Becky & Nabil – what can I say about these two!?!?

Becky & I hit it off right away, during our initial consultation. It was really funny – at the end of our meeting, I told her to think about everything we’d talked about, and to contact me in a few days if she decided to move forward with having LAVISH as her Wedding Planning company. She got as far as the parking lot before she turned around and came back inside and said “OK! I thought about it! Let’s do it!”

We had the most amazing time working on this wedding. I loved that this wedding was all about bringing two families with vastly different cultural backgounds together – it made it challenging and really exciting for us. I love that Becky & Nabil always kept the “guest experience” forefront in their minds as we were planning – they have such big hearts, and care so much about their family & friends.

Thank you, Becky & Nabil, for trusting us with this most special day. And thank you the amazing team that we put together to make it happen:

Flowers: Brides Mom & The Nosegay – Lighting: SilverMoon Productions – Venue: Fairmont Palliser – Cake: Brides Mom – Entertainment: the Dino Martini’s, Kenna Burima, Allegra String Quartet, Arabia Adorned – Stationery: Plush Invitations – Photography: HANAFOTO – Videography: SNAP

HUGE kudos to SNAP for doing such an amazing job on this highlight video!

Nabil & Rebecca [Calgary Wedding Videography] from SNAP Weddings on Vimeo.

I’m dancing around my office today, as we just received word that LAVISH has received a STAR award nomination for the second year in a row! We are thrilled to have received the nomination for Best Wedding 75k and Under for Becky & Nabil’s stunning July wedding at the Fairmont Palliser.

It is truly an honour to be recognized by the industry, and I’m completely blown away by the support we’ve received this past year especially.

Tomorrow I will be blogging this beautiful wedding – so be sure to check back and see! I’ve included a sneak peak though…

Now… I’m off to go shopping for a new dress to wear to the Gala & Awards Ceremony!

What a fabulous experience! I can’t tell you how incredibly proud I am of what our team accomplished for the 2012 Calgary Wedding Fair! Lauren, Renee and I spent weeks creating custom-designed pieces for this event, including the stunning satin panels – a huge hit!

In September at the Calgary Bridal Expo, our design was luxurious romance – dripping in pearls, the soft & elegant colours of champagne, ivory and blush. Exquisite linen, warm lighting… it was beautiful, and a huge hit. For THIS show, we wanted to go to the other side of the spectrum, while still keeping that luxury feel that we are so well known for.

We chose the colour palette of white, silver and raspberry pink. I’m loving white right now – which is rather funny, because 2 years ago I swore that I’d never design with white as the principal tone. However, lately I’m in love with the bright, clean luxury of it. It creates such a high contrast to almost all colours, and I find it almost as dramatic as black. A caution – there are over 150 shades of white, (which is actually not considered a colour, but an absence of colour). This means that you need to be comfortable shade-matching. Let me tell you – very few things are bright white, as we found out! Luckily for us, we knew that this would be an issue, and ensured that we had a lighting plan in place to minimize any issues.

The overall theme for our design was clean, modern luxury. We wanted to include a stylized sweet table, as SO many of our couples have been asking us to design them. I love it- I think it’s a high-class version of the candy buffet, and it can be a fantastic focal-point to the design. I asked Lauren to take the lead on this project, and she did a fabulous job. We designed a unique way to label each treat – including hanging the stationery from bling within an acrylic box. I LOVE the meringue topiaries that Lauren made – how stunning! Our feature piece or this booth were custom designed white panels, which Renee created from scratch – a huge project! – they turned out perfectly, and we can’t wait to use them in our upcoming weddings.

HUGE thank you goes to Nancy & Maros from HANAFOTO and Tessa Perkins from Tessa Perkins Photography for stopping by to take some photos and allowing us to use them! Also thank you to Plush Invitations, the Nosegay, Great Events, Special Event Rentals, One West, Jelly Modern Donuts, Stardust Lighting, and Cakery Bakery for contributing to our booth. You all rock!

All right, enough talking, let’s check out some photos!

The final installment! I contacted Siewmee to ask her a few questions about her wedding day – here’s what she had to say:

MARY: Tell us a little about your proposal

SIEWMEE: Well, our relationship wasn’t a traditional one by any means and neither was our engagement. We were attending Ryan’s brothers wedding in Winnipeg back in 2007. And since we were going to be back we decided to order and pick up my ring from my cousins who happen to be jewellers. We’ve been together for a long time and have a beautiful daughter together.

MARY: Who were the three first wedding professionals that you hired?

SIEWMEE: We selected our venue first and foremost (the RIMROCK HOTEL in Banff), and then immediately hired a Wedding Planner (LAVISH). Our next step, with the help of LAVISH, was to hire a fabulous photographer (ABSOLUTE PHOTOGRAPHY).

MARY: How did you select your wedding colours, and what were they?

SIEWMEE: We chose the colors based on my favorite flower – the orchid. Because our ceremony was outdoors during the summer I wanted it to be light and fresh. So we chose a pale light pink and green. The ceremony we chose a deep purple and black for elegance and also because it’s our favorite color.

MARY: What promted you to hire a Wedding Planner?

SIEWMEE: In short… life is hectic! Work is insanely busy for me all year long. I find myself working from home some evenings and weekends. How could I ever plan a wedding with a demanding career, a family and a home to maintain? For me it was next to impossible to find the time to do the research, let alone attend appointments. We knew that hiring a wedding planner was a must. With so many choices of vendors and details I needed to rely on a professional’s expertise. Not to mention I needed someone to stay organized on my behalf!

MARY: Why did you select LAVISH?

SIEWMEE: I had made a few calls and Mary was the first to respond – within 24hrs. Which impressed me being that I was anxious to get started! We met the following weekend and just conversed about our vision for the wedding day. Mary understood my style and commented that my vision was small but lavish. She understood that I was looking for a gorgeous wedding but a fun party and I definitely wanted to have some wow factor! We wanted to set ourselves apart from all of the other weddings that we’d attended. We wanted a memorable day that our guests would talk about for years. Once we met with Mary we didn’t look any further. And when we received our design proposal, we had no doubt that we made the right decision.

MARY: What are some of your favourite memories of your wedding day?

SIEWMEE: The decor – everything from the overall atmosphere to the smallest of details were amazing. The reaction and comments from our guests made it all worth it. Seeing everyone enjoy the reception and party was satisfying. Most of all, the calmness of the day. It wasn’t stressful, flowed almost flawlessly. And not to mention the unsurpassed team of vendors. Everything came together perfectly!

MARY: What advice do you have for recently engaged couples?

SIEWMEE: Hire a wedding planner! It’s the best investment for your wedding. You need a non-biased individual to keep you grounded with vendor & decor selections and budget. My husband would have let me choose the moon and stars if it was offered to me, but our wedding planner helped keep us grounded. Trust your wedding planner! They have built relationships with vendors and because of this there is no reason to shop around! Lavish only works with the best of the best. I know I definitely did not have the time to do the research on my own. What else… Engagement photos are recommended – we got to know our photographer during our engagement shoot and found that we really like his personality. He made us feel comfortable and encouraged us to bring our daughter. Which meant a lot to us. A videographer is a must, we are so fortunate to have hired the best cinematographers! They offer a different view, a different angle, a different vision on capturing moments throughout the day. Also – do a cake and food tasting and don’t be afraid to ask for substations or make special requests. I’d suggest having your hair stylist and makeup artist come to you instead of going to them – it makes it much easier and relaxing. Final thoughts… Enjoy your day! For us, a year of planning came and went in the blink of an eye. Don’t force the groom to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Not everything will go your way so don’t dwell on any one issue. Trust your decisions and the advice of your wedding planner. Lastly and most importantly, try to stay on budget! It is way too easy to deviate from it!

Thanks Siewmee for taking the time to participate in this post! We loved being part of your amazing wedding, and look forward to many years of friendship with yourself, Ryan, and the lovely Alexa!

Here are some final images from the big day – including some detail shots from their oh-so-fab custom sweet table!