Garden Party

Planning a cocktail party for 1,000 guests on a six-acre site is no small undertaking. On the plus side, organizing the opening-night party for Canada Blooms: the Toronto Flower and Garden Festival doesn't require much in the way of decor or additional floral displays. "You don't have to decorate. You couldn't ask for a better venue," event co-chair Joyce Johnson said while setting up for the '60s-themed "Love in the Garden" party on Tuesday evening. However, Johnson and her colleagues agreed that holding the opening party on the floor of the show—which runs today through Sunday in the south building at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre—is a challenge.

"It's such a large venue," artistic director Colomba Fuller said of the site. "We always try to keep it within a certain space as far as the food, but people wander off." In 2007, the planning committee created a section for reserved seating in an effort to persuade guests to sit and eat with one another, rather than wandering around and eating in one of the 42 garden displays set up for the exhibit. "It worked very well last year, so we decided to do it again this year," Fuller said.Designing Trendz dressed the corporate tables, positioned in front of the Unilock Celebrity Stage, in yellow and green linens. Colourful gerbera daisies in black, yellow, and white vases served as centrepieces. The spring colour scheme continued throughout the venue, with yellow, green, and pink linens covering cocktail tables.

Entertainers dressed as hippies and go-go girls conveyed the evening's flower-power theme. "That was a period when people were a lot more optimistic," Fuller said. "People wore flowers in their hair, Trudeau wore a rose on his lapel.... It was a very optimistically happy era, so I said, 'Let's bring it back' [for the show's 12th anniversary]." A DJ from Third From the Sun played '60s music throughout the evening, including the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee."

The M.T.C.C. provided the catering for 11 food stations, with a menu including mini burgers served with dijon mustard, potato puffs with garlic cream aioli, lamb skewers with onion and pepper tzatziki sauce, and oysters. Servers in the Niagara Wine Garden—open for the duration of the show—offered a selection of Ontario wines to guests. Organizers also set up an additional 10 bars for the evening.

Planners capped the number of guests for the opening-night party at 1,000 in an effort to ensure that the crowd remained manageable, event coordinator Jennifer Howe said. The evening began with a reception for event sponsors—including Unilock, Home Depot, Sobeys, and RBC—followed by a cocktail party for guests. "It's just a big party. People spend a lot of time setting up, so when all is done they can relax a little; that's the party," Fuller said, noting that it takes the 250 exhibitors five days to set up for the show. "It takes a lot of time and energy. Every garden has at least five people working 10 hours a day to set up."

Scottish designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan, known for their comedic banter on the HGTV program Colin & Justin's Home Heist, welcomed guests to the opening ceremonies, hosted by Global Television personality Susan Hay.