High school reunion planning and event coordination

I organized my 10-year and 20-year high school reunions as combined events for graduates from both Campbell River high schools. Each event brought together roughly 140 people and was designed to feel inclusive, safe, and welcoming rather than like a loosely organized night out.

The work started with communication. I had to track down former students, reach people across different social circles, recruit volunteers, answer questions, and keep the event clear enough that people felt comfortable showing up. Combining both schools made the event more inclusive, but it also meant the planning had to account for a broader group of people and expectations.

The logistics were practical and detailed. I managed budgeting, ticket sales, food and drinks, supplies, venue setup, and the overall event flow. I also coordinated safety-related pieces, including security, liquor-licence requirements, and a safe-ride-home shuttle so people had a better option at the end of the night.

I wanted the events to feel considered, not generic. That meant booking a photographer and DJ, building a slideshow, and adding activities such as a minute-to-win-it challenge to help people reconnect without the event relying only on small talk. Those details mattered because the goal was not simply to gather people in a room; it was to create a shared experience that felt relaxed, safe, and welcoming.

This project is personal, but it reflects the same kind of coordination I bring to professional work: define what needs to happen, organize the people and details, communicate clearly, reduce friction, and make the experience work for the people using it.

The Big DV public installation

Design Victoria invited members of the local creative community to participate in the Meeting Point Co-Design Challenge, a collaborative design process to create a public gathering installation for their festival. The challenge brought together designers, makers, and creative professionals to explore what a “meeting point” could be: part landmark, part social space, part participatory design activity.

Our team’s concept, The Big DV, was selected from six proposals and developed into the full-scale installation used during the festival. The project was collaborative from the start, with contributions from myself, Breanne Des Roche, Maureen Elmer, Carrie Smart, and Jignaa Vala, with support from Design Victoria, Make Space North Park, Toolpath, sponsors, and community partners.

Turning the shared concept into a real object

The concept needed to be visible from across the space, but useful up close. The final installation combined a large “DV”-shaped landmark in Design Victoria brand colours, an interactive design wall, long bistro-style tables, modular benches, integrated storage, and a small powered hub for volunteers.

It gave people a place to meet, sit, draw, talk, charge devices, post ideas, and participate in festival programming.

I led much of the technical and fabrication work within the collaborative team. Our shared concept had to be modelled, reviewed, fabricated, assembled, transported, installed, used by the public, taken down, and stored. That meant translating the idea into practical parts and details without losing the energy of the original proposal.

Modelling for scale, review, and decision-making

I modelled the installation parametrically in Fusion 360 so the design could evolve as the team tested proportions, geometry, assembly logic, and functional features.

I also 3D printed a scale model and placed it on a printed plan of the festival space so the organizers could understand the installation’s footprint and relationship to the space. To help communicate scale and visibility, I imported a SketchUp model of the festival space into Blender, placed our model into the scene, and produced rendered views for review and presentation.

Designing for CNC fabrication and assembly

Once the concept was approved, the work shifted from design idea to buildable object. I met with Toolpath, a local CNC router fabricator, to review the fabrication strategy, then rebuilt the model for production. Each plywood component was detailed with fasteners, door hardware, joinery, assembly clearances, and CNC constraints in mind.

A large part of the design work was deciding how the installation should be fabricated, moved, assembled, and reused. I designed the parts to avoid unnecessary second-side machining, reduce material waste, and make efficient use of plywood sheets.

I designed components to be practical for pre-assembly at Make Space North Park, transport by truck, carrying by hand, and assembly on site without obvious seams.

Making the public installation behave like furniture

The installation had to be expressive, but it also had to behave like furniture in a public space. I considered standard heights for the bistro tables and benches, the stability of freestanding forms, transfer of loads through the structure, and the risk of tipping at the V-shaped bistro tables.

Joinery and assembly details, along with fabrication methods, were part of my design thinking I used rabbeted edges, blind tenons, and concealed alignment details to help the pieces locate cleanly during assembly, while keeping the finished appearance simple and intentional. I designed for installation without glue so it could be disassembled, stored, and potentially redeployed after the festival.

Adding the practical features people would actually use

The large “D” acted as a threshold that visitors could walk through, while the “V” became the backdrop for a rebar mesh participatory design wall. The wall gave visitors a place to clip up drawings, photos, notes, and festival contributions.

The tables and benches supported multiple festival uses, including casual seating, “Ask an Expert” sessions, volunteer work, and public programming. Under the bistro tables, I added integrated coat hooks, and within the installation, I designed hidden storage and a lockable cubby for a portable power station so volunteers could charge phones, a tablet, and a printer during the festival.

Coordinating the build with volunteers and a deadline

The build relied on community support. I worked closely with volunteers at Make Space North Park to help complete the installation, including wood finishing, painting, assembly, and safe work practices.

I coordinated tasks as the project moved through fabrication, pre-assembly, finishing, and installation. As the deadline approached and volunteer availability shifted, I continued working through the remaining tasks to keep the project on schedule and allow enough time for the paint to cure before delivery.

I also coordinated transportation and installation using my truck and a teammate’s truck. I organized the site assembly and completed the final fit-up and finishing work. After the festival, I reconfigured the model to understand how the pieces would store, investigated cost-effective storage options in Victoria, and helped coordinate disassembly and storage.

One of a kind

During the festival, The Big DV was a big hit with festival-goers. Visitors found the installation interactive, exploring the space and contributing to the design wall, and practical for seating, storage, and hosting programming. They treated the piece as both a landmark and a working festival hub.

The project was completed on schedule, under budget, and with enough time to spare before opening. It shows the same pattern I bring to more technical work: clarify the real use, make the idea buildable, coordinate the people and processes, and leave behind something that can be used, moved, maintained, and handed off with confidence.

Bespoke farm wedding venue

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.

Turning a working farm into a venue

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.

Temporary infrastructure

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.

Building the dance floor

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.

Guest experience and personal details

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.

Planning and coordination

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.

Got hitched without a hitch

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.