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

 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

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

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

 This past weekend, at the Canadian Wedding Planners Conference held in Toronto, I had the pleasure of tasting these beautiful champagne truffles that Oprah loves so much!

 These handmade swiss truffles are available in the signature green and yellow packaging or special packaging such as pictured above. Choose from 2 or 4 truffles per box. Your guests will be delighted with these unique truffles, offered by only one Canadian supplier - William Ashley China in Toronto.

 And now, as a special gift…couples workingn with Jolyn will receive a special gift from William Ashley China when our services are booked for full wedding planning services (view here) - you won’t be disappointed!!

Yesterday was our first wedding of the year, and it was such a pleasure to work on - the couple was only expecting 25 guests, and they wanted their wedding to be warm and intimate.

We did their ceremony at the Citadel Theatre, where they often met for lunch when first dating, and then went over to the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald into the smaller Jasper Room for a truly intimate wedding reception…complete with mulled wine and apple cider (who would have thought it would have been 0 degrees in Edmonton in February LOL)

Ceremony: Citadel Theatre
Officiant - Bill Pisarchuk
Reception: Hotel MacDonald - Jasper Room
Photographer: Rachel J Photography
Flowers - Corals’ Designs
Linens - Elegant Touches
Truffle Topiary - Truffle Sensations

Invitations

A moment before proceeding with their photo session

Pillars with rose arrangments for ceremony

Family of the bride and groom playing

Reception room entrance there was a K and E on each door (their initials)

Bride and groom chairs

Reception room (boardroom style table arrangment)

Round menus on charger plates (cruise ship luggage tags doubled as placecards as their favour - their first trip together was a cruise, and they’ve done lots of travelling)

The amazing truffle topiary placed on the guestbook table (couple fed each other one as an alternative photo opportunity since they didn’t have a cake.

Embellished decks of playing cards - competitive card games broke out after dinner, as there was not an official dance, etc - I even learned to play ’speed’ LOL

 Thank you Kim and Eric for allowing us to help you in planning this truly intimate winter wedding!! Your love definately helped to warm the room!! Best wishes!

Jolyn | Lead Wedding Coordinator

Nuance Occasions | http://www.nuanceoccasions.com

I loved helping Lori & David pull together a beautiful in less than a couple months, while they lived in Seattle, USA. We worked with a tight budget, but everything turned out wonderfully!!  Their flowergirl and ringbearer stole the show…and the dinner was fantastic!

Ceremony: Citadel Theatre
Officiant - Bill Pisarchuk
Trio - Rococo Strings
Reception: Mayfield Inn & Suites
Photographer: Smiley Eyes Photography
DJ - Mark from DJ Hotline
Cake - Simply Elegant

Processional - Citadel Theatre

Strings Trio

Ceremony Signing

Bridal Bouquet

Table Setting and Favor Box

Bride & Groom Rubber Duckie Seating Cards

Head Table

Head Table During Speeches

Bride & Groom with Cake

More of the Head Table

Calla Lily Cascade Cake

Elizabeth & Darius had an absolutely beautiful wedding day yesterday….Nuance Occasions was pleased to be able to help coordinate the day and ensure everything was just as the happy couple envisioned.

Ceremony: Catholic Philipino Ceremony with Mass at St. Pius Catholic Church
Reception: Crowne Plaza-Chateau Lacombe
Photographer: Noel Granado
DJ: Mike Carlos (from the BOUNCE)
Decor: ABC Weddings

To add some fall accents with their brown and tiffany blue theme - they used pinecones to decorate, and woodland looking potpouri as part of the centerpieces. It was gorgeous! Byron from the Crowne-Plaza and the team from ABC wedding did a great job of setting up this room in a short 2 hour window!!

At the church

With the veil and cord on

Pronounced husband and wife

Ring pillow and programs

Guest book table

Place Card Table

Head Table

Room View

Tables

Favors - Candles in box

Wedding Cake with monogram