the Cochrane Ranche House. To this day, I still don’t know if they both like pumpkins or if only Randi does. Short of calling me a nerd, Bill didn’t say much about the décor. (His exact words (looking at Randi) were: “I guess you weren’t the only nerd in school.”) Assuming they both loved pumpkins, 40 full sized pumpkins and 10-20 smaller pumpkins were purchased for the decor. They also made pumpkins with sparkles. (This description does not do the pumpkins justice. Please refer to the pictures.) The centerpieces were wrought iron pumpkins with a pillar LED candle inside. All of the place cards were also small wire pumpkins. Needless to say, the venue was tastefully exploded with pumpkins. Here are some pictures!






Friday, October 1, 2010

BT Photography

I love what I do! I love meeting new clients, helping them to design a wedding of their dreams, and decorating on the day of the wedding. There is only one aspect of my job that I don’t love - that is missing out on the actual wedding. I always arrive at the venue before the wedding to decorate and return after the wedding to take down all the decorations. At the end of the night, I sometimes get to see my clients and have the opportunity to give them a big hug to congratulate them for tying the knot.

Recently, I started asking my clients who their wedding photographer is. Feeling a little “left out” of the wedding, I would check the photographer’s blog weekly (sometimes daily) to see if my client’s wedding pictures have been posted. (A big sorry to all the photographers that I have been checking on. I think I really messed up your stats on google analytics.)

Since I am snooping already, I thought I should share the pictures with everyone that reads my blog. Here are some pictures taken by Brian and Amy from BT Photography of my clients, Huong and Steve, on their special day. I love these pictures of Huong and Steve. They looked so happy on their wedding day. I absolutely wish I was there! (I always do!)






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