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!

017040 039 038 037 030 029 028 025 024 016 013 012 011 What a way to end our wedding season this year. Two of our most favorite people in the whole world, and without a doubt two of the most talented photographers we and many others have had the pleasure of working with got married today. What a day it was! The sun shone and the autumn leaves seemed to shimmer with extra brilliance as Tristan Shouldice  married Jenna Tye under the garry oak tree’s in the garden of the beautiful Fireside Grill. Much will be recorded, written, photographed and blogged about this wedding as the room was filled with some of the best wedding photographers around. Not only were we lucky enough to be able to do the floral design for this wedding but both of our family’s attended with Vanessa’s daughter Lily as the flower girl /”photographer in training”. Lily and Kai, the ringbearer, got swept up in the photographer energy and a little photoshoot for themselves.
 We will be absolutely thrilled and honoured to have a record of this wedding included in our gallery as it was photographed by the genius eye’s of Ben Chrisman and Erin Reed, international wedding photographers from San Fransisco. As Jenna so eloquently put it tonight in her speech, these two “taught her how to see”. The dinner and party was “sound-tracked” by the best in the business Party People Sound Solutions, Angus is bar none the best DJ around. Of course we had to get ourselves looking ship shape for this “wedding of the year” so the lovely hands and make-up artistry of Mel Baird transformed us before we headed off. There is a reason she is booked every single weekend of the wedding season. We have watched Mel transform many of the same brides we have worked with, and we now gladly have the ability to personally reccomend her to all our brides. Below is a record of our floral journey from buckets to bouquets and centrepieces, only this time our pictures feature more of the people as they should. We believe that the flowers speak for themselves and our record is but one of many that will be shared of this day. Thank you to both Jenna and Tristan, our hearts were in every arrangement that surrounded you today!

This was a special wedding for us to be a part of as the beautiful bride was Vanessa’s daughter’s teacher. The wedding took place on a beautiful sunny BC day at the Church and State Winery in Brentwood Bay BC. We chose to go with the classic white and green palatte and used the idea of clustering different sizes of vases filled with arrangements of one kind of flower; alstromeria, lisianthus, roses and the orchids were placed in great little bud vases that looked like sea urchins. The large arrangements at the ceremony site were just complements to the fabulous old garry oak tree that Judith and Mike were married under. We will be using this wedding in our gallery once we get the photos from Amy Khangura. Best wishes and lots of love to a beautiful new couple!

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Another magical day for a wedding at Sea Cider that we were thrilled to be a part of. Emily and Beau were married in the evening on June 12th while looking out over the view from the deck in the ciderhouse. The couple, from New Zealand, had flown in a few days prior and the day could not have been more perfect for them. Once again we met and planned with Emily over lots of emails and a few spotty calls back and forth. We chose to go with a rustic, west coast elegant theme, using several different kinds of textural folliage and filler. Waxflower, buplereum, pittisporum and salal were the base of all the table centres and they were accented with beautiful soft apricot roses. The tables were set with the most extrordinary individual sets of antique china that the brides mother has been lovingly collecting over the years. Between the china, roses, shells and driftwood the tables looked fantastic and the tent was simply stunning. . The large arrangements flanking the ceremony site were overflowing with light green Annabelle hydrangeas, soft white lisianthus and whispy fiber optic grass. Emily’s bouquet was a perfect posy of lush white and soft pink peonies accented with the clean elegant lines of lavendar calla lilies, and white orchids. Her bridesmaids carried small posies with similar blooms including the highlights of soft apricot spray roses. Our lovely friend Margaret joined us on Thursday in our studio to lend her talented hands to the 21 centrepieces we made. How lucky we were to have our talented and beloved friend Jenna Tye follow us to capture the floral  journey from start to finish. The abundently talented Christine Smart coordinated the event and was the magic touch that made things go so smoothly for us as we arrived to set up. Thank you Christine! Truffles expertly catered and executed the dinner and drinks for the evening. We can’t wait to see photos of the beautiful Emily in her dress and more images of the entire day captured by Erica Chan, check out her blog teaser. Thank you to both Emily and Beau we wish you much love and hapiness.

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