Creative & Community
Built a temporary 240-guest farm wedding venue with camping, parking, washrooms, water, power, lighting, a large tent, live music, and a custom dance floor.
For our wedding, my wife and I transformed an overgrown working farm into a full private venue for 240 guests. The site had never been used as a venue of that scale before. It was primarily set up for cows and goats, with rough ground, overgrown vegetation, limited infrastructure, and no ready-made event layout.
Planning began roughly a year and a half before the wedding, with much of the physical site preparation completed on weekends in the months leading up to the event while living several hours away. The goal was to build an unconventional and inspiring wedding venue; something personal, functional, memorable, and resourceful. We wanted a place where people could gather, celebrate, camp, dance, eat, and experience something that felt like us.
My role combined lead planning, site coordination, logistics, layout design, vendor coordination, hands-on building, and day-of problem solving. Many people stepped up to help with site prep, flowers, food, service, setup, teardown, parking, and coordination, but I was responsible for turning the overall idea into a workable plan and making sure the major pieces came together.
The site needed to support a ceremony, reception, camping, parking, washrooms, photo areas, food service, live music, gathering space, and guest flow. I designed the layout around how people would arrive, move through the site, find the main areas, and safely use a space that was not designed as a venue.
Preparing the site meant removing rocks and windfall, filling holes, levelling ground, cutting back vegetation, creating paths, preparing camping areas, and planting and watering grass in levelled areas before the event. The work was practical and physical, but it was also about imagining how the site would feel once hundreds of people were using it.
The 100′ x 40′ tent became the centre of the reception, with space for tables, head table, food service, bar, band, dance floor, lighting, and gathering. I created a site plan that could be shared with guests and volunteers so everyone understood how the event should flow.
Because the farm didn’t have venue infrastructure, several systems had to be built temporarily. Washrooms, handwashing, water, power, lighting, audio, parking, and camping all had to work for one day without becoming fragile or confusing.
Water was one of the more difficult infrastructure problems. I built temporary sink stations, with water supplied roughly 250 feet using fire hoses connected to domestic water. The hoses also provided an additional fire-readiness measure, which mattered because the wedding was held in mid-August and the surrounding area was dry.
I handled power with two generators and an EV with an inverter. The layout had to support lighting, PA equipment, the band, and other event needs while avoiding overloads and reducing trip hazards. I placed the band on its own generator, so the most critical load was isolated.
I built guest safety into the layout through cord routing, lighting, paths, parking control, and keeping higher-traffic areas away from rougher parts of the farm. Weather and fire risk were also part of the planning, with umbrellas, extra tents, and site-wetting leading up to the event as practical backups.
I designed and built a 20′ x 32′ dance floor using pallets and recovered forming plywood. The ground had to be levelled, uneven areas were shimmed with scrap wood, and the surface was sanded and painted.
The floor was intentionally simple, low to the ground, and practical. It had to support a full reception dance floor without feeling temporary or unsafe. It performed well through the night and became one of the main pieces that made the farm feel like a real venue rather than just an outdoor gathering.
The event also included custom-built photo and hangout areas. One was called “Grandma’s,” built around an old floral farm couch, a rug, wooden accents, an old phone, and a large hanging macrame plant holder made by my grandfather. It was partly a tribute to family and partly a quiet place for guests to step away from the busy party. It became one of the most loved and photographed areas of the wedding.
A second installation was built in an alder grove with hanging mirrors, a vanity, and lights. It created a surreal forest photo area that felt personal, handmade, and unique.
The bouquet was launched from a homemade catapult my friends and I built during the bachelor party, using materials we had on hand. It included a safety release pin and worked perfectly on the day.
I set up Trello as our planning hub for tasks, deadlines, rentals, materials, volunteer roles, budget, guest logistics, setup schedule, and day-of details. The board helped turn a large, informal family project into something trackable and executable.
The biggest challenge was the number of interacting pieces: weather, parking, camping, washrooms, power, water, food, rentals, music, guest movement, volunteer coordination, setup, teardown, and the fact that the site was not designed to be a venue.
Several guests said it was the best wedding they had ever attended, which was nice to hear, but the more useful proof was that the temporary venue actually worked. People arrived, parked, found their way around, ate, danced, camped, used the washrooms, gathered in the custom spaces, and experienced the farm as if it had been designed for that day.
For me, the project is a good example of how I like to work when the answer does not already exist. I understand the site, imagine the use, build the missing systems, coordinate the people, and leave enough personality in the result that it feels intentionally made.
Related
A few related projects with the same kind of problem-solving thread.
Turned a collaborative festival concept into a CNC-fabricated public installation with seating, storage, an interactive wall, volunteer power, and reusable assembly details.
Creative & Community
For the Design Victoria Festival's Meeting Point Co-Design Challenge, our team’s concept, The Big DV, was selected from six proposals and built into a full-scale public installation. I led much of the technical and fabrication work, turning the shared concept into a CNC-fabricated installation with seating, an interactive design wall, hidden storage, volunteer power, and a practical assembly and handoff plan.
Organized two large high school reunions with communications, volunteers, ticketing, venue logistics, safety planning, entertainment, and participant experience.
Creative & Community
I organized my 10-year and 20-year high school reunions by bringing together graduates from both Campbell River high schools into inclusive events of roughly 140 people. The work involved tracking down former students, coordinating volunteers, budgeting, ticket sales, food and drinks, safety planning, entertainment, and the details that make an event feel welcoming rather than thrown together.
The events required the same kind of practical coordination that shows up in my professional work, just in a more personal setting. I managed communications, recruited volunteers, organized ticketing, coordinated food and drinks, arranged a safe-ride-home shuttle, planned security and liquor-licence requirements, set up supplies, booked a photographer and DJ, built a slideshow, and added games and activities to help people reconnect.
I wanted more than a party. I wanted a safe, inclusive, well-run community event where people from both schools felt welcome showing up.
Helped support a small Brazilian Zouk-rooted partner dance community in Victoria through practice sessions, informal teaching, event support, music sharing, and a welcoming approach to learning.
Creative & Community
I help support a small Brazilian Zouk-rooted partner dance community in Victoria by organizing practice spaces, sharing what I have learned, and helping people connect more deeply with music, movement, and each other. For me, partner dance is not just about steps. It is a way of making music visible.
