Sisterly love!

In the third week of September, I got a phone call from my sister who said she was getting married in our hometown of Terrace. I said, "That's great!" She said she was getting married at Thanksgiving! I said, "You liar!" She wasn't lying!

So, I had three weeks to come up with decor and flower ideas. Megan let me know that all she wanted was the colour turquoise. She has seen my work and worked with me before so she trusted me to do whatever I wanted! Ha! So fun! Right away, I thought of a wedding I did in May of 2008, that incorporated turquoise and peacock feathers, which I absolutely loved. So we settled on turquoise, purple, jade and chocolate brown. And it was emotionally beautiful! After the groom missed his flight due to Air Canada's Jazz's entire computer system going down, they were able to get him a flight to Smithers, where he was able to drive into Terrace. So, we started 2 and half hours late! But he got to Terrace and it all made for great stories!

Megan and Dallas, it really was an honor to be able to work with you on your wedding. We laughed, we cried, we almost lost it (almost!) but it turned out great and I wouldn't change a thing! Congratulations to my sister and new brother in law!

Anthony + Julie

So, another September 5th wedding! This one was special because the bride connected with me on Facebook of all places. I went to school and graduated with Julie in little old Terrace BC. When she asked if Halfyard Designs could do her Shaughnessy Golf Club wedding, I could not say no. She was a fellow Terracite after all!

Julie and Anthony live in San Jose, so we did a lot of our 'meetings' through the wonderful internet! She chose some beautiful colours and made great choices in flowers! And her attention to detail was shown throughout the venue. They had a wine theme going on, so their place cards for each guest stood on an individual cork. And each table was named after a varietal of grape! Very creative! But my favourite, which had nothing to do with wine, was the candy table! It was sweetly amazing!

The day of the wedding was even more special, as I was able to reconnect (albeit very quickly, as we did have 2 other weddings to set up) with a few more old high school classmates.

Congratulations Julie and Anthony! Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of your so important day!

* I'm not going to post all the photos, since I'm going to use Julie's wedding as a feature on my website. Stay tuned!

  

Some catching up...

So, now we've had some time to relax, do a bit of traveling and just unwind from an extremely busy and successful 2009 season! Now to catch up!

Last December, I went home to Terrace for Christmas. It was wonderful! It was snowing, cold and I was surrounded by family and friends! One of those friends had gotten engaged a few months prior and I was finally able to visit with her and see the beautiful engagement ring! On this trip, I brought with me a copy of AisleWalk, the magazine in which Halfyard Designs advertises in. I figured it would help her, since she lives in New York and was planning a Vancouver wedding.

A few months later I get a call from Danielle and she asks if I could meet her and Rick at the airport. They were just leaving back to New York, but wanted to meet with me to see if I was available to pull off their vision! Of course, I said yes!

Fast forward to their September 5th Brock House wedding! We had 2 other weddings that day. Luckily for me, the timing was perfect, and I had an amazing team working with me and we pulled them off! Rick and Danielle chose some amazing vendors that I love to work with. Of course, Brock House. They also used Sweet Thea Cakes, who replicated Danielle's dress for the cake design, and everyone had loads of fun in the photobooth courtesy of Photobooth Vancouver!

Thank you so much Rick and Danielle for allowing us to be a part of your day! We had a great time putting together your dream wedding! And we had an even better time attending the wedding!

Good cause...

So, this is not business related, but it is a great cause. My friends and teammates, the Westside Red Devils are participating in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundations Run for the Cure in Vancouver. Breast cancer continues to affect the lives of many Canadians. With your generous donation, you can help find a cure! Click here for more details and to donate!

The Devils for Kelli

Brock House Wedding Show!!!

It's that time of year again! Time to start planning for next years weddings! What better place to start your plans than at the Brock House Wedding Show. Showcased in this show are the best of the best, the creme de la creme! It's, as they say unlike any other! Come for a wonderful afternoon of appetizers, great wine, and drop by the Halfyard Designs booth to see what we can do for you!

Lanterns, lanterns, everywhere!

So, way back on a cold winter night of 2008, I received e-mail after e-mail from Samantha Berry of Dreamgroup Productions to book a bunch of consultations. She had not worked with Halfyard Designs yet, so it was such an honor and testament of her belief in my work when she also booked a consultation for her own wedding for September 09'! 

So, when we started working on her vision for her Kirkland House wedding, she, of course, knew what she wanted. Being a wedding planner, you come across A LOT of ideas and it is so hard to say no to the ideas you really, really love! So, one day I get an e-mail from Sam with the words "Crazy?" in the subject line. I knew it had nothing with mental stability! It was a photo of a tent filled with about 50 paper lanterns! So, like a good decorator, I said "No, you're not crazy. I can do that! No problem!" Then I worry about it later! 

The outcome, was by far, one of the coolest, most beautiful things I have ever done! Thanks Sam, for pushing me that much further as a decorator! I wish you and Sean all the happiness in the world!

A yacht!!!

Every once in a while, Halfyard Designs gets asked to do something different. So, when I was approached to decorate a simple yacht with paper lanterns, I jumped at the chance. Being down on the water reminded me of where I come from, small town Terrace, where my dad is a commercial fisherman. Being brought up on the water every summer (but not a yacht!), at the time, was not pleasant because I was missing out on all the summer fun my friends were having. But now I have an appreciation for the water and those who navigate it! So, in a way, I was doing this for my dad! Call it an homage, if you will.

Sacha + Martin

Sacha and Martin came to Halfyard Designs a few months ago with no colour scheme. They wanted whimsical, fun, different and colourful. When they came to my office, we played around with different overlays, sashes, vases, colours! It was so much fun and we came up with the perfect colour palette for what they were looking for. Overlays of green with hot pink runners, hot pink and red rose petal aisle and the tower vases of phaleonopsis orchids were simple but very effective. Once again, the Brock House Restaurant made for a beautiful setting. No pics of the bridal bouquet, but my favourite photographer, Barbara Casey of I Do Wedding Photography, was there for the day, so once we'll post those once we get them!

Salomeh + Jacob

Salomeh and Jacob decided on black, white and yellow for their theme. Halfyard Designs had so much fun working with these colours as they are not colours you would normally see put together! This is just a small taste of what Sally and Jacob had on their day at the Brock House Restaurant.

Nat + Sat

In July, Nat and Sat got married and Halfyard Designs was there to be a part of it. They were such a cool, non-traditional couple, opting for a pewter dress, pewter and purple centerpieces and my all time favourite, natural arch draped in 75 feet of pearls! Just lovely! These are the shots captured by Studio Jeanie at their Stanley Pavilion ceremony and reception of 200 people!

Jen + Andrew

Waaay back in June, Halfyard Designs did the flowers and decor for a beautiful couple! They were so much fun and really had great taste! Jen and Andrew chose shades of dark pink, some soft pink and white to go with their Carribean Blue bridesmaid dresses! How fun! The ceremony took place at the always fabulous Brock House Restaurant and the reception at the new Kirin Restaurant at the Starlight Casino in New West, where we brought in artificial, but realistic looking cherry blossom trees, all lit with hot pink up lighting. These are the photos of the flowers and decor captured so beautifully by Jenn Best Photography. Thank you Jen and Andrew for choosing me to be a part of your day!

Sarah + Sim

Every year you go through different popular colour schemes. Last year Halfyard Designs worked on so many white and green weddings that we forgot there were other colours on the colour wheel! But it made for an interesting challenge to make each wedding unique and special to each client.

This year, however, people have been choosing 

more colour. So, when Sarah came to us with her white, green and chocolate brown colour palette for her Brock House Restaurant wedding, we thought, no sweat! We had plenty of practice last year. But, last year was all about clean lines, classic, simple, etc, etc... Sarah was looking for a "West Coast" feel, with ferns, lots of greenery and gras

ses. So this is the result of what we came up with. It is one of my personal favorites of the year! Thank you Sarah and Sim for choosing Halfyard Designs to create this Whimsical Woodland!

Said computer software/hardware giant!

This is the 'wedding' Halfyard Designs had the absolute pleasure of working on! It was so much fun as you will see for yourself!

Here is the concept for the 'ceremony', a beautiful, bright and natural feel. Loving all the willow!