Barb & Gian Carlo - Italian Garden Party
I'm always saying that the bride and groom's personalities must shine through in the design of a wedding or it isn't as special as it could be. Well, with this wedding there was no lack of personality.
Barb and Gian-Carlo live in a beautiful house in Calgary on the banks of the Bow River in Calgary. They are very active in their community and the city's development plans. In fact, Gian-Carlo was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 by Calgary Inc. magazine.
I met Barb at the Wedding Fair and I instantly knew that I would love being a part of their wedding. The concept was Italian Garden Party. The groom's family is Italian so it was important to the couple to bring that into their celebration. Plus they had met during an Ultimate Frisbee tournament so they wanted an outdoor wedding where someone could pick a Frisbee and have some fun.
They also loved their community of Inglewood so much that they wanted it featured prominently at their wedding, so they had the wedding entirely at their home and within their community.
Tents were erected to offer shade on the hot summer day. My greatest challenge on this day was switching the tent from being the scene of the ceremony to the scene of the reception for 100+ people.
I brought in a lot of extra help on this day which meant that the bride and groom's friends and family were able to enjoy lawn bowling at the local park and floating down the river (don't worry- they got out of the wet clothes before dinner!).
The reception had long tables with burlap runners and ivy streaming down the tables with menus in Italian. Everyone was served an Italian family style meal catered by Spolumbo's.
When dinner was done the bride and groom shared their wedding cake which a close friend had made. A really cool red ipod stereo was set up and played the bride and groom's favorite tunes. Family and friends got up on the deck and shouted out words of congratulations. The couple had also toiled over making homemade pesto for all the guests. While everyone was eating I moved the wedding gifts inside and replaced them with the jars of pesto instead. I thought the switch was very symbolic. As the sun set and the moon came out the backyard party was in full swing! All the candlelight really made everything glow and it was a beautiful end to the perfect day.
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