Milestone Events

August 7th is a pretty special day around here.  It is the day my beautiful daughter came into the world.  It is also the day that Christie and Richard chose each other as husband and wife.  I loved these two.  She’s a knock out with a wicked personality to match and Richard is so in love.  The two of them make an incredible pair.  They also have a wonderful family who really included us in the celebration.  And this was a celebration.  Held at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond and beautifully captured by my friends Chris and Heather Davies at Spark Photography here is a little teaser of the lovebirds.  Congratulations you guys!

This wedding was where all of my worlds collided.  It was meant to be that we were here.  Elisa’s sister’s best friend was one my past brides (see Carissa & Iain, August 22, 2009), one of the wedding guests were was one of my past brides (see Shantela & Kris, June 28, 2008), I went to high school with the MC and the best man, well he is my cousin in Calgary. 

Russell and Elisa, were from the start, delightful.  We got along so well it was not even like work to do the wedding.  Famee Fulane played host for the reception which was inspired by the fall colours around us.  I also got to play with some of my favorite people, Tobyn Ross Photography and Mark from Absolute Entertainment.  So many highlights from this day its hard to choose my favorite: I think that the ceremony when Russell saw Elisa for the first time as she walked down the aisle was by far the best.  The look of pride on his face will stay with me for a long time.  And the lion dancers…they were pretty cool too!

Here’s a look at some of their day:

What do you get when you pair a completely lovely bride, beautiful weather and the best of the Vancouver wedding industry?  You get Rebecca and Jay’s wedding.  My home away from home, the ever fabulous Terminal City Club, played host and Erin Gilmore with her pal Tracey Heppner came out to play.

The food was great, the tears of joy plenty, the speeches…well the speeches had me in stitches.  All in all, a great day!

Here are some pictures!

Julia & John were one of my favorite couples this year.  Julia has a very keen sense of style, knew what she wanted and was not afraid of colour.  With our dream team behind us (the talented Evan and Morty from Flower-z, the ever fabulous Terminal City Club, and awesome photog, Erin Gilmore) we had an epic day filled with sunshine, a lot of laughter, love, wit and all ’round good times.  The other great part of the day was to be able catch up with one of my favorite families from years ago whom I had only seen a couple of times since their wedding.  All in all a great day!

I love it when my couples, after the cake has been cut and the party is over, become incredibly good friends.  Iain payed me the best compliment of my entire career when I came by the reception (I was hanging out and having a ball with Michelle and Jeff at TCC).  I left Carissa and Iain in the very capable hands of Danica and Wes.  I walked in the back door at Performance Works and Iain spied me from across the room.  He came running over and with a big bear hug, exclaimed, “Tanya!  this is the BEST *insertexpletivehere* wedding EVER!”.  

And it very truly  was.  Love was everywhere.  Dinner was great (thanks Sugar Mountain), the weather was sunny and warm (thanks weather gods), Carissa, was, well she was just her regular stunning self.  Always beautiful, but exceptionally so on her wedding day.  And the photography, well let’s just say that RAD studios are pretty darn rad. 

Here’s a little taste of all the good times.  For myself, I am looking most forward to the good times to be had with this amazing couple.

t.xoxo

This one was right in my back yard with all of my favorite people around me: Erin Gilmore from Erin Gilmore Photography, Kathy & Steph Marliss from Marliss Productions, David MacMillan from Sugar Mountain Catering and Paula Lyons from Ayerea Cakes.  Mark from Absolute Entertainment joined the ranks and rocked the house.  This was a veritable dream team of wedding perfection.  The weather was gorgeous and we all had a wicked time.

Allison and Darryl were so fun to work with…nothing but fun, laughs and good times!  Congrats you two!

I love fall weddings.  I also love the Sutton Place Hotel.  Couple two of my favorite things with a completely wonderful couple whose families were delightful and lovely and you get wedding magic.  I also got to work with Jen Echolls (http://jenniferecholsphotography.com/) and her wonderful assistant Mark again which always makes me smile.

Congratlulations Alexa and Lance…I may you grow old on one pillow.  It was such an honor to be a part of it all.

I can’t remember for sure how Allison and I met but I am awfully glad we did!  Allison and Erin were everything that I love about this job: super sweet couple; totally organized; completely in love; loves style and colour.  They trusted me enough to let me play with their wedding decor and gave me pretty much carte blanche to do whatever.  Scary for them I am sure but totally rad for me.  I loved the colors here…it reminded me sunset with pinks, magnetas and purple hues all grounded my a rich velvety chocolate. 

The ceremony took place at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church on Burrard…a place that is near and dear as it is where Wes and I exchanged our vows eight (holy!  where did the time go!) years ago. 

Terminal City Club (yes, I was there again…it is my favorite place on the planet) gave us the fabulous backdrop and delighted the taste buds with another stellar plated dinner; I got to play with Jen Echols (love her!) and her ever fabulous photog assistant Mark…always fun to hang with friends!

Here are a few pics of the amazing day…all courtesy of the talented miss jen! (and Mark too!)

Road trip!  Courtney and Jason celebrated their marriage at Summerhill Winery in Kelowna so Wes & I packed up the van with all their gear and made the trek up to the Okangan.  It was an experience and a half!  We did all of their floral in a hotel room with 35 degree weather.  We had to jack the a/c so they wouldn’t wilt with the intense heat of the August long weekend so basically we lived in a refridgerator for two days.  We had a blast though and didn’t have it nearly as bad as the cake designers, Luscious Creations, who were designing the wedding cake on a pic nic table in the campground where they were staying ina tent trailer!  Goes to show you how truly talented this team of bakers are!  Here are some pics from Spark Photography…I love these guys…totally a fun couple to hang out with.

Courtney and Jason were a super fun couple and I loved working with them.  Wishing you both a life filled with love and laughter…you guys were the best!  Thanks for having Wes and I there to share in your day!

Nicole and Steve can best be summed up by saying that they are rediculously in love with each other.  You can tell that their hearts race when the other walks into the room.  This is going to be a beautiful marriage.  They deserved a beautiful day to get it all started.

Our journey with Nicole and Steve started in January or February of 2007 over a Baileys and coffee in my dining room  in the middle of a snow storm shortly after wedding fair that year.  We sat here for a few hours and she told me that her dream wedding would be a masquerade ball.  I looked at her and said “You have got to be kidding me…that is sooo cool!”  Eighteen months later (I can’t believe how fast it went by) we were celebrating their marriage in high style.  Nicole is a “go big or go home” kind of girl and so we went big.  We had a long time to plan this wedding and the details were amazing:

She and her bridesmaids spent last winter hand making masks for her guests.  The stationery, all done by Tammy Lyon of Uniquity Invitations, had a masquerade theme.  Nicole and Steve found gorgeous venetian masks on e-bay to wear for a few pictures and I found some fabulous hot pink ones at winners for the bridesmaids to have.

The venues were outstanding: after hours of research we found a small Italian Garden in Hastings Park that set the scene perfectly: fountains, manicured gardens, beautiful statuary.  We discovered at the rehearsal that the gardens theme was called “The Masked Ball” which could not have been more perfect.  After the ceremony the wedding party piled into the limo and drove around the block to the race track where I arranged to have a thoroughbred race horse as a prop for her photo shoot.  Thanks for all you help with this Tracy!  You are a star!

After, they went back to the gardens for the rest of their shoot and we found Todd the Wizard who was walking around on stilts in the garden and he jumped in for a few photos too!  Off to Main Street for a few more pics and then to Heritage Hall for the ball.  Long tables were accented with mirror runners, hot pink roses, and ostrich feathers in candelabras dripping in crystal. 

The vendors that we hired did an amazing job.  Cakes by Meg did the cake; bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres were created by Tracy at La Belle Fleur and David from Sugar Mountain Catering created heaps of beautiful delicious food (mmmm, smoked salmon blinis).  The photos will show you just how amazing these people are!

I love it when Erin Gilmore comes out to play.  You’ll see why when you look at the images.  They are stunning, as usual.  By the way Erin, you should know better than to issue a challenge to me and I am looking forward to our delicious dinner at Quattro on your nickel ;o).