PERSIAN WEDDING AT FAIRMONT CHATEAU LAURIER

The Chateau Laurier feels like a second home to me. I’ve had the honor of planning weddings here since our first in 2012 and have been one of their preferred wedding planners for some time now. I love designing in this space as it’s a little slice of Europe. The construction of the Chateau dates back to 1909 with some of its furniture bound for Ottawa sinking to the depths of the ocean with the Titanic in 1912. As iconic as this building, we have equally designed some beautiful fairytale weddings here. This Persian weddings ceremony was held in the Laurier Room with the reception in the grand Ballroom. We incorporated a stately floor plan with long angled tables which stretched the length of the room. The details were simple and decadent.

Photography by Lace & Luce

OUR LATEST WEDDING DESIGNS

We’ve been so busy in the office as of late designing for 2020 and 2021 brides. To say this is my favourite part is an understatement. If you’ve been following our Instagram Stories lately you would have have see a few sneak peaks of what I’ve been working on. But I thought I would show you everything we’ve done since the Pandemic! The creativity doesn’t just stop.

ROMANTIC INDUSTRIAL TOSCANO

This gorgeous client is getting married at the Horticulture Building. All her original inspiration came from on of our past wedding featured on Style Me Pretty. See the full wedding here. Because our brides wedding is this fall we decided to add burgundy and deep crimson pops of red/black. Our floor plan also changed quote a bit with multiple floating greenery halo’s throughout the whole building. We also included the DJ within a large bar, giving it that luxury vibe.

ECO LUXURY CLEAR TENT WEDDING

This gorgeous client planning for this September in Quebec at a private club had two variations of her design. At first she was thinking of a more luxe look with pops of black but opted for a softer look bringing in french Parisien wood elements with two large lounge areas to keep the vibe luxe but casual and comfy. She also pitched the idea of a Versace printed dance floor in a nude color… so I’m excited to see how that turns out. I LOVE it when clients take the leap in incorporating things they’ve never actually seen before!

BOTANICAL GATSBY RHAPSODY

Yes you heard me right! Gatsby esq design. This client is getting married on Halloween this year! To say i’m excited about this design is and understatement. Our design here is for the Ottawa Art Gallery for 200 guests. Because they’re wedding falls on Halloween, they wanted to play up the black tie costume aspect giving their guests and opportunity to really “zhuzh it up” to the max gatsby style! Everything needed to be larger than life for this wedding. The bride asked for an organic and mid century modern variation of Gatsby…. a challenge?!?! Never! I pushed my creativity to the limits. Our floor plan includes a FULL . ROOM . FLIP . …… Did you read that?!?! Yup from 200ppl for a ceremony to 200ppl cocktail in the Alma Duncan Room. Imagine this, walking down the herringbone patterned aisle with 5ft tall oversized crystal chandeliers floating above encompassed by floral halo’s and a ceiling of twinkly lights….. at the alter a large floral arch awaits with the twinkling lights waterfalling from the ceiling to the floor….. and that’s all you get to know! The client and I cameup with some super cool never done before concepts which I can’t wait to show you on the day of! It will blow your mind!

70’S NEW AGE ITALIANO RETRO

I had a lot of fun with this design. The Bride wanted a few key elements including pampas grasses, burnt orange and a tuscany 1970’s vibe. At first it was hard to imagine the combination and we had to be careful how we added the burnt orange so that it didn’t look too pumpkin Halloween. It’s hard to get burnt orange in the flowers I would typically request for a design, so i decided to add in the terracotta to balance the color and also the 70’s vibe were looking to achieve - keeping in mind the pampas grasses. I always like to have hints of a theme instead of theming it out completely because then it looks overdone and super intentional. The verdict is still out on this design…she may not like the terracotta element or decided to axe the pampas grass. We shall see.

UPDATE:

Since this email has been drafted we’ve had a mood board revision. Sometimes when you see all the elements on your wish list come together- it wasn’t as you had imagined. This being said our bride opted for a more tan inspired look.

DESIGN PROCESS

For every client we do Full Planning with, design is always included. But we do have many clients from other cities and countries that we design for which may of may not have their own planner. In that case with our Design Only, we also include a Technical Doc which you can see a bit of bellow. The imagery and the process allows us to design full weddings and leave the coordination and planning to the client or their planner.

We currently have a client getting married in Picton and she has hired us exclusively for design and partial planning and will have their own Day of Coordinator whom is local which we will work with in conjunction. This works great for clients who want to support local but also want a gorgeously design wedding.

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So that is all of what we have completed in design during this Pandemic. I purposely took what might have felt like a bleak day, tuned on some tunes and designed my little heart away!

If this has inspired or excited you feel free to send us a note and maybe we could be designing for you next!

xoxo Elise

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MORE INFORMATION

BEHIND THE SCENES

EXPECTATIONS

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE YOU START WEDDING PLANNING

Before you start planning your wedding there are 5 things you should do before announcing your engagement to the wider public! Too often I see brides getting ahead of themselves and hence left feeling overwhelmed or upset that what they want just isn’t realistic . But if you follow these 5 steps you’ll surely be on the path to success! Just think of me like that pesky lifeguard at the pool…No Running! lol

Compile your guest list

Before you begin dreaming of your wedding plans it’s important to lay down some ground work starting with your guest list as this will help you gauge the size of wedding you will be having and the investment you will likely be making. When considering your guest list it’s important to consult with your parents on whom they believe should be included and if children will be permitted to attend. There is no shame in having an adults only reception.

Establish a budget

Once your guest list is established it’s time to address the elephant in the room, budget and who will be contributing. If your unsure of what is realistic I tend to provide the following statistics.

Catering Costs $120 - $150 per person

Open Bar Costs $80 - $100 per person depending on if you are working with a per-consumption bar where you pay for drinks as they are consumed or if your venue provides a flat fee

Decor Costs can be a huge variable, but for a simple but impactful design you could be looking at a minimum of $100 per person. For a more lavish wedding $250-$400 per person

This does not include vendors such as: Hair & Makeup, Transportation, Cake, Venue Fees, Officiant, Invitations and Photography.

In my experience most beautiful Pinterest worthy weddings with a guest list of 150ppl start at around $60,000 CAD

I also suggest couple have a budget reserve of 5-10k for extras and unforseen costs.

One thing I tell all my clients is that whatever design image your looking at, any dollar figure that pops into your head- should be tripled. Meaning if you see a gorgeous centrepiece and you think it’s worth maybe $50, it’s likely $150.

Discuss your vision for your wedding day

Now that your budget parameters have been set you can now start dreaming big or small. Let the countless hours of pinning begin. Once you believe you have pinned to your heart’s desire, narrow down those pictures to your top 25. This will help you narrow down the most important artistic elements.

Develop your wish list

With all the inspo you need under your belt it’s time to start dabbling into a little bit of research. Take your freshly married friends advice with a grain of salt and blaze your own trail in your quest for finding vendors you think match your vibe. But be careful! Many companies out there may be great at advertising but horrible in client care and execution. Things are always cheap for a reason and you need to ask yourself why!

Consult a wedding planner

Which leads me to the most important and final step. Book a meeting with a planner. It’s not a case of whether you think you need one or not. It’s a given that you will need some sort of assistance leading up to your wedding day without asking your friends and family who most likely have no idea how to properly help or guide you. The four steps I listed above will set you up to perfectly to be able to communicate your overall vision and appropriated investment. This will enable the wedding planner to help guide you in the right direction in terms of how they may be of assistance or help educate you on unrealistic expectations etc. At the very least you should hire a wedding planner for the final months leading up to your wedding day to help you organize all your final details.

Whether your local to Ottawa or Montreal or planning abroad or from abroad in Canada- we can help! Our clients are located all over the world and we would love to help bring your wedding vision to life. You deserve to feel like a guest at your own wedding. So call on us!

xoxo Eliza

WHY DAY OF COORDINATION IS A SCAM

Planning a wedding can seem daunting, intimidating and downright confusing. It’s also as equally hard to gauge if you need help and when you think this help should begin. In the age of Pinterest, Instagram and blogs- it’s easy to think that you CAN plan your own wedding and it WILL look like all your inspiration pictures you’ve posted on your boards. Social media has a sneaky way of showing you the nice shiny end product, but not the technicalities, logistics and the people behind the scenes you require to get you there. So I’d like to shed some light on one of the biggest misconceptions brides have and why I feel the notion of having just a “day of coordinator” is pretty much in my eyes- a scam. A term that puts a veil over your eyes leading you to believe- I’ve booked all my vendors so I’m basically done my wedding planning because the “Day of Coordinator”will do the rest.

Back 10 - 15 years ago clients either had a wedding planner for the duration of their planning or a day of coordinator, there wasn’t really an inbetween. This was also the time of match your table linens to the color of your bridesmaids dresses… Now, to help you visualize this period of time, this was back in the day when Facebook just started having business pages, Instagram wasn’t really a thing and Pinterest was just launched. Basically, weddings were very simple back then. So naturally a day of coordinator could be reasonably all you needed. But nowadays, perceptions and expectations of brides have completely changed. Now most weddings have complicated logistics, intricate tailored designs, jam packed schedules and twice the amount of vendors to manage than back in 2007. (the year I started planning weddings ;)

I should preface this by saying you DO need a wedding planner on your wedding day. What you DON’T need is someone flying in a week before your wedding to try and organize your details which they can’t completely grasp since they weren’t part of your planning process from the beginning. Here within, lays the problem, and the problem has real repercussions.

Imagine that……. you believe you’ve planned your wedding in full, have finally tied up all those loose ends and are ready to meet with your Day of Coordinator just 7 days shy of your wedding. What you’re not prepared for is your seasoned planner to audit your wedding and provide you a long list of things you need to correct or change before the wedding day- because you forgot this, didn’t consider that and was never told “x”. Now you have a long “to do” list that you can’t quite grasp, can’t understand nor have the time for. Or Even worse- a newbie planner smiles and says nothing and figures “It is what it is, whatever happens- happens, because, hey-I’m not really truly responsible anyways.” It’s sad, but this is a real thing and it can happen to you.

Now let’s keep imagining, because the narrative isn’t over yet……

It’s still the week before your wedding and you start getting messages from those vendors who have been ghosting your emails asking questions you’ve already confirmed, don’t know how to answer, can’t answer or questions regarding logistics you know nothing about. But how could you possibly know you needed to be informed of these things if you’ve never planned a wedding before? So to you, it almost feels like you’re re-planning your wedding all over again. Your vendors have forgotten your details and/or have confused you with another wedding. The anxiety is slowly creeping in because the wedding you worked so hard to plan seems like it’s fracturing. There are so many balls in the air that you don’t know where to start…… But wait, you have relatives flying in, appointments, a dress to pick up, a pending ceremony rehearsal…. and your brain literally stops working. Wait, was there something I was supposed to remember? ….. Where’s that to do list?……… Slowly when anyone asks you about your wedding, you dread the conversation because you just want the day to come and be over with.

Unfortunately what I am telling you is reality. Simply having a day of coordinator is not going to ensure your not stressed during your wedding planning or closer to the day, it does just the opposite- adds a layer of anxiety. A day of coordinator simply makes sure vendors show up and you’re running on time. There is no pre-organization with day of coordinators. I should also note that most planners that feature this service and not a Month Of or Partial Planning service in lieu is probably within their first year or two of business and is limited in their knowledge and aren’t fully equipped to plan a wedding from start to finish.

At the very least you should hire a planner to step in a month or so before your wedding to ensure they are properly briefed on your details while auditing your prior arrangements and take over management of all those final details before your wedding day. I always say- think of your brain like a chalkboard with all sorts of scrambled wedding scribbles. Now after your sit down with your planner a month before your wedding, you can wipe that chalkboard clean and NEVER have to scribble on it again!

Hiring a planner in advance is peace of mind. Priceless. And I can tell you, you’ll only completely understand the full benefits after your wedding day is complete.

Always here for you,

Eliza

xo

Photography by Joel & Justyna