December « 2011 « Lavish Wedding Design

December 10, 2011Calgary Bridal Expo 2011

This past September, we were excited to participate as an exhibitor at the Calgary Bridal Expo, held at the BMO Centre on Stampede Park. This was our third Bridal Expo, and each time we participate the Lavish team spends hours and hours brainstorming and conceiving thematic ideas and concepts for our booth.

This year, we wanted to create something soft, romantic and luxurious.

We came up with the concept of “Champagne Romance”, and created a beautiful inspiration board to work from and help keep us inspired while we sourced out all of the materials and products that we would use to create the final vision.

Here’s the original inspiration board.

This design was based on a stunning chair cap that I saw at one of my favourite linen companies in California. Here’s the original photo of the chair cap that inspired the entire design:

The hardest part about designing a booth is space issues. You want to create something that will catch the eye of the thousands of Bride-to-Be’s walking through, but you also want to create a mood, an atmosphere. And we also have to keep in mind practicalities, such as having space for our promotional materials, our swag bags, and still have enough space for people to actually come IN to the booth to look at all of the lovely details.

This year was especially challenging as I was a few blocks away at a client’s wedding during the entire set-up day. This was the first year that I left the execution of my design in the capable hands of my team, plus a few amazing volunteers… and my husband! I was a little nervous, but they were wonderful at sending me frequent updates and photos so that I could see how everything was coming together. They did an AMAZING job, completely surpassing my expectations and really bringing my vision to life.

None of what we do would be possible without the amazing support of our vendors, colleagues and fellow wedding professionals. Huge kudos to the following people & companies that supported us at this show:

Florals: The Nosegay

Stationery: Plush Invitations

Rentals: Special Event Rentals & Great Event Rentals

Cake: Cakes In Vogue

Lighting: Stardust Event Group

Photography: As I See It Photography

We were incredibly excited to be awarded the trophy for “Best Use Of Colour” at this show – a huge honour considering the sheer number of exhibitors! Big hugs to Stardust for being patient with my team as they experimented with different shades of lighting… for a few hours! Totally paid off guys! You got the colour JUST RIGHT!

Here are some photos of our lovely booth. We’re currently in production for our booth for the upcoming Wedding Fair (January 22nd at the BMO Centre), so be sure to purchase your ticket online and come see what we’ve created! Our gift to you – if you enter the code LAVISH upon checkout, you will receive a $2.00 discount off of your ticket! Woohoo!

The amazing team!

See you in January!!!!!!!

Hi there!

Sarah here, member of the Lavish team. I joined Lavish this past summer and instantly fell in love with the wedding industry. There is something so satisfying in making people as happy as we do, and that’s why I love it. Design has been a passion ever since the age of two, when I made masterpieces on the walls with lipstick, and so it’s no surprise that I love working at Lavish and being able to help bring to reality the AMAZING designs Mary and her team come up with.

I’m currently working towards my business degree in Services Management at the University of Victoria, and at times the distance makes it tough, but it’s worth it! Once complete, I hope to follow up with an Event Management certificate or equivalent a bit closer to home.

When I’m not busy with school or work, I enjoy hanging out with friends and family (when they visit) and hitting the slopes in the winter. I’m also a huge movie and music buff.

I am SO excited about our new blog and I hope you share my excitement!

- Sarah

Hi All!

My name is Renée. I had the privilege of meeting Mary last spring, and instantly asked to join her décor team. It was a great summer and I am so pleased so say that I have joined team LAVISH as a Coordinator on a full time basis. There is nothing more satisfying than making a couple’s vision of their big day come true. Having a background in Corporate and International Event Planning I was surprised to instantly fall in love with the emotions attached to wedding planning. And I am never going back!

In my down time, I love to ski, golf, cook and hang out with my hubby and my beautiful daughter. One day, I hope she lets me help plan her big day!

There are some great wedding topics and trends that I am ready to share with all of you.

So please subscribe and share with all your “soon to be bride” friends!

I am super excited about our new blog and hope that you are too.

I love all things pretty!

Renée

December 6, 2011Meet the Team – Lauren

Hi everyone!

I’m Lauren and I just got married this past July! I hired Mary and Lavish as our Wedding Planner, and it was during the process of planning my wedding that I realized how much I love planning & designing weddings myself. I’m so excited that I’m joining the Lavish Team.

Our cheerful yellow and grey wedding had a contemporary vibe but I still found a way to incorporate a lot of traditions. I have a passion for design and an eye for detail, and I can’t wait to embark upon this journey with many couples.

Be sure to subscribe to the Lavish Blog as I share with you all of my favourite wedding finds.

This is one of the images from our recent wedding!

Our Wedding was recently featured on the Style Me Pretty blog, click on the link below to view it!

Style Me Pretty

Excited to be joining the Lavish Team!

Well hello!

We are so excited to announce that we’re finally all set to go with the lovely Lavish Blog! We’ve spent the last few weeks brainstorming new ideas and topics that we want to share with you, and let me tell you – the next few months are going to be chalk-full of ideas and eye-candy! You won’t want to miss a single day, so make sure that you’ve subscribed to our RSS Feed!

To get things started, we wanted to introduce ourselves, as our team has been growing and changing over the last few months.

I thought I’d start us off:

I’m Mary! I’m the founder/owner/president/person-in-charge/ceo/cfo/blah blah… and yes, I’m a Wedding Planner and Designer as well!

Here’s one of my “official” head shots, so you can see what I look like:

I started Lavish is 2009, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job. I can honestly say that every job I have ever had was preparing and leading me to my career as a business owner, Wedding Planner, and Designer. I know that sounds sorta cheesy – but there it is. This is my destiny. I have worked harder and more hours than you could possibly imagine in the last (almost) 3 years. And you know what? None of it really felt like WORK. What it felt like was a privilege. I feel that my job is an HONOUR. I feel so honoured that so many couples – in Calgary, Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, Edmonton, and beyond – have trusted me to plan, design, and execute their dream wedding day.

It makes me kinda teary-eyed, to be honest.

As Lavish has grown – I now have 3 AMAZING Wedding Coordinators working for me – I’ve had to take a step back and spend a little more time focusing on the business side of Lavish. This has been harder than I would have thought, because I really would rather spend my days with my clients, at floral studios, at cake tastings, choosing linen… but I also know that the time that I spend ensuring that Lavish is a well-organized, well-run business ultimately benefits all of our couples as well, so I’m ok with it. Plus – I know that Cara, Lauren & Renee are taking fantastic care to provide each Lavish Couple with the same love and attention to detail that I do. And of course, I still work with couples myself – just not as many as in years’ previous.

We also have come together as a team, and now each Lavish Couple knows that when they hire us, they hire ALL of us. We meet weekly to ensure that each of us are updated on each couple, and we ALL work together to come up with ideas and designs for each wedding.

You know what they say – “Two heads are better than one”… well, we feel that 4 Planners is better than 1!

I’ve grown as a person as Lavish has grown as a business, and each couple that I’ve been lucky to work with has been part of that growth. Many, many of my former clients are now good friends, and I can’t imagine my life without them in it! Maybe it’s the snow on the ground, the Christmas trees, the carols… it’s that time of year, for sure – and I have never felt more blessed to be surrounded by my family, friends, clients, vendors, colleagues, and my amazing Lavish staff.

Thank you to all of you for being part of my life.

WOW – I did not think I would get so sappy/emotional writing my “Introduction” blog post, but there it is.

In other, non-sappy news, here are a few things you may not know about me:

1 – I have three amazingly beautiful, sweet children.

2 – I have been married for 11 (!) years… we fell in love when I was only 18 years old.

3 – I have a degree in classical music performance.

4 – I can (and do) sing the lead guitar and/or saxophone melody from pretty much any song from the 80′s. Loudly.

5 – My passion is bringing people together to celebrate. I host numerous parties, organize bi-weekly get-togethers for my girlfriends, co-host monthly networking events for the Wedding Industry… and oh yeah, I plan unforgettable, fabulous weddings. Seeing people surrounded by their loved ones, having an amazing time… that makes me happier than you can know.

Thank you so much for reading this blog, and I hope you’ll continue to tune in each day as we share our passion for all-things-wedding!

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