Happy Easter,

We hope you’re enjoying your families and friends around good food and conversation. We we’re in Ottawa all day today doing the same, and celebrating my grandmother’s 80th birthday – how amazing is that!  Before we left for Ottawa, we took a little bit of time to make you all a small Easter gift starring our very own little Easter Bunny. He is such a photogenic little guy and he is so interested in cameras, which makes my job easy: “say carrots…?” After doing a bit of rummaging through the flea markets around Kingston, and stumbling on some great finds, we visited Leanne at L.S.P. Designs. Despite the hustle and bustle of the season, Leanne was nice enough to take some time out and furnish us with these beautiful dusty pastel roses, peonies, and one lovely ranunculi.

Bon Appétit,

-The Violets

FIN

Hello Everyone,

We are so excited to share our recent feature on The Wedding Co. blog with you. Just click the “featured on”  badge below to check it out. We owe a big thank you to Catherine Lash the Founder, Editor, and Creative Director of The Wedding Co. for featuring John and Krista’s Destination Wedding. For those who aren’t familiar, The Wedding Co. hosts Wedding Shows and acts as a liaise between industry professionals and the smart and stylish engaged couples of Toronto. Melissa and I have attended their annual Wedding Show held at the Carlu, an impeccable event, and we are looking very much forward to this year’s Spring Wedding Show at The Drake Hotel – Where Indie Meets Couture.  If you are in Toronto on April 30^th don’t miss out. We’d love it if you ‘d leave a comment on www.theweddingco.com for us. Thank you all so much for your continued support!

-The Violets

Merry Christmas all!

As promised, here is the unveiling of Melissa’s gift from Sterling this year. The ring is yellow gold, the centre stone is solitary Citrine surrounded by small diamonds. Hope you are having a lovely Christmas. We’ll see you in the New Year!

Bon Appétit,

The Violets

FIN

Merry Christmas,

I thought I’d take some time out to share one of my absolute favourite places in Kingston with you. Nearly every time there’s a note worthy occasion in our relationship Melissa gets something from this exquisite little boutique. Whether it’s our anniversary, her birthday, just because she deserves a little something, or Christmas, Sterling is my main stay. Chris Saasto, the owner, has impeccable taste and just being in her shop is a delight. Her front window displays draw us in and catch us pressing our noses to the glass with childlike surprise, as we play a kind of jewellery “Where’s Waldo.” This is half the fun of visiting Sterling; searching all the nooks and crannies and browsing through the beautiful glass hutches that line the walls…really gorgeous stuff. If you want some terrific new pieces of jewellery for Christmas this year, you know where to point your man: Sterling. Make sure to go visit the shop yourself as well, you’ll fall in love I guarantee it!

*As an added point of interest. I will be unveiling what I bought Melissa from Sterling this year on the blog Christmas morning. So if your senses are curious and a bit tantalized, be sure to see what Melissa’s unwrapping from Sterling this year!

- The Violets

FIN

Sterling

77A Princess Street

Kingston, Ontario K7L 1A6

613 548 8696

We did our first photobooth at Mike & Tara’s wedding and it was a great success! I had loads of fun with the guests: the line-ups were busy, the faces were funny, and we got some terrific stuff.  To view and retrieve your photobooth photos double click on the word “photobooth” anywhere in this post.

You can also copy and paste this link: http://windingviolets.instaproofs.com/category.php?event=253300&id=438451

Bon Appétit

Stephanie Sokolowski’s is most defiantly one of my favourite wedding vendors, a girl after my own heart. Her boutique, Runway Bridal, in downtown Belleville, is drop dead gorgeous. Every detail is attended to: from plush rugs, full length mirrors, elegant fixtures, to the startlingly stylized restroom. Stephanie gives her brides-to-be the couture experience, treating each to private appointments – you get the run of the place, and boy is it fun!

Best of all, Stephanie carries unique gowns from many different designers. The dress is really the centre piece of the wedding; the gown transcends the category of garment and can be considered the physical manifestation of the brides femininity.   Finding a gown that resonates with your unique vision and expression of femininity can be incredible difficult and frustrating. Thank goodness for Stephanie and her boutique!

Needless to say we had a great afternoon in the shop. Ashley, our model, anxiously exclaimed as she left for her volley ball game, “let’s do this again!”  We look forward to it.

-The Violets

FIN

Runway Bridal

397 Front Street

Belleville, ON K8N 2Z9

(613) 966-0122

Leanne & Marty, owners and operators of L.S.P. Designs, are definitely the people you want delivering your bouquet on the wedding day. Always brimming with smiles and exuding an aroma of positivity when they enter a room, their joviality is simply infectious!

Not only are these two terrific people to work with, but Leanne’s arrangements are by far the most creative, classic, and elegant around. L.S.P. Designs was published in the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of the prestigious Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine: The Vogue of Wedding Magazines!

She was the florist at our wedding, a task not for the faint of heart : ) You see,  Melissa and I were married in an extremely, almost meticulously, well manicured garden estate: Spindle Tree Gardens. The Estate features: a pavilion replete with a bowling green (and hand made croquet gates), extensive walking paths straddled by beautiful shrubs and floral growth, and a traditional English walled garden (red brick exterior walls). So making the bouquet and arrangements “pop” in this context was far from simple. Thanks Leanne and Marty for your excellence and friendship : )

Without further ado, here is a glimpse of Leanne and Marty’s shop,

– The Violets

FIN

LSP Designs: 676 King Street West, Kingston Ontario, 613.545.0962

Grace Ormonde Wedding Style

Make-up, and make-up done well, should be considered a top priority for any bride who is investing in professional photography. Camera lenses see differently than the human eye, high quality cosmetics and professional application really are a significant contribting factor in making you look your best in front of the camera.

Our new friend and colleague Lauren Bartoli is both extremely talented and incredibley kind. We have worked with her on a coulple of projects, weddings and boudoir, and now want to take her with us wherever we go.

She has worked for MAC, one of the most popular cosmetics lines available, for four years. During this time Lauren has been professionally trained by MAC and has absorbed a plethorah of information and techniques that relate to her profession through her 10 years of experience and freelance work.

Lucky for all of us, Lauren was asked to come from Ottawa to manage Kingston’s one and only MAC counter (The Bay). We strongly recommend commissioning Lauren, who is available  as a freelance make-up artist here in the city, the next time you are in front of the camera.

FIN

You can contact Lauren at 613 532 4280