So, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, Friday night. Rehearsal night began on the beach where the ceremony would take place the following day, followed by a Mexican dinner in Tofino hosted by Andrew’s mom, Mary. We were invited, but it was back to work for us after checking out the beach.
Anais and Andrew’s families were so great to work with! The event was hosted by Anais’s grandparent’s, Olivia and Carey McKinley, her Mom Erica, her uncle Walker and his beautiful wife Jeannie and their 2 year old daughter Scarlett, who very nearly stole the show. Andrew’s Mom Mary and brother Matt pitched in everywhere, and were busy behind the scenes.
Our schedule was to set up the tables for the reception before noon for the photographer Jana Vackova (by the way these are NOT her photos, hers will be up on the website soon), get the bouquets over to the bridal party at Middle Beach Lodge and then head down to to the beach and set up the ceremony site. We would then pick up the ceremony decor and race back to the reception and finish off the whole look. We wanted Anais to stop in her tracks and cry when she saw what we had done. Oh, and somewhere in there we needed to find time to pull ourselves together and look like we were guests at the wedding.
The entire wedding was a small, very intimate gathering and the overall vision for the day was elegant simplicity. Our plan was to use just a few varieties of flowers and use them in huge quantities, starting with about 80 stems of pure white phaleonopsis orchids in huge vases down at the beach. Anais had us a little concerned when she decided that her and Andrew were going to build the stands for the arrangements out of driftwood! She ended up twisting a few arms and getting some help and the result was so stunning we wanted to take them home with us, but they proved a wee bit heavy. Here we are setting up the ceremony.
The end result was breathtaking!
Sometimes it is hard to get us out of the pictures.
Here is Anais in her gorgeous Vera Wang gown with her Grandpa.
What a touching moment when Grandpa and Anais first saw each other. There was not a dry eye in the room!
Andrew and Anais, now husband and wife.
Now back to the reception where we had transformed the deck ….. kept you waiting long enough! Here it is. Can we talk about how cute Andrew and Anais are?
Beautiful bridesmaids Ananda and Katie. I know, and yes they really are that pretty. And that sweet.
details of the tables …. green orchids at every place setting.
stunning view of Meares Island.
Sunset. Could it get more perfect?
We will have the professional pictures by Jana up soon on the website.
And yes, Anais cried. She was thrilled. It was so much fun, we are kind of sad it is all over!
We have to dedicate two posts to this particular couple because the story just can’t fit into one! In our business we get to see many couples and we think Anais and Andrew are the perfect couple for a number of reasons. She does all the talking and he mostly smiles and looks at her lovingly. She is hilarious and he laughs at her and appreciates her. She loves him and his quiet ways. The only time he reigned her in during the entire planning process was to say no to the silver votive candles we proposed and so we all agreed, that because he was so undemanding, we would grant him this one wish.
We have known Anais for about 4 years, she used to work part time for us and so we knew she would appreciate us bringing our humour with us to our very first official consultation for her wedding. We dressed up in wedding gowns and made her wear a veil. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the planning stages.
Anais and Andrew decided to get married on their favorite beach and have their reception at her uncle’s stunning condo in Tofino on Vancouver Island. While all that was a great idea, the logistics for us were mind boggling, to say the least. We had to figure out how to safely deliver hundreds of stems of white phaeleonopsis orchids, a few hundred roses, hydrangeas and more not only to Tofino, but also how we were going to traipse the orchids and vases down to the beach. Our first order of business and one of our better decisions was to rent a cargo van to drive and house all the flowers and supplies. I’m not sure about the pink bow, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
OK, I can’t believe I just posted that picture of myself. Taking one for the team.
We spent the rest of Friday afternoon settling in to our VERY luxurious accommodations at Anais’s uncles condo development. His name is Walker McKinley of McKinley Dang Burkart and he is the very charming and very talented architect of The Shores. Friday night was spent wiring orchids, making bouquets, centrepieces, bouts and getting ready for the ceremony on Saturday.
This is the deck before we worked our magic. Stay tuned for the transformation. I know, it is fabulous like it is now but wait until you see it!
We started planning this wedding back in January with the bride Karen and her Mom along with our very favorite and THE most capable and organized wedding planner we know, Christine Smart of Smart Events. After tossing around many, many ideas we narrowed it down to what became a most elegant combination of traditional white and green for the ceremony and dinner reception, and a riot of spicy, bright Indian inspired colours for the cocktail reception. We were thrilled because sometimes it is so hard to decide between the bright, vibrant colours and the more subdued, always perfect, whites and greens. We didn’t have to decide, we did both!The whole day took place at the stunning home of the bride’s parents in Cordova Bay. It was all hands on deck for this one as the timing was tight. We called in our most trusted and talented team of helpers and had such a great time; lots of diet coke, swollen ankles and sore feet.The ceremony was held in the huge white marquee, supplied by Apex Tents, with the guests seated in a circular fashion around the bridal couple. Guests then wandered to the ocean side of the house for the high energy cocktail reception with elaborate food stations all catered by the ever popular and talented Truffles Catering. Meantime the Verbena team, the Truffles team, Christine and her good friend Gary (whom she was able to talk into coming all the way from Toronto to help her with all the details) were busily transforming the marquee for the sit down dinner to follow. The gorgeous linens for the whole event were supplied by Around the Table from Toronto . We are posting our photos but stay tuned for the much anticipated “real” photos from the photographer Helene Cyr. We had so much fun with this wedding. The bride and her Mom were wonderful to work and plan with. Turns out the entire family was so gracious, friendly and welcoming that is was hard to say goodbye and wrap it up.
