Wedding Planning by Alicia Keats – Photography provided by Koncept
The first thing Jackie shared with me when I met with her was that she wanted her guests to have an amazing party weekend that they would be talking about for years to come. They wanted to incorporate four different events, each with a distinct feel, showcasing a part of Vancouver that held a lot of meaning for them: China Town, old world Vancouver, the Aboriginal heritage of Vancouver, and the mountains surrounding the city. Culture and travel was very important to Jackie and Matthew as well, and they have had the privilege of attending wedding ceremonies all over the world, so they knew they wanted to incorporate this into their wedding.
To help guests understand the flow of the wedding weekend and be able to get all the information they needed in an easy to reference way, Love by Phoebe created a gorgeous booklet with all details in one place. The booklet was in a shape of a heart, and each page shared the details of that particular event including dress-codes, transportation notes etc.
The weekend started with an Chinese welcome party at Pink Pearl restaurant in downtown Vancouver. We fully draped the restaurant, and the ceiling was covered with giant imported paper lanterns. It was so much fun turning Pink Pearl into a glamorous Chinese wonderland. The night included welcome cocktails, lion dancers, a hora, a photobooth, we also arranged shuttle services for the guests to each event. I love thoughtful details like this, so their guests wouldn’t have to worry about arranging transport or finding their way around a new city.
The next day was the wedding day, starting with the wedding ceremony at the Museum of Anthopology (MOA). Jackie and Matthew wanted to honour the Aboriginal people whose land we were on, so we had Aboriginal drummers and dancers customizing the candlelit Jewish ceremony in the beautiful Great Hall. We even had a Totem-inspired chuppah. We also had only 30 minutes to set up for the ceremony, so it was a tight turn around.
Guests were then taken by shuttle bus to a Valentine-inspired ball at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Jackie and Matthew wanted to bring to life old Hollywood glamour, and the room was filled with fresh imported 10ft palms, red roses, and flowers hanging from the chandeliers. In fact, this was the first wedding the Hotel Vancouver had ever had with flowers added to the chandeliers…we used three lifts to do this! You can also imagine how hard it was to get all those red roses on a Valentine’s weekend 🙂 Evan and his team at Koncept and Flowerz worked magic making it happen for me and I couldn’t have pulled this off without his tireless hard work and care. He was incredible!
We had a surprise for the guests that needed to stay hidden during dinner, so I asked Evan and his team to create a giant wall for me, dividing the room in half. It needed to be seemless so that guests wouldn’t be tempted to peek behind it. As soon as dinner was done, we pulled back the curtain to reveal The Wallflowers Band! Hiding behind the ‘wall’ was a full on rock concert. The wall was made of floor-to-ceiling red velvet drape. It was two stories high, and like most of the decor, was custom-made. We had sound mixing boards ready to roll forward for the band, which had to be in place within two minutes. We had all hands on deck to make the reveal happen and it did, seamlessly!
On the Sunday, Jackie and Matthew wanted their guests to enjoy the natural beauty of the local area, so we organized a ski & spa adventure day in Whistler. As guests departed on the shuttle from their hotel, they were given personalized tuques, as well as personalized coffee and treats. Guests had the option of skiing or going to the spa, the perfect way to end the wedding weekend.
Here are a few peeks at some of the magic we created, enjoy!
With love,
Alicia xoxo
