August 5th, 2017, was the wedding day of L and B. Their Saltspring Island wedding was ThistleBEA’s first destination coordination, set at Ruckle Provincial Park and Beaver Point Hall. The bride and groom had rented out Bed and Breakfasts in the area for their family as well as for the bridal party, creating a very intimate weekend for all of them together.
ThistleBEA provided our day-of coordination package (A Day In The Life) with a few tweaks: since the bride was very organized and involved, she took on several tasks that traditionally belong to the day-of coordinator, neatly showcasing not only L and B’s strengths and flexibility, but ThistleBEA’s as well.
Rentals were by the Rental Stop; flowers provided by Thrifty Foods.
The ceremony (performed by a celebrant, rather than an officiant) took place at Campsite 2 in the provincial park. Serendipitously, this allowed L and B to keep the wedding affordable by making use much of the same décor as a couple who married in the same location a week previously, while still maintaining the integrity of their original vision. It was important to both the bride and groom that the wedding connect to both their own respective roots and the roots of their natural location; in service of that, the ceremony included an acknowledgement of the original stewardship of the land by Canada’s First Nations people. The nature theme of the wedding was borne out by the couple’s use of browns and decorative greenery, primarily ferns and eucalyptus.
The reception, at Beaver Point Hall, was catered by the best man and several old cooking companions of the groom (a former chef). The cake, which was decorated in accordance with the nature theme, was also prepared by a friend, while the photographer was the groom’s old roommate and a close friend of the couple. It was truly an affair rife with goodwill and friendship, as even their coordinator, ThistleBEA’s Breanne, was an old colleague of the pair’s!
From the bride:
Breanne worked hard from the moment she started right to the end. Our get-away wedding was a three day gig on Salt Spring Island, with set up on Friday, wedding on Saturday, and take down on Sunday. A description of our wedding might help to show how much Breanne did for us. We went full DIY. We sourced local ingredients and vendors, scouted out locations, scoured Craigslist, garage sales, and Facebook groups for decor. We had two locations: wedding at a park, dinner/dancing at a hall. Because we did the whole wedding DIY, there was a lot of work to be done, and it took a whole team of people to make it happen. Our friends baked two gorgeous, gourmet weddings cakes, pickled and fermented foods in advance, catered the rehearsal dinner for 35 people, as well as the wedding dinner and a midnight snack for 120 guests, brewed shrub mix for our signature drinks, photographed our ceremony, our MCs built Plinko to decide the eating order, and two DJ friends carried the night away. So many folks helped us by bringing carloads of our stuff in. They helped us set up, decorate, create, take down, and pack out both locations, including lights, lanterns, handmade calligraphy name tags tied to water glasses, signage, hand-painted hipster flagged fence, candles, the stage, tables, steaming endless table cloths, centrepieces, strings of photos, the photobooth, self-portrait guestbook, and on and on. Other than ThistleBEA, our only vendors were a student photographer for the reception, two bartenders, and the Thrifty Food’s florist, and the local farms and baker from whom we bought our ingredients and bread.
Having so many talented friends help was a dream, but it takes a lot of coordination to ensure that everything gets done, that it’s done correctly, and that it’s done on time. It was such a relief to have Breanne to help coordinate. We had discussed what we wanted for our wedding, so that when a problem or question arose, she used that knowledge and took initiative to find solutions. Our friends packed their cars with equipment and decorations, and when some of these items didn’t arrive with the people meant to bring them, Breanne found a way to get them to Salt Spring. Through the entire weekend, Breanne was checking on the groom and I, and doing her best to keep our event running smoothly.
Whatever was needed, she was right there seeing how she could help. She packed a full carload from Vancouver to Salt Spring, and through the entire weekend she was running last-minute errands as mini-emergencies came up. Our signature drink was more popular than we expected, and we ran out of gin before 6:30pm, and out of ice twice. Breanne did an emergency booze run, and two ice runs, and our guests were never the wiser. When I was shaking from hunger and exhaustion waiting to walk down the aisle, she was ready with snacks. When our bartender got drunk (wasn’t pouring the correct drinks, was taking incorrect cash at the twonie bar, being aggressive with guests, throwing the ends of drinks out the window behind him), and my partner and I were having difficulty managing the situation, she suggested solutions and offered to step in and handle things. Two of our kitchen/bar staff bailed at the last minute, and at the end of the night, when we were all exhausted and running on 3 or less hours of sleep, Breanne was still bussing tables. She was organizing everything she could so that take down the next day would be easier. Even though she knew we had volunteers offering to help, she recognized that those volunteers were guests that had worked hard all weekend, and she did so much to alleviate the workload on our guests the next morning.
Breanne delivered breakfast to our wedding party the morning of the wedding, and our wedding party took the time to tell us how they were impressed by how hard she worked right until the end of the night. Breanne worked a 16 hour day for us, and she worked hard the whole time. We couldn’t be more grateful for how thoughtful, kind, and generous she was. She really prioritized our event, and in doing so, allowed us to relax and really enjoy our day. We knew that if any issues came up, she would be working earnestly to fix it, and we couldn’t have asked for more. Breanne really went above and beyond in the truest sense of the phrase. And through it all, she wore a smile. She was gracious and sweet, and our guests told us how impressed they were by how hard she worked.
Reflecting on the meetings we had prior to the wedding, how quickly she responded to emails or texts, how hard she worked on our wedding weekend, and how professional and kind she was the whole time, my partner and I couldn’t be more grateful. We would definitely recommend Breanne and ThistleBEA for your wedding.
This looks like a seriously great wedding. I want to go and plan the perfect wedding for myself, and I am looking for references. There are people who have better weddings, but it is all relative. I think that we all have a lot of things that we have to consider when planning our wedding. Personally, I believe that this is one of the best out there. I hope that I can have a wedding that I can truly enjoy.
Hey, what a great story, and I like the bouquet you have shared. A wedding is incomplete without a beautiful bouquet. Nice to read your blog and keep posting more blogs like this.