Toronto Pride

A Pre-Pride #RAOPrainbowparty

June 29, 2016June 29, 2016 by Alyssa Garrison

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!

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

Oh so Pretty

Prismatic Rainbow Pastel Hair

June 23, 2016June 23, 2016 by Alyssa Garrison

And just like that, it’s one of my favourite times of the year again: Toronto Pride is around the corner! In all honestly things feel a bit different this year for all sorts of reasons- I’m dating a cisgender man for the first time in a long long time, my best friend Sarah is coming to spend with weekend with me from Vancouver, and most importantly, I’m still reeling from the mass shooting in Orlando. The more I read about this horrible tragedy, and the more I think of how easily it could’ve been so many of my nearest and dearest in that club… it’s almost unfathomable, but it’s reality for those victims and their families.

With that in mind, the common consensus in the community and beyond is that we need to band together, become stronger than ever before, and most importantly, spread love over spreading hate. Pride has always been a celebration of love, friendship, community, and strength for me, and I think this year more than ever it remains important to sparkle on in full capacity. Rumour has it you might even catch a glimpse of my rainbow hair in this year’s parade if you look closely enough…

Anyway, on to the hair!

I almost always have some sort of unicorn-type thing happening on my head for Pride, and there’s no one better at swirling blended rainbow hair goodness then Amanda Quarshie at Blyss salon. I was introduced to the Blyss team through my PR contact at Davines (aka my go-to hair brand), and we’ve been pretty much unstoppable when it comes to amazing colour creations ever since. This year she used 6 different colours on my locks (including peach and lavender) to get the dreamiest pastel mane possible, all blended at different strengths so certain shades showed up more obviously.

Using Davines “A New Colour” in a warm beige blonde to create a base, and Davines Pure Colour for the actual rainbow, the end result was a subtle yet beautiful opalescent masterpiece, and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been terrified to wash my hair and lose the effect!

Stay tuned for more glimpses of my rainbow hair at the #RAOPrainbowparty post, coming early next week!

Hair colour by Amanda Quarshie, hair cut by Alyson Peach, both at Blyss Salon. Dress from Aritzia!

Dress Up

A Sparkle Tee From The Sea

June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 by Alyssa Garrison

Happy Pride weekend everyone!

I know I’m a little bit late to the game with this one but trust me, it’s been a tough week in RAOP land ok? That said, it’s also been a really BIG week in the world! Gay marriage is now legal all across America, and it’s been truly incredible to watch my social feeds fill up with endless rainbows and messages of support.

To celebrate this magical time, I’ve teamed up with Charziie to host a giveaway! You can win yourself a hand-painted, one of a kind rainbow glitter tee (cropped or full length), and all you have to do is tag two friends in my Instagram post, and follow both Char and I! Bonus points will be awarded if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and you have until tomorrow evening to enter. Sorry, Canadian and U.S. shipping addresses only please!

Starfish created by Victoire, T-shirt by Charziie, Skirt by Party Skirts, backpack and sandals by Golden Ponies.

Photos by Paige of Bicyclette

*Note: Some or all of the items featured in this post were given to me as a gift from the maker, but I only write about products I genuinely adore, I promise!*

Dress Up

Rainbow Magic for World Pride!

June 27, 2014September 19, 2016 by Alyssa Garrison

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?)

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?

Happy Pride unicorns!

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