Part five of a seven part series of the ins and outs of planning and executing a decor heavy DIY wedding
This Shibori inspired wedding strived to break up the mold of what the couple’s 160 guests might expect for a fantastic wedding. The couple seamlessly mixed their love of the west coast, the theatre, and international travel and expressed it through their wedding. At Performance Works on Granville Island, they created a décor plan that revolved around suspending beautiful things from the rafters and sitting guests in an unusual configuration; square tables! Not harvest tables, not round tables, square.
While I enjoy writing and think I’m fair at it, I fear my word paintings won’t suffice here to really capture the glam of this decor plan! I was fortunate enough to have Amy Teixeira Photography as the couple’s primary photographer who was also kind enough to allow me to bring in Kaidra Mitchell from Capture Your Now to document my team setting up. Hopefully, along with my words you will be able to get a well rounded view of this phenomenal unique wedding.
As I mentioned in previous installments, I came up with a zone and team plan to help us execute the decor plan flawlessly. Our team, composed of 6 people, were separated into three teams; the ladder team (who spent most of the time on the ladder), the scissor lift team (who, you guessed it, spent their time on the lift), and the floor team (who were responsible primarily for furniture and setting decor out). These teams each had a lead and an assistant and their duties were carefully mapped out by time and order. We also dealt with zones. Because we had a number of items to hang before we could set-up any furniture, we worked in small zones, 4 in total, that had an order of events to happen for set-up. This is what our zone map ended up looking like.
In each zone, the ladder team started with hanging the chandeliers then the chiffon. As soon as those were done, the ladder team would radio to the floor team that they had completed whichever zone it was and release it to move onto their next zone. At that point, the floor team would bring in the two tables to form the square table and place it underneath the chandelier, and the chairs placed around it. Once their furniture was set-up, they would set up the table decor and place settings until the next zone was released to them. Before the floor team was able to start on the first zone with hanging decor, they had plenty of other things to do, such as unload the uhaul, unpack boxes of decor, stage any decor that might need to be further prepped before it went out, and stage chairs and tables around the room (out of the ladder and lift’s ways). They had plenty to keep them busy before they were able to focus on the big picture things.
The scissor lift team, meanwhile, were hanging the long chiffon drapes down the centre of the venue. Once they were done, they got to move onto the floor team and helped them to execute their work, because as the ladder team finished more and more zones (speed was of essence) and the table work took a bit longer to set-up than what the ladder team had to do, they started to have more work than they could possibly do on their own.
Setting the boundaries for the zones and figuring out which order to make it all happen was all part of the dance and I wish I could give more insight to it than “the door was over by zone four, so I figured start from where we came in”. I never felt more like a dancer than when I was executing this plan, and it was so beautiful. Each team and zone was carefully planned out and each team had their own specialized timeline to work off of.
Onto the decor itself.
Man was there a lot of hanging decor and because that’s where the couple started when designing their wedding and it was where we had to start with the install. The bride and her family crafted stunning hanging chandeliers out of found pieces of driftwood and glass ornaments with air plants that our team suspended above each guest table aside 100s of feet of white chiffon fabric. And when I say driftwood, I don’t mean those puny pieces your dog picks up at the beach for you to play fetch with; these chandeliers were constructed of a large, single piece of driftwood which made them all unique in and of themselves. I can’t imagine the work that went into these being made. This is what I call crazy DIY and I LOVE IT! While those glass bulbs hung from the art piece, the wood itself was adorned with fairy lights and mosses. And I wish that words could do it justice here, but it can’t, so, enjoy this slideshow of these beauts!
To complement the fixtures hanging above, the centre of each square guest table was adorned with glass hurricane vases filled with dried legumes, fresh succulents, and air plants. Straw flowers were strewn on the tables like confetti between the small candle votives. The head table (the only table without one of the fabulous chandeliers) reflected the guest tables with long pieces of driftwood covered with giant air plants, mossy masses, all of which were accented with a subtle shibori ribbon. And directly in front of the couple sat five massive floral arrangements that were moved from the ceremony for the reception. The couple hired Granville Island locals, Our Little Flower Company, to complete their vision with all these botany accents and not only did they deliver to location, they DELIVERED on vision. DAMN! Again, pics or it didn’t happen!
Among the oh so many fabulous little touches, the mother of the bride bought white napkins and personally dyed each one with a unique shibori pattern which were placed at each place setting with a colourful printed menu and spices in vials that the couple gifted as favours.
The couple also hired furniture from Cahoots Creative for an awesome little sitting area for guests to take some respite during their reception and relax in style! If you look, you’ll see more wonderful little shibori touches. With the furniture they had a final chandelier delivered, and I’m not sure they could’ve made this one themselves which is why awesome services like Art of the Party exist. This was what we strung above the dance floor and it was magic. When all the lights were off each of the chandeliers and all the many candles were lighting up the room fantastically. I truly wish there were more words to describe all the awesomeness this wedding encompassed in their decor plan! Until that time, enjoy more decor photos and drool along with me. And come back for part 6 of 7 where I dive into the rabbit hole of problem solving through this beast of a wedding. If you’re anything like me, the coordination challenges will excite you as much as this decor!
All images below captured by Amy Texeira Photography.
Check out the other posts in this series!