Green Parties

Cover Story

Mixing five headstrong and inventive female entrepreneurs who own four distinctly different businesses might sound like a project with too many complications to count.

Yet the Winnipeg-based Eco Luxe Event Design Group is working harmoniously to realize one dream—creating environmentally friendly events from start to finish.

From personalized invitations made with recycled paper, to locally grown flowers in biodegradable containers, down to hand decorated vegan cookies and cupcakes used as place cards and online photo galleries, Eco Luxe aims to satisfy both the green goals and luxurious tastes of their clients.

"It’s important to have something beautiful and impactful but maybe instead of doing 500 pieces of stationary or invitations for an event where there were ten layers of paper and bows and embellishments, there could maybe be one piece on the table that reflected that elegance,” says Yoko Chapman, the driving force behind a group that’s leaving its own green print on Winnipeg’s event planning scene.

Amid chaotic preparation for the Wonderful Wedding Show’s new “Green Street” section, Chapman apologized for being exhausted. Who could blame her? Only a year ago, the wife, mother, and owner of the customized stationary and invitation business, Pulp & Circumstance, took on yet another challenge—she spearheaded the city’s first environmentally conscious event planning collective after realizing how much excess her business produced and that the resources she and her clients needed to remedy it were tough to track down.

“It was my way of responding to how there wasn’t much out there for consumers,” Chapman says. After pumping out inspired paper creations
for nearly 10 years, she wanted to create a professional bank of knowledge and imagination committed to bridging the gap.

Three years ago that desire allied Chapman with industry and client-sharing friends Krista Robertson and Lindsay Rakowski, the ingenious minds and muscle behind the personalized edibles from Sweet Impressions. When the baking queens asked Chapman to help design their booth for the wedding show after admiring her over-the-top area for years (that pink ‘50s-inspired kitchen design won them the title of Best Single Booth Display of 2007), the spark of a green collective was ignited.

Chapman began working with the dessert divas, whose initially internet-based business is now a peanut-free bakery next door to her shop on Tache, to produce complimentary designs for clients in both the baking and paper worlds. It wasn’t long until the three women began seeking out other green-minded business owners to add to the fold. Patty Boge, the storytelling eye behind Off The Page Photography and Bonny Fraser, the floral mastermind of My Secret Garden’s elaborate creations jumped at the opportunity and Eco Luxe soon blossomed.

“We really appreciate being a part of the best of the best,” Robertson, half of the dessert duo, says. “When we collaborate as a team, we know we’re not going to let each other down. It’s really a beautiful connection.”

For Fraser, who had been doing floral and garden design for over 20 years, the decision to join forces to promote an environmentally friendly attitude was a natural one.

“I’ve always thought we needed a one-stop event planning service and at the time no one was offering eco options,” she says. “ I think the timing was perfect to start a business like this.”

Although the women hoped to be housed together under one roof for the group’s official launch last January, being unable to find a suitable retail studio space proved to be an advantage.

“We’re all very different people and as much as we are an alliance or group we still hope to work with different businesses in the city so we really want to keep our doors open and encourage other businesses to work with us which is good for everyone,” Chapman says. “Our customers perceive us as having that alliance and I think that’s the most important part, it doesn’t matter where we are.”

With My Secret Garden moving from a homebased business into the Exchange District and Boge spending time this past summer working out of Chapman’s store, the women continue to inspire one another regardless of their location.

“It was dangerous because every day we came up with a new business idea,” Boge says jokingly, as she reflects on her daily collaborations with Chapman.

Though she has switched entirely to digital photography, distributes in reusable packaging and provides proof galleries online for her clients, Boge still loves finding new ways to innovate with her Eco Luxe partners.

“I am so blessed to be surrounded by smart women,” she says. “Within minutes of being in the same room, we’re able to come up with a better way that we should be doing something.”

While their businesses still operate as separate entities both financially and physically, it’s their collaborative spirit that brings the owners together regularly to work on projects that have mostly been weddings. To date, they haven’t found the perfect party for all four forces to contribute creations, but typically two or three work together with a client to provide products and guidance.

One such soiree this past summer at FortWhyteAlive included Chapman’s invites and Fraser’s flowers but the bride and groom took it a few green steps further. From organic food and wine, to hybrid cars for the wedding party, local honey as favours and linens made by the bride or rented from Fraser, the event was the greenest Eco Luxe has had their hands in. Linked by their commitment to environmentally conscious events, they have refused to sacrifice beauty and quality.

“We don’t want people to be able to tell,” Chapman says of the group’s efforts through each individual’s unique work. “We want it to look elegant and we don’t want it to look like we’ve cut back, but we have. We try to let our customers know we have ways of cutting back but still have a beautiful event.”

Presenting a green dessert menu in bags made from eucalyptus and tied with an entirely biodegradable ribbon, purchasing flowers from socially responsible growers and keeping all sources as local as possible, are just a few ways the collective strives to keep their clients environmentally aware and the events cost-effective.

“As long as people start to think about ways they can do things and sort of calculate their carbon footprint, I think that will just help them reduce in a lot of ways and help them save money, ultimately,” Chapman says.

One of the ways the women have helped clients achieve that goal is through Chapman’s line of “greenvites.”

The eco-stationary covers everything printed including invitations, menus, and save-the-date and thank you cards. The best part, aside from the custom creativity? Every piece is sustainable. All products in her collection are made from 100 per cent post-consumer waste material, use biodegradable vegetable based ink, and are produced in facilities that are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, meaning they’re as green as green can be throughout the entire printing process. She has even gone so far as to create a greenvites recycling program where she collects discarded and leftover products at soirees, only to transform them into new creations.

Being supportive of original ideas, like greenvites, but more so of each other, is a cornerstone of Eco Luxe’s success. “We have a very special and unique relationship. I think it helps that we’re all women,“ Chapman says.

“I think we have a lot of loyalty. At the end of the day, you have to make money but because we’re not directly in competition with each other for products, we’re able to connect better and to share our special trade secrets.”

It’s that sense of community that seems to fuel everything the partners of the groundbreaking group do.

“It’s just important to really share your ideas with other people in business, no matter who they are because you learn something from every relationship you make,” Chapman says. “Every relationship, whether it’s good or bad—you learn a lesson from every connection you make.”

Visit www.ecoluxewinnipeg.com for more info.

FIVE THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT...
YOKO CHAPMAN

Here’s what keeps this green crusader going:

2. Coffee. While almost any will do, Chapman does prefer to purchase fair-trade and organic blends, when possible. “Because I only sleep four hours a night.”

3. The belief that people are at the point of making greener choices. “I’m confident that it’s here to stay. It’s something I have to hold onto because I’ve invested a lot of time and money in it!” Chapman says with a laugh.

4. Two-sided tape. “It’s kind of like my version of duct tape, if I were a man.”

5. My Mac. “My laptop is my lifeline, my number one design tool. It’s where everything I have is.