Set on the very first day of summer, this wedding is a exactly the fun themed, flower-filled celebration you’d imagine. It’s sort of botanical chic meets casual whimsy, and the handmade herb potted favors are like icing on the cake. Flowers Time whipped together the gorgeous bloomage, and you can see it all from Olive Photography right here.
From the Bride… We chose June 21st as our wedding date because it’s the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. We love the summer months in Canada, especially when the sun stays out past 9pm, so the fact that the Solstice fell on a Saturday worked out perfectly. We wanted a theme that straddled spring and summer since it was going to be on a transitional day, so we decided on shabby chic because the muted but colourful palate let us have a lot of colours – blush, cream, mint, lavender, peach with gold accents – instead of the traditional two colour scheme. Shabby chic really reflects our personal style as well which is a mix of traditional/vintage with modern finishes, so we knew that all our attire and other details would work together.
We did a lot of DIY projects that incorporated our theme – the biggest undertaking was the potted herb favours that doubled as place cards. We white-washed the terracotta pots, found a large variety of herbs, potted them, added ribbons in our colour theme to each one and then topped them with scalloped flags with names hand-written by the mother of the bride. Not only did the favours double as place cards, but they also added even more greenery to the table to make it feel very summery. We also made our own table numbers that carried through the floral shabby chic theme. We love to go to antique markets so the last time we were at the Aberfoyle Antique Market we picked up some vintage botanical prints and popped them into some white frames and added numbers with a glass writing marker in an art deco font.
We knew that while we were putting together all these details that would bring the theme across once guests arrived, the invitation is the first piece that they get and that would really set the tone for what guests expect. We worked with a fantastic graphic designer and told her our vision and a lot about the wedding and she came up with a beautiful design for the invitations that we were able to carry through to all the stationary like the menus and the programs.
We decided early-on that the dance party for the reception was one of the most important parts for us – we really wanted to make sure that our family as well as our friends all had a great time – so finding the right DJ was really important and pretty difficult. Unless you see a DJ at a wedding, you don’t really have an idea of what they’re like. Reviews are helpful but everyone’s taste in music is different, so one person’s perfect DJ might be someone else’s dud. Our friend recommended our DJ and after meeting him, we realized he was perfect. The party lasted until the end of the night with people cheering for “One more song” at the end – which he complied with and played The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ and made the perfect ending to the perfect day.
Top 5 Pieces of Advice to Engaged Couples Planning their Wedding:
1) First and foremost, start with a theme or an overall look and feel for your day. Everything else – venue, attire, decor, music, flowers – will flow out of having a strong overall vision for what you want your wedding to look like. Pinterest and wedding blogs are a great place to get inspiration for what you want and identify the things you’re not as into. They’re also a great place for finding vendors and venues – we found our venue and photographer from wedding blogs and we’re thrilled with how they worked out.
2) You don’t necessarily have to go through traditional wedding stores for every detail of the wedding. We did really well finding decor at Target and Staples, attire details online at places like The TieBar and Etsy, and finding the bridesmaid’s dresses at Urban Outfitters. It’s a great way to save on your budget and also make sure that you’re details are one of a kind. Finding a great vendor on Etsy is great if you want something a little different too because they’ll often work with you to create something custom. The groom and groomsmen’s pocket squares are a great example – I sent her a picture of the ties and bow tie and she sent me photos of fabric options to choose from. They turned out perfect and it was also nice to know that they’re a really special takeaway for the guys that they can’t get anywhere else.
3) Go with your gut. There were lots of traditional details we weren’t sure about like whether to have a bouquet toss or having the wedding party announced coming into the reception – neither of which we ended up doing. Every time we were asked about those details, we just went back to what we were picturing for the day and decided to do that, regardless of what the norm was. This is also true of decor and all the little details. I really wanted gold Chivari chairs to make the “gold” accent in our theme pop. The venue came with silver chairs and a lot of people thought I wouldn’t end up caring about the chairs but I stuck to my guns and I think they made the look of the whole dining room pop and tied the theme together. A bonus is that we were able to use them for the ceremony as well, so that looked great in pictures as well.
4) Do anything that you can do ahead of time as early as possible. I was really lucky to be able to take the week before the wedding off from work, and I don’t know how I would have got everything finished if I hadn’t. All the little things add up and it was a lot of late nights the week before getting everything done. We definitely would have tried to do more in the week’s leading up to the wedding instead of leaving it to the last week. Writing out a decor plan on how you want things set up on the day of the wedding will help to map out what needs to be done and makes it much easier to delegate tasks to your wedding party and family. Don’t forget to enjoy yourself through it all – play music, have a glass of wine, work outside if the weather’s nice – we enjoyed doing all the pieces because we had fun along the way.
5) Lastly, but probably most importantly, get a wedding day-of coordinator. Even if you’re doing the planning yourself, get someone to help you on the day-of. You want to be able to enjoy the day and a coordinator can set up your decor, make sure all your vendors arrive, ensure the venue is set up according to your floor plans and make sure everyone in your wedding parties arrive on time and are positioned properly. I work in Public Relations and plan and execute a lot of events, and I still couldn’t have pulled off the wedding without Fidan and her Designed Dream team running the show. The peace of mind is worth it but having the perfect wedding day is the cherry on top.
Photography: Olive Photography | Flowers: Flowers Time | Wedding Dress: Watters Bridal | Cake: Swirls Cupcakes | Bride's Shoes: Kate Spade | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Urban Outfitters | DJ: Indie Wedding DJ | Groom's Attire: Burberry | Venue: Caffino Ristorante | 'Love Is Sweet' Banner: BHLDN | Bride's Clutch: Club Monaco | Bride's Headband: Urban Outfitters | Bride's Veil: Kiss Design House On Etsy | Bridesmaids' Clutches: J.Crew | Chairs: Majestic Chair Boutique | Coordination And Design Consulting: Designed Dream Wedding & Event Planning | Getting Ready Rompers: Target | Groom & Groomsmen Socks: Gap | Groom's Shoes: Johnston & Murphy | Groomsmen Tie Bar: The Tie Bar | Groomsmen's Bowties And Ties: J.Crew | Groomsmen's Pocket Squares: Hillanddale On Etsy | Invitations, Menus, Programs, Photo Guest Book Stationery: Lauren Potosky - Freelance Designer Via The Papery | Photo Guest Book Camera: Polaroid Z2300 Digital Instant Print | Seating Chart Chalkboards: Staples | Table Confetti: ElfSTUDIOS On Etsy | Table Number Botanical Prints: Aberfoyle Antique Market | Table Numbers Frames: Dollarama