Gay pride

Party Time

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For the first time ever, Toronto decided to make their pride celebration last not only a week, but the entire month of June. That’s right: more rainbows, more sparkle, and a full month filled with love and support for one another.

We’re always looking for new ways to bring more colour to our lives, so the updated schedule gave us that much more reason to make pride-related magic. To welcome the final week of festivities (which includes most of the parties and the famous parade), we decided to throw our own little Pride kickoff party with all of our friends in a borrowed yard. We called it the #RAOPrainnbowparty!

A lot of different factors went into making this particular styled event a success. First off, we needed colour- lots of it! To brighten up the space we decided to build a balloon wall. Consider yourself warned- balloon wall building is not a relaxing weekend activity. The end result (shown in these photos) took two days of planning, about 15 packs of balloons (10x what we has estimated), and 7 volunteers blowing up balloons nonstop for hours in the sun to create!

After the amount of work we put into the balloon wall, we wanted to make sure that our drink selection matched the theme. We had a chance to try out Raspberry Starfruit Iced Tea and Frozen Strawberry Pineapple Pouches (YUM!) from Palm Bay. We also had a super cute cooler, pastel Turkish blankets, a record player for tunes, cookie dough ice cream, “Palm Bae” sweatshirts by Shop Nopal, and so many different kinds of sprinkles!!!
Palm Bay was an amazing complement to our pre-pride party. It was a total success, and the ultimate way to kick off the fun coming this week!

Hope to see you at Pride this year!

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Photos by Josh Mitchinson and Johanna Martin
Styling and Direction by Alyssa Garrison
Assistance from Mikayla Kuehn
Cotton Candy via Fancy Pufs
Party Plates and extra decor via Confetti and Bows
XOXO Balloons via Northstar Balloons
Jewels via Cherry Pick
Hottiewood

A special thanks to all our magical rainbow models (aka our friends) too!

This post was sponsored by Palm Bay, but all opinions are my own. To inquire about sponsored posts, please email jess@shineinfluencers.com

Dress Up

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There’s some pretty magical stuff happening in Toronto this week, and though I wasn’t due for another Take Me Out until two Fridays from now, I thought a special edition post was warranted. This weekend is a celebration filled with rainbows, confetti, and love, a combination I can’t help but get excited about. If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m talking about Toronto’s annual gay pride celebration, which this year just happens to be world pride!

I get so excited every summer when this week rolls around, and the massive scale of this year’s celebration has sent my energy level through the roof. There are outdoor parties every night, massive free concerts like Tegan and Sara over the weekend, rainbows painted on crosswalks, and a parade so extravagant it’s actually worth wading through the huge crowds of people to see it. There is so much going on right now that it’s almost overwhelming, and the city seems about ready to burst (sort of like a big confetti bomb?)

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Now I’m not going to sugar coat it; in the past I’ve worn some pretty scandalous and strange outfits to pride (everyone does, don’t judge me.) Though I’m still incredibly proud to be part of the LGBTQ community, and I’m looking forward to spending my weekend dancing and daydreaming with a big glittery swarm of strangers, I want to take my pride look up a notch. And really, what better wardrobe to chose from than the shelves of Bicyclette?

Since it was impossible to actually shoot in the trenches of the pride zone without getting covered in sweat and runaway face paint, I decided to shoot some of my favourite pride looks in the safety of Studio B before heading out. Of course rainbows and bright, bold colours were necessary, and a little bit of unicorn sparkle, though not mandatory, was firmly suggested.

With the help of Paige (aka Toronto’s resident magical creature/California girl), I put together a handful of rainbowtastic outfits that are sure to make you feel so happy you might even describe it as, well… gay! I mixed in a few of my own rainbow pieces from home, like my ice cream tank, and my new Wildfox Rainbow sweater, and accessorized with party-perfect headbands and bags by Ban.do. Alongside a hot pink dresses, a tulle skirt, and an airy neon tank top from the shop, the outfits turned out bright and prismatic. Perfect for a weekend out celebrating every colour of the rainbow, don’t you think?

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Happy Pride unicorns!

This is a collaboration post with Bicyclette and it can also be found on their blog too!