In Any Events

Tracy and Kristin August 22nd Eggspectations

So it's time to post some of the weddings that we were so lucky to be a part of this summer! I will be posting them over the course of the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!

I wanted to start with Tracy and Kristin as I have already posted their wedding video. They held both their ceremony and their reception at Eggspectations on Bank Street and they were the very first wedding held there! I have to say that Tracy and Kristin and their friends and family made the day so special for us. I have never experienced such an open and loving environment with people who were so ready to help to make sure that the brides were happy on their special day.

There are so many pictures I want to share with you I don't even know where to start! Most of the photos are done by Josh Brown with a few thrown in from Tracy's very talented cousin.

The pre-wedding photo shoot was done all around elgin street and the market including the Outlook where the brides first met (they were so on time they even got to have a drink there!).

 

 
  
  
   
  This is my favourite wedding party picture of all time!
  
 
    

Team Green!

 Team Ireland!

The ceremony was held in the lower level of Eggspectations in front of the glass doors, emotions ran high and beautiful words were spoken.

 

 
 
  
 
  
 
   
 
  

   
 

And then on to dinner and dancing upstairs!
 

 

Love this photo the glass as a backdrop is stunning!
 
   
 
  
  
 
    

And finally the party!

  

  

  There is one picture that I want to bring special attention to. Kristin's mother Laurel made a very touching speech and lit a candle and I wanted to share both the picture and the speech with you all.

 

Four and a half years ago our Prime Minister, Paul Martin, stood only blocks away from where I stand today and spoke in support of the federal Civil Marriage Act. He stood in front of our parliament and asked his colleagues to extend the right to marry to all Canadians regardless of who they love. “This,” he said, “is an important day.”

Well today is an important day too. Today both of our families have grown and been strengthened to include a new member. Today, I have the honour of welcoming my new daughter into our family. Our daughter-IN-LAW, Tracy. And I am proud that Tracy and Kristin are able to marry with all of the legal rights and privileges that many of us take for granted. But as we welcome Tracy, we must also remember that this is not a universal right. Many people in this world are not able to legally marry the people they have chosen to share their lives with. So today I would like to light a candle in their honour. In the hopes that someday soon those laws will change and love, whatever form it takes, will be universally respected and celebrated. As I light this candle I invite all of you to join me in making this wish for equality. 
 

We're ba-ack!

There are lots of changes coming up for this little blog but while I work on them I wanted to share this wonderful video of one of our weddings from this summer.

Tracy and Kristin were lovely to work with and their day was filled with love and friendship, everything a wedding should be filled with. They were the very first couple to have their wedding at Eggspectations on Bank Street and I have to say it was a stunning venue.

The video was done by C'est Bon Productions and in particular Shannon at C'est Bon. I highly recommend her as she was truly professional all throughout the day!

Enjoy!

The Making of a $6000 wedding...

I have been waiting to blog about this until I had the time to really get into the blog and tonight is the night! I have the pleasure of working Jen and Alex on their wedding for this coming October. I am always excited when a couple contacts me but when I got the email from Jen and Alex I knew that this was going to be a challenge unlike any other and here's why....

They would like to do their wedding for 100-125 people for $6000

Impossible! Ludicrous! Downright Wrong! some might say.... wanna know what I said??

I said "Tell me more!"

Here is what I got from Jen

One thing we've talked about that we both like is the goals/vision that the author of the $2,000 wedding set out with her partner (http://2000dollarwedding.com/2008/08/starting-with-end-in-mind.html):

 

• To bring family and friends together to reconnect and form new friendships.
• The experience will not be overly-orchestrated. It's a celebration of our love, not a show.
• We will fight consumerism by spending only $2,000 max (we have a general idea but not an exact $ set yet). The Wedding Industrial Complex is conspiring to make us think we have to spend more money. But we want to make the event special with sincerity, not money.
• It will be good for the environment.
• It will be connected to nature.
• We will have real time to spend with guests. We want to be able to spend quality time with our friends and family. We don't want to follow the traditional pattern of a few wedding "events" where the bride and groom only have time for a "meet and greet": rehearsal dinner, reception, brunch the following morning. We want more of a family & friends reunion.
• We will make all the decisions ourselves so our wedding represents us.
• We only want to be surrounded by our closest friends and family.
• We want to be relaxed and fully present.

As soon as I read her email I knew I had to be part of this wedding! I read the whole of the $2000 Wedding Blog in one night. My neurons started firing in excitement and I thought to myself "Self: this is a wedding that you can learn from". I think in these scary economic times everyone will be keeping an eye on the bottom line and althoughnot everyone will be having $6000 weddings I know that what I am going to learn from helping plan this wedding will be of use to my professional life for years to come.

 

And so Jen and Alex have allowed me to help them plan this wedding in the next seven months and I am absolutely chuffed about it!

We have already made progress in that they have booked their venue which is the Glebe Community Centre  

   

It is stunning inside! I am so excited about it! The next major hurdle is a caterer and that is next weeks assignment I can't wait!

 

In the coming weeks and months I will share with you all of the creative ways that Jen and Alex (and myself) will come up with to keep them on budget and more importantly on vision. And to close out this blog post I will share with you a picture that I have stolen from Jen and Alex's blog... it's adorable and festive... just like Jen and Alex!

Inspiration is everywhere...

We have been lucky enough in the last few weeks to welcome great new couples to the IAE family. I am so excited about the weddings that we will be working with in the coming months as they are all completely diffrent to each other. Some of those couples are very comfortable with us discussing their concepts on this blog and some are not (which is completely understandable).

One couple that is comfortable with me talking about their wedding on here is Patrick and Matthew. I was given three directives when I started to help them plan their New Years Eve wedding. They want it to be 

• Visually stunning
• Completely Unique
• A ceremony on a rooftop in Montreal at midnight...in the middle of winter

At first my wedding planner brain was screaming "You can't make guests sit outside, on a rooftop, in winter they will freeze" but the more that I thought of it the more I started to love the idea.

Now this isn't for everyone but can you imagine as a guest that after a sumptuous dinner where the food was wonderful and the wine free flowing, where the room was bathed in candlelight and colours of deep red, and blues and golds, where the centrepieces were made of ice containing flowers, but surrounded by the saffron glow of candles, and where the music was ecclectic and fun. Imagine you were then invited outside onto the rooftop patio which is completely done in white, completely covered in candles, and has shots of vodka on each seat and a fur throw to keep you warm.

I can't get the visual of old Montreal as a backdrop out of my head, and imagine timing the vows so that the ceremony finished just as the fireworks started, what a wonderful way to start a new year and new life!

A post for Natalie

Natalie is one of our brides for 2009 (June 27th it's coming up quick!) and her colour scheme is chocolate brown and blue. This colour scheme has been around for a couple of years now and I continually amazed by the different variations that can be done with it.

I was perusing Hostess with the Mostess this morning and found these pictures of a Thanksgiving event.... I absolutely love them so I thought I would share them with you all. Natalie's wedding is going to be fantastic! I can't wait!

         

Our first wedding and their wedding website!

Although I have planned many many weddings before In Any Events (which will be referred to as IAE from now on) the company's very first wedding will be Natalie and Robert's wedding in June!

I am so excited to work with Natalie, she is one of those brides that is so organized and knows exactly what she wants which is going to make being her day of coordinator so easy! I just came upon her wedding website and was impressed at just how detailed she is. On her website she has the story of how her and Robert met, their engagement story and she introduces the wedding party as well as details the wedding events. A very handy tool for all wedding attendees!

Natalie chose to go with www.mywedding.comfor her wedding website and so did I when I got married! It's a great way to keep your family and friends in the loop and to start the festive feeling of a wedding long before the actual day. Mywedding.com is very easy to use, it's almost as easy as point and click you just fill in the blanks and then let your imagination run wild!

I believe it's in the details that you find out just who the couple is that is getting married and you can certainly tell from Natalie and Robert's site that they are head over heels in love!