It's All in the Details

Deb and Barrett - Part Two

I am going to let the pictures do the talking in this post, so just a few words to explain the overall feel and theme of the day. The bride was adamant, as she should have been, that she wanted a gorgeous wedding despite the short timeline and limited budget. When I brought them their wedding outline, I had also created a colour palette for them to peruse. I was elated when they loved everything about the navy, fuchsia and white scheme I had drawn up for them. I have always wanted to combine these colours for a preppy chic look and was so excited to get to work on this one! The dollar store was my best friend, and I was dead set on the centerpieces being a "cluster" format - high impact, low price. Their day turned out so beautifully, it was a wedding I was so proud of, a lot of work but well worth their reaction!

A huge thank you goes to Chelsea of Shutterbird Photography for all the amazing images, as usual, they are spectacular and as unique as the couple!

For table runners, we rented organza chair sashes at $2.50 a piece. The table numbers we created on a photo machine at Superstore using their engagement photo's and superimposing the numbers onto them using the font application on the machine. Frames were purchased at a dollar sore for $2.00. The mirrored candle holders were also purchased at the dollar store for $3.00 a piece. Proof that if you are crafty enough, you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts on the smaller items involved in the reception.

Ring shot on the bottom of a wine glass


Absolutely stunning views of the valley and gorgeous giant bouquets by Iterante

Card box created by yours truly, from a box, scrapbook paper, and a few scrapbooking decals and lettering, photo guest booked also created by myself on Shutterfly, using their beautiful engagement photos.

As the sun set outside and the room dimmed - all the candles in the room really created a gorgeous glow.

One blossomed fuchsia rose at each place setting.

The centerpieces were what I call "cluster" format, in that each table had different sizes and styles of vases with petals or full blooms of fuchsia roses and floating candles. Many times brides get hung up on each table looking precisely the same, but doing this, having them coordinated but not matching creates an interesting look as well. Between the glass jars, which I already had, and some were borrowed, floating candles and wholesale roses, each centerpiece cost about $10, and looked absolutely beautiful

Their mini wedding cake with fresh irises and roses made by Allison LaFrance of Siraia at Sirocco .

A close-up of the stunning bouquets by Iterante in Bankers Hall. These bouquets weighed around 50-60 pounds - I know, I re-arranged them several times, ha ha!

The afternoon sunlight in this room creates beautiful images like this one.

The happy couple and their colour coordinated balloons (all the way from Granville Island!).

The bouquets done by Iterante were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Fuchsia flats - shoe choice of a smart bride!

Because the engagement was so short, the bride had to buy "off the rack" and I believe this was only the 2nd dress she tried on, but we all knew it was the one! She looked amazing in it!

Vampires, Cupcakes and Candles

Happy Halloween my fellow wedding and all-things-fun friends!

Even though my business is solely focused on organizing and executing lovely people's nuptials, one thing you may not know about me is I should probably star on that show "Party Mama's", but maybe alter it to "Party Mama's on a Budget" since there is no way I am blowing my mortgage on a big bash!

I absolutely love theme parties, and once I pick a theme I go all out, and it's a force that cannot be contained! A lot of people ask where this obsession with theme parties comes from and I finally realized, I got it from my momma! My mom always put some serious effort into holidays and birthday's. I vividly remember my sister Meagan's panda themed birthday party: it was 1988 and the Giant Panda's were being lent to the Calgary Zoo from China and my mom took that and went with it. I remember the Panda cake and ice cream, games and masks, I just thought it was so awesome, we had THE coolest parties ever. I don't know if my mom realized how much this meant to us, and apparently helped me choose my career path, if not, thanks ma. I hope Brookie loves all her parties just as much as I loved mine and all my sisters', who knows, maybe she'll be my partner in party crime one day!

Last weekend I was honored to host the monthly ladies "book club" (see: ladies drinking copious amounts of wine, eating delicious food and acting like we just got fake ID's). It is always hosts choice for what book we will be reading and I took full advantage of this privilege and made it a Twilight Party - that's right, yours truly is a major Twi-hard. Thank you in advance to my fellow Twi-hard friend Danielle of Death by Shoes and Chelsea of Shutterbird Photography for most of these wonderful pictures, Chels - the food pictures actually made my tummy grumble!

When I first decided on this theme I searched far and wide on the wonderful world wide web for a classy and creepy way to celebrate my favorite vampires and werewolves. Thank goodness for the queen of theme parties Hostess with the Mostess for her delightful Twilight Party post . It really got the blood flowing (like that? ha ha...) and the ideas just fogged up my mind for weeks before the big bash.


First on my agenda were the apples. I sent Josh to the store to pick up "the shiniest, most Twilightiest apples you can find". He was so nervous about this ever so important mission that he came home with a huge bag of Red Delicious as well as a huge bag of Spartans, both very pleasing to me, such a gem that guy is.

I hosted this party at a perfect time of year, the Halloween decor is on sale and there was Christmas stuff coming out as well - I found thick, wired satin ribbon which I weaved into my blinds and draped over the table to re-create the look of the cover on Eclipse. I places the apples everywhere, in vases with floating candles and water, up my front steps, and in the sangria I made - danger juice! There were candles everywhere to create a classy but haunting appearance and frames the quotes that HWTM provided.

Now, the food, a very important item to the book club. I did a lot of googling and research into what foods were mentioned in the Twilight series. My first find was mushroom ravioli, so I homemade (I will NEVER do that again!) them the night before and fried them up in a sage brown butter. I also made lasagna, Caesar salad, garlic bread, red velvet cupcakes with both blood splattered and sparkly cream cheese icing and vampire bite cookies! I have to say, the red velvet cupcakes were a hit, and I will certainly be making those again, yum!

The success of a theme party is dependant on how dedicated you are to it, and most are created starting from one single object or colour and then expand from there, in this case a simple apple.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween and yes, we did discuss Team Edward and Team Jacob and came up with a very sensible solution - Edward in the summer to keep you cool and Jacob in the winter to keep you warm. We're such intellectuals!