The night when 400 guests and countless number of vendors pulled together the most magnificent celebration for such a deserving couple - Christine + Pierre. In creating this wedding we wanted to bring in a gorgeous sunset mood yet magnificent in ambience, and this serves as the theme of the night.
You know it's such a great opportunity, each time, to create different moods and scenes that are reflective of who the couple are; Christine's loud, speaks at a thousand-miles-a-second, she's a pocket rocket and Pierre's a bloke that has a deep passion for food, he comes across grouchy sometimes, he's a lot of fun in a slightly dry and lebbo way. And they have this cat-dog relationship that works so well, actually reminds me of Bailey and I (haha), and it's beautiful to see them argue but then laugh and smile at each other. So I knew what we create would have to be dramatic yet romantic, a little OTT but in a subdued way. And it had to have a slightly out of the norm table layout to hold the surplus of food that they were serving.
Yes we had to re-think and re-imagine a lot of the components of the designs I had initially come up with, due to what occurred, and it was probably the second most stressful wedding planned in my 13 years. But that's part of the creative "fun" of coming up with designs, and building it on site, with the capability of re-imagining the design if need be. So we all did, and it turned out completely wonderful.
Back to the vision. Food is their profession, owning the wonderful restaurant 317 Parramatta, so it's expected that they would ensure the quality of food is top notch, and sufficient to avoid the usual "lets go to Maccas afterwards" that usually happens afterwards. So rather than the standard 1.2m round banquet tables, we opted to create square tables using 2 trestle tables for each guest table and this allowed for the platter stands of seafood, antipastos and traditional Lebanese mezze dishes strategically placed on each side of the guest table. You know that feeling of having to reach over for mezze or there isn't enough? Christine + Pierre didn't want that to happen to their guests so made sure Andy Lattouf, of Clarence House wedding venue, would cater for 4 of every mezze served on the night. Talk about food overload!
When Christine had came to me early on the process of designing their dream wedding she asked for a ceiling installation that would be like anything we've ever done before, what it would look like she left to me to come up with the concept. Sadly it couldn't be done due to various at the original venue. But with what transpired last minute, and the call was made to re-locate everything, it was somewhat of a blessing-in-disguise!
The Lemnos Club Belmore had the structural points we needed to build what I had in mind, but a custom piece would have to be created quick smart to support the weight of the hanging flowers and teardrop lights. Thankfully Andy got together his building crew to build this round structure - and the best thing? It's available for all stylists to make use of, just talk to the team at Lemnos Club. Imagine the possibilities!
The final result of this 4 day of dismantling, moving, and re-building fun? Hope you love it as much as I do!
To the wonderful vendors that just got together to make it happen; thank you thank you and thank you for making it so painless and seamless.
To my completely hard work crew you guys went way over-above-beyond-to-the-moon-and-pluto to make this happen (and the pack down afterwards was a KILLER), and I completely cherish your commitment to create dreams, in the face of any problem that arises.
To the staff of the venue and Andy Lattouf; thank you even more so because of what you've done to move heaven and earth to make the mishaps have less impact on the couple.