Pavilion Ballroom, Ritz Carlton, Laguna, 2 nights in a row

Posted on: Sunday, August 19th, 2012

This doesn’t happen very often but so fun when it does.  I happened to have two weddings two nights in a row in this wonderful ballroom, that doesn’t have the normal cold/big feel associated with the word ‘ballroom’.

Two different looks, both fabulous, two fabulous brides (and grooms), people who travelled from all over the world to each, two similar setups (not the normal setup for this room and funnily enough both these brides were about not splitting the tables up, so we had dining all together and dancing at one end – and the major item they had in common – great guests who danced and danced and danced.  Both events ended around 1:15am with sweaty, happy people, who were there to celebrate and enjoy, and they sure did.

This is why I love my job, never the same wedding, the vision/bride/vendors always different, because I recommend those I know are right for you and throw in a few others so you also know who is right for you. Quality and the right style, working with the budgetted $$ (even if really big) always makes it a fun process, and as with all my weddings, on both these nights I drove to the hotel in anticipation of how wonderful they were both going to look and how happy I knew both my brides would be.  I can see how it will be, but I know for a bride, it really takes for her to come into the room to really realise the full impact of what we spent months/weeks pulling together.  My lovely bride last night, walked into the room and only said one word, but that one word was huge ‘PERFECT’.     Aaaah,

When there is a great sunset, can’t beat the Pavilion & Plaza balcony views 

We did a mix of round/square and long tables for this celebration.

For both we did white ‘south beach’ looking furniture/candles etc on the balcony.

Thanks to Katie Clark for the photos above.  I smiled a lot when I saw these, such a great couple and I know Susie the bride has got to be loving her album and the memories of their fabulous celebration it brings back.  Thanks also to Nisie and her team from Enchanted Florist, I knew you were the right choice for her from the get go, Peter/Vive Ent for being just a pleasure to always see and work with, Elysium/Julie for being always so easy to work with.

 For the wedding below, the bride & her parents are French Canadian, and they suprised the guests by having the music for start of dancing be by a band/singer/entertainer who is very famous in Canada.  His name did not mean anything to me or it seemed to the grooms side of the family in the room when he came on, but when I saw all the Canadian ladies look shocked, then start to swoon and get their cameras out, I immediately googled him, and yes he is a pretty big deal up there.  Too funny. 

Note in the picture above the shape of the dancefloor, this is when you need someone in the room during setup on your side (ie me!) to handle any challenges logically and make it work.  The band had huge equipment and had had the stage made bigger taking up more space into the room and then had huge speakers (this was like concert equipment) that were on the floor infront of the stage.  Band would not move anything, dancefloor guy was at a loss as to how he was to setup the floor as if he started it past the speakers there would be a big carpeted gap between it and the stage, but the space he had to the tables was now not enough space for the size ordered/needed, so he ultimately came to me with his hand up in the air.  Hmmmm, David from Square Root and his team, helped me move every table in that room (some already had the big centerpieces on them) away from the stage area, only by inches for some, but by doing that we gave ourselves the ability to use all the dancefloor pieces and as I was not really into the carpet space infront of the stage, I got creative & had the dancefloor guy work out how to create the T-shape you see.  I loved the end result,

Thanks to Karen French for the photos (she always manages to get a pic of a gazebo lawn cere from above even when the couples room was not in that wing, wonder how??!!  She’s good!!),and  Square Root for the beautiful floral design.

Common to both weddings was my/our use of Fusion for helping me create the right look/feel with the excellent quality chairs/linens/furniture & dancefloor they deliver/setup & same night pick up, all with no drama or excess fees for the couple,  and to Angel the owner who listens and orders new stock of items I know my couples will love/use, and to Design Visage for doing all the hair and makeups, as always keeping everyone on time, and looking great right through to the end of the event, and enhancing my already beautiful two brides .

Till next time

Lisa

www.lisasimpsonweddings.com

www.pinterest.com/lisasimpsonwdgs

714 305 7112

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