This summer solstice wedding was planned while Shanna & Sheldon lived in Grande Cache, Alberta. They wanted an Edmonton wedding celebration that would bring in the richness of their heritage….and Shanna’s passionate love of shoes!

Their wedding day began at McDougall United Church downtown, for a beautiful and meaningful ceremony. The calla lily brides bouquet and bridesmaids’ orchid and green hydrangea bouquets were made by Awesome Blossom, and although traditionally colours reserved for fall, were a perfect touch of brightness to this first day of summer!

After a group photo on the church steps, the reception followed at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex.  Absolutely the best perogy dinner you can get in Edmonton, the room was embraced with rich ivory linens, sexy chocolate brown satin chair wraps, and little hints of sparkle everywhere!

And when you arrived at the front entrance and saw the high heel embellished seating chart designed by Nuance Occasions, you knew you were at Shanna’s wedding! From her gorgeous Christian Louboutin pumps she wore, to the high heel (looking pretty close to a Rene Caovilla pump)and snowmobile boot (for Sheldon) cake topper…this untraditional element was carried through all the stationery of the day!

And what Ukrainian celebration would be complete without dancers! The troop from Korynnia provided us with entertainment and energy! Seedling spruce trees were available for guests to take home, and ensure the memories of their wedding continue to grow for years past this day.  And this formal event wasn’t all about formality - from the bridesmaids entering swung over the groomsmen shoulders, and a special framed letter the groom had written to his mother on a youthful night years ago…there was lots of their personalities scattered throughout the festivities!

Special thanks also go out to Smiley Eyes Photography, Revolution Entertainment, and Ace Photo & Video for ensuring every detail could be enjoyed by this couple!

Thank you Shanna and Sheldon, for allowing Nuance Occasions to share in your day - it was my pleasure to help you plan this fun filled day!!

Jolyn | Lead Wedding Planner
Nuance Occasions
www.nuanceoccasions.com

One of our ‘first day of summer’ weddings was providing coordination services for Sirina & Shaun. With the hint of Thai tropics, they had a beautiful day surrounded by elegance of the Union Bank Inn.

Following the Union Bank Inn ceremony, the couple proceeded to the Museum grounds for a photo session with Chris from CU Photography. Their radiant bouquets from Flowers by Merle were perfectly vibrant for the first official day of summer. Then back to the Union Bank Inn, where the elegance of gold and paradise florals surrounded the simply elegant cake made by Cakes by Janna.

Thank you Sirina and Shaun for allowing Nuance Occasions to coordinate your beautiful wedding day!

Laurie | Associate Coordinator
Nuance Occasions
www.nuanceoccasions.com

Last month, Nuance Occasions was priviledged to be one of the co-hosts for the first annual Wedding Industry Night!

Our goal was to provide Edmonton wedding vendors with an opportunity to meet and network before the summer wedding gets into full swing! As a wedding planner, I understand the importance of great vendor relationships, and this night was designed to assist all Edmonton wedding vendors to enhance their relationships, and foster a greater sense of cooperation amongst all the various service providers.

And I have to start off by thanking Kelsy Nielson Photographics for being our event photographer and capturing these great photos!

Our night started with dramatic decor at the Crowne Plaza-Chateau Lacombe - with colors of black, red and sage green accents!

Our punch & food was placed on a dramatic centerpiece table instead of a traditional buffet.

The ice sculpture punch bowl was decorated with limes to match our color scheme.

Comfortable seating clusters were created throughout the room to enhance the mingling atmosphere.

We were graced with harp music of Terry McDade, and our DJ for the night was Nuance Sound.

Nuance Occasions senior coordinator Laurie was even on hand to help out!

Alley Kat Breweries, a local microbrew company was out to provide free samples to guests, and showcase how much fun it can be to incorporate local products at an event!

To spice things up - especially with the trend to choreograph first dances - we brought in Salsa dancers for a little demonstration…

…and then they got the rest of us moving to the groove…it was tons of fun, and even I learned a few new steps!!

…the night was elegant…especially with floral accents from Laurel’s Floral & Garden!

…surrounded by Edmonton’s top wedding vendors….

…and it was my distinct pleasure to be able to assist with planning such a fabulous event!

After I had the opportunity to thank our event sponsors, we continued on with the party…and plans are already in the works for the 2009 Wedding Industry Night - with hopes to make it bigger and better yet!

Thank you to our fantastic sponsors, and all the Edmonton wedding vendors who came out…and I look forward to seeing many of you at my upcoming clients’ weddings this summer!

Jolyn | Lead Wedding Planner
www.nuanceoccasions.com

 Linda & Alfred exchanged their vows on a beautiful May long weekend - and bringing their Vietnamese and Taiwanese families together meant that we were bound to have a day full of tradition and fun! As Linda was living in Vancouver up until the wedding, the assistance of Nuance Occasions was imperative to ensure their time in Edmonton could be well utilized for planning.

Our day got started with an engagement ceremony and procession to the Gazebo at the Hotel MacDonald.

Followed by a traditional tea ceremony in the beautiful gazebo of the Hotel MacDonald grounds.

Linda changed into dress #2 for the wedding ceremony preformed by marriage commissioner, Bill Pisarchuk, accompanied by the piano music of Piano Moments.

And then we moved onto a beautiful reception in the Hotel MacDonald Wedgewood Room. Flowers and centerpieces were designed by Flowers in the Park.

And this decadent four tiered cake was designed by Simply Elegant, incorporating elements of the Wedgewood Room mouldings into the design.

And before the entree was served, it is time to change into dress #3 - another traditional Vietnamese dress

I always love the desserts at Hotel MacDonald - this is the creative presentation of Tiramisu

Linda and Alfred, along with their parents offer a traditional toast to each table of guests

And finally, Linda changed into dress #4 as we prepared to cut the cake and enjoy the rest of the evening!

Linda and Alfred had so much fun with their photographer - Sam Ng Photographics - we’re still waiting on his photos, but know they’ll be spectacular. Their evening music was provided by Revolution Entertainment.  And our hair & make up team from Kaobella even came out to redo her hair for a second look before the wedding ceremony! We had such a great team of vendors!

It was an absolute pleasure to assist Linda and Alfred plan their special day - thank you both for allowing our team to be a part of the many special elements to your wedding day!

Jolyn | Lead Wedding Planner
www.nuanceoccasions.com

As you complete (or just start) your wedding plans - are you already dreaming of your perfect honeymoon destination?

Spring is a great time of year to make your booking reservations - as many resorts are trying to fill any spaces they have for the year, and many times will offer some great incentives to you.  It’s also well advised to book well in advance, so you aren’t disappointed - and can ensure you can truly enjoy your honeymoon - whether you plan to go to relax in the Caribbean, sip wine in Rome,  or hike the hills of Argentina - or wherever else your heart is content!

When I was looking around to see if anyone had any deals going (who isn’t always looking for a deal??), I found that Sandals resorts are offering discounts as high as 50% off many of their resorts and up to 2 free nights!! Perfect deal for those wanting to relax by a pool or on the beach and enjoy all that an all-inclusive Caribbean resort can offer.

Nuance Occasions now works directly with Sandals specialists - if you want a custom quote on your honeymoon, just let me know and I’ll be pleased to have a representative contact you - with no obligation - so you can get first hand information on the resorts of interest & area activities, to ensure you have the perfect honeymoon!

 * Plan your Caribbean Honeymoon - Click to view the possibilities! *

I often see couples struggling to keep up with the endless papers that accumulate quickly while planning a wedding. Through the years, I’ve seen couples use many different methods to keep track of it all…from tabbed binders, to accordion file folders or the dreaded wedding box LOL.

As Nuance Occasions has grown, we had to find a software solution to help us keep all of our clients info organized, and in the process, we found a smaller version of what we use, that is perfect for the wedding couples to use to keep themselves organized!! The I DO! Couples Edition is a very easy to use, and easy to learn software package designed for helping you to plan and organize your wedding.

Allows you to manage your budget, your checklist, your guest list, and so much more. It has a full address database, it can track your rsvp returns, it can help you finalize your seating plan, and so much more! There is even a support forum, so if you need a bit of help to figure out how to work the software, the developers and other couples are on the forums to help you out. You can click on the image above and go to the product information page and scroll down to select the tour, which will walk you through all the features of this incredible wedding software!

To download FREE 30 DAY TRIAL VERSION and try it out for yourself!! We’d love to hear what you think of once you have a chance to work with it, so please leave a comment!!

Jolyn | Lead Wedding Planner
www.nuanceoccasions.com

MOO MiniCards, Stickers & Greeting Cards - Use up to 100 different photos to make favor tags, or sticker seals for your invitations. I just recently discovered these fun little cards, and ordered myself a set of the Moo Mini Cards - I decided to put on 16 different pictures of decor from recent weddings, and put my business info on the back…and now I’ve got a quick little business card that showcases my work! But for weddings, the possibilities are endless!

Use the first photos of you as a couple for save the date notices to include in Christmas cards. Use different photos of each of you growing up for favor tags. Make a Moo Mini Card with your wedding photo, and new address on the back to include in your thank you cards. At your wedding, use the mini cards, to tell guests your flickr account that they can upload their photos of your wedding to…get creative!

 Check out their blog and Flickr website for even more creative ideas.

These fun mini cards are really easy to set up - and they can use photos direct from facebook, flickr and many more online sites. And the fun doesn’t stop there…you can order greating cards, sticker seals and much more! Design your own, or purchase their already made stickers.

Althought they come from the UK - they are affordable, are excellently printed, and arrived in my mail box in just under 3 weeks. I’d love for your post how you decided to use Moo mini cards or accessories with your upcoming wedding!

MOO MiniCards, Stickers & Greeting Cards

Jolyn Saramaga
Lead Wedding Planner
Nuance Occasions

Nuance Occasions is excited to be a part of 2 recent media features.

For those of you with children - be sure to pick up the latest issue of “What’s Up Kids” - I was pleased to assist them with an article on hosting a successful baby shower (we love talking about other events too, besides weddings). It’s in the spring edition and can be found at Chapters, London Drugs and Walmart magazine racks.

As part of a week long feature on weddings with Shaw TV - Nuance Occasions will be featured on Friday April 18 starting at 4pm on the SHAW TV network across the prairies.  We discussed the trend towards more eco-conscious weddings and how couples can take the environment into consideration for their wedding day. We enjoyed showing off a variety of favor ideas and eco-friendly products to help with the planning process. Tune in if you can!!

And now - get our blog updates sent right to your email account - just subscribe with your email address in the box in the right column….we don’t see your addresses, so you don’t have to worry about your information being shared. We’ve got some exciting format changes in the plans for our blog - so stay tuned!!

Wedding season is beginning…and I hope all of your plans are coming along effortlessly!

Jolyn | Lead wedding planner
Nuance Occasions
http://www.nuanceoccasions.com

Our red rose logo has done us well for 7 years, but as our focus on creating signature weddings has evolved, it was time for a new look…

 Watch as our website and other materials are changed over the weekend to reflect our new, more distinquished look…

I’ll be the first to admit, that weddings are often extravagent, and probably leave quite the carbon footprint in one day… and with a move towards greener business practices, there is also a move towards greener weddings as well.

Nuance Occasions has just added an environmental policy to our website (check it out here) - as we begin to take baby steps in ensuring our business practices leave as minimal of an impact as it can. But we are also shifting to assist all of our clients, even through very small actions, to lessen the environmental impact of their wedding.

Now, we don’t expect every client to have organic food, or a wedding dress of hemp fibres, but even simple items like renting as much of our decor as possible so it can be reused by other couples, using LED candles or natural wax candles, ensuring alcohol bottles are appropriately recycled, and possibly by giving guests living/growing favors…these small steps, over 30+ weddings a year, can make a difference on what ends up in our landfills.

Whether you want to add a bit of ‘green’ principles to your wedding, or you want to ensure you have the most minimal carbon footprint on your wedding day, our article ‘Reducing Your Impact…Green Weddings’ will be sure to give you more ideas to help you make your wedding more eco-chic and eco-friendly!

Jolyn | Lead Wedding Coordinator
Nuance Occasions
www.nuanceoccasions.com