I plan weddings for a passion. I have planned many weddings over the last 12 years and they have all been so different and unique, but the one common thread is the success of each wedding due to the many hours of planning. When the wedding planner gets married, it’s a different ballgame. There was no one to keep us on task but ourselves. I decided to hold us accountable with to do lists and deadlines like a do with all our clients. I practiced what I preach, and I can say wholeheartedly, its tried and true and stress-free way for your wedding!
When Stefan and I decided to get married in St. John’s there was only one location that we knew we wanted to get married and that was in my grandmother’s backyard. She has the most exquisite trees and flowers, and although you are in the heart of the city, you feel like you are a million miles away. She also has the most glorious grand piano that I just knew I wanted Brian Way to play. At first, my grandmother had concerns but Joe Thompson is a real professional and said weather permitting he could move the piano out to the garden for our wedding!! Once we knew we had our venue and piano, our next choices were photographers (photos are very important to Stefan and I), cake, and hair and make-up. My husband owns restaurants and has an amazing team, so we knew the food was going to be from Loose tie. The décor and flowers were going to be a massive undertaking, but I knew exactly what I wanted and I started to order and build. Jason at Flower Studio was instrumental in pulling this all together for me!!
Stefan and I wanted our wedding to be small, under 40 people. We wanted it to be about our families and friends having fun, no stress, and no pressure. We did things the way we wanted, and it turned out to be the best day! From the minute we opened our eyes until the minute we closed them at the end of the night, we can honestly say we had so much fun.
24 hours before we said our vows, I passed the planning reigns to my incredibly talented sidekick, Sherry. Sherry has been doing weddings and events with me for years and she thinks just like me, so I had no worries whatsoever. I wanted to step out of “wedding planner” and fully embrace and enjoy being the bride. Best. Decision. Ever! I was able to be fully present and in the moment!
Tips for Wedding Planning:
- Hire a Wedding Planner. Doesn’t have to be full event planning, can be day of coordination. There are a lot of fantastic wedding planners in the city, this is the best money spent at your wedding if you want to relax and fully enjoy your day
- What are the top three things that are important to you? For us it was our small group of guests, location, and flowers
- If getting married outside, have a full back up plan
- Plan, plan and plan some more! Give timeline to all bridal party and vendors so everyone is on the same page
- Don’t sweat the small things, your guests are there because they love you and support you, at the end of the day, the love is what matters.
- Book hair and make-up to touch up after first look but before ceremony
- Choose 2-3 big budget items and go with it. Those 2-3 statement pieces will be more noticeable then trying to spread budget out over 5-10 things. For us it was the sheer ceiling/walls, the dance floor and the flowers!
I work with so many talented people in the wedding industry it was hard to choose our favorites, but I was so so so happy with all of our vendors, they truly did make it a dream!!
Here are our vendors:
Invitations – We ordered our invites online. They were on small acrylic pieces with lettering in gold and delivered in a luxurious navy envelop. They were a bit excessive, but we only had 20 invites so it was worth it for us!
Dress – Ivory suites! The gals were excellent. My dress came in and I just didn’t “love it”. With 6 weeks until the wedding day, the girls helped me try on a bunch a dresses until I found “the one” I couldn’t have been happier with my dress and truly felt beautiful in my dress! My bridesmaids had their dresses made at Sooley Designs. We sat with Megan and I picked the colour and Megan did the rest! Their dresses were stunning!!!!!
Suits – Byron’s was fantastic to work with in finding not only the Grooms suit but the two groomsmen. I gave him the swatch from the Bridesmaid dress and he did the rest. Suit, shirt, tie and shoes. The guys had such a great and stress free experience picking out their suits!
Hair- Allison Kent – The Queen of hair!! The speed that she can create a flawless updo is mind blowing! All of the girls had their hair done and everyone was thrilled!!
Make-up Allison Best – The Queen of Makeup! I had Allison do my makeup for a few events now and knew I wanted her for my wedding day! She did exactly the look I wanted, I was beyond thrilled with my makeup!
Food – Getting ready morning of, we wanted our friends to not get hungry so we had Graze n thyme set out a spectacular spread for the females and Wedgewood catering did a manly filling spread for the boys!! All soooo yummy!!
Transportation – We had our own transportation from family vehicles!
Photography – Nate and Nicole! Photography was very important to us. They were just so amazing to work with! I’ll never forget our first look, they set us up and stepped back, it was magical. I honestly cant remember them being there, except the 200 photos we got back lol.
We were also extremely lucky to have Sara Rostotski come and shoot our family portraits at the wedding as well! Sara and Norm have captured all of our family moments in the last 7 years and we couldn’t imagine a wedding with them not being there
Music – Ceremony Music we had Heather Kao on violin, Steve on acoustic guitar, Nathan on Cello and Brian on Piano. We also had Rachel Cousins sing! It was perfection!!
Officiant – We had our best friend, Justin marry us. But in order to make ie legally binding we also had to have Craig Murphy there. Craig was so fantastic in helping us navigate a way for Justin to have a large part in the ceremony and with the flow.
Food – Damian and the team at Loose Tie did not disappoint! The food was AMAZING!!!!!!
Ice bar – Steve Watson carved our champagne bar! Awesome cool feature and kept our bubbly cold!
AV – Canadian AV helped us with all of our sound &lighting needs. They made sure the property was well lit and a generator to run all the gear!! We couldn’t have done it without them!
Flowers – Flower Studio. I sent Jason pictures of what I liked and left the rest up to him! I was blown away with all the amazing flowers! My favorite was my bouquet, it was truly more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed of
Cake – OMG that cake! Aaron from Happy Belly with the help of Juanita created the most amazing cake. I told Aaron the colour I wanted and the flavours and left the rest up to him. It was so so so so yummy!!!!
Décor – Laurie at Fairytales was awesome for draping the tent and the ceiling. She also had the most beautiful wooden chairs, they were pretty and comfy. A lot of the décor I ordered myself from Amazon and Etsy from candle holders, table linens, Guest book, card box.
Menu/Print – All of our printing was done by the very talented Alison at IDesign! Including acrylic menus, vinyl seating chart, vinyl car sticker and welcome sign
Construction – Colbourne Industrial was incharge of building the subfloor for our tent and then taking it down before the hurricane lol
If you have any questions about anything from our wedding, shoot us a message, we would love to help you!
