California Couture Conference

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the Association of Bridal Consultants annual conference in sunny Newport, California. I’m exhausted, but I’m more rejuvenated then I’ve been in a while. The theme of the conference was California Couture – and the event organizers didn’t disappoint!! Watch for more postings coming as I share a couple tidbits I picked up from the conference.

My conference buddy was my good friend Crystal Adair-Benning from Distinct Occasions in Toronto – after getting settled on in to our posh Fairmont Newport hotel room on Saturday, the festivities quickly began the next day.

Sunday was our workshop day, where both Crystal and I became Sandals Certified Specialists - I’m so excited about these ‘Luxury Included’ resorts and what they have to offer for honeymoons and destination weddings – there is so much support from Sandals for wedding planners to draw upon, to ensure our couples have the most memorable of honeymoons.

The vendor fair was like a candy shop for wedding planners!! I had opportunity to meet with some incredible suppliers, offering distinctive linens, uniquely designed chair covers, elegant invitations, couture keepsakes and luxurious favours. I’m so excited about these new options for our clients…some of the products are already planned for utilization in our upcoming 2009 Nuance Occasions weddings, and I’ll be sharing more about some of these great vendors throughout our blog in the coming weeks.

Sunday concluded with a pool-side reception to meet and greet other planners and conference organizers. I was treated to a selection of hors d’ouevres and a potatoe martini bar (complete with mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes in a martini glass – and your choice of toppings: chicken, mushrooms, 3 types of cheeses, scallions, bacon & more). I got to personally test out a new travelling photo booth concept, and participate in southern California hospitality.

Monday began bright and early with discussions of how to ensure a California Couture look for our couples – with discussions about couture wedding fashion trends, hair and make up secrets, and photography styles that match client needs and expectations. We continued on with workshops about improved techniques for paper management (ie. my 3″ thick file folders LOL), and then came into the design portion at lunch, where the room exploded with over 20 different centerpiece inspirations and design elements!

Our afternoon featured lessons on fixing a bustle with unique techiques, couture napkin folding 101, and lessons on properly assisting a bride and bridesmaids with putting on a Sari. A lot of today was focused on relationships with clients and vendors and beautiful design elements.

Monday night I was able to fit in a little shopping, and by chance met Stacy of Wedding Window - a popular wedding website company. I’ve always loved what Wedding Window had to offer, but knowing the direction the company is going, has me even more excited about their next endeavors!

Tuesday of the ABC annual conference was all about Colin Cowie and creating luxurious events!

Tuesday featured a couture tented breakfast and an awards ceremony for distinquished planners in the association. The morning proceeded with workshops on working in events beyond weddings…and then, the moment I had been waiting for. I had opportunity to hear Colin Cowie – event planner to the stars – speak and discuss his planning and production process for his events, and then had an opportunity to meet with Colin during another elegant luncheon. I even got my book signed!!! He is a very gracious man, and it was a true pleasure to hear about the work and process involved with creating his events.

The afternoon was full of competitions to create wedding inspiration boards with a team – I had some fabulous planners to work with, and although we didn’t win – I still think we should have LOL! Wedding planners get a little competative when it comes to contests – there was a lot of stealing and cheating go on throughout the exercise – all in good fun of course. Then we were wisked away to a the Marina Institute in Newport for some oceanside cocktails and fun hors d’ouvres stations!

I was sad to see the conference come to an end…I had met so many incredible planners, including Mary Dann from California (as seen on ‘Whose Wedding is it Anyway?”), and planners from Bulgaria, Italy, and Argentina. I’ve met vendors I’ve only ever conversed with online, and I got to spend some great time with my friend Crystal! And although I shopped till I dropped and filled my bags to .25lb below the maximum limit – it was time to head home. I arrived home to Edmonton, Alberta in the middle of the night on Thursday, loving being home, but wide awake with my mind swimming with new design ideas and new inspiration.

If you’ve read this far – I applaud you…I’m just so excited about this luxury wedding event and all the luxurious couture ideas we’ll now be able to implement with our very own Nuance Occasions weddings. This type of continuing education is so important for all wedding planners….as exhausting as it may be, it does rejuvenate the planners soul.

Be sure to check out our Educational Category for an upcoming conference near you – and if you have a conference to add, please let me know, so I can add it to the list!

I’d love to hear your conference reports and stories!

Jolyn | Wedding Planner Coach

Tale of 2 Planners

Once in a while, in the middle of an ordinary life…you accept a trip, with no idea of the adventure you’ll take!

Although Crystal Adair-Benning and I had only met in person at a conference in February 2008, we quickly became not only like minded colleagues, but also became friends – sharing battle stories from across the country.  Cystal is a wedding planner extraordinaire, operating Distinct Occasions in Toronto & Niagara.

This is our shared account of this one incredible week, and all the work it took behind the scenes to make it look like perfection…so grab a cup of coffee, get comfy and enjoy!

Day 1 (Crystal writing)

Day 1: Airport Pickup
Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Well, being the professional wedding planners we were, and with the help of a really nice local – we made the call to CAA – the tow truck was on the way – called a rental company (PS. Enterprise will come and pick you up – which was handy in our situation)

We unloaded all the ’stuff’ onto the sidewalk while waiting for our rental, which happened to be a HUGH HEMI PICK UP TRUCK – all sexy and black LOL – needless to say, we quickly threw everything into the back and decided it was time to head to the ferry and cross to Wolfe Island.

In the ferry line up, it started to rain – remember…we’re in a pick up!!! We begin to pile ALL THE STUFF from in back, into the actual truck…back seats on these trucks don’t hold a lot…LOL…Crystal and I couldn’t even see each other because of the pile in between us for this ferry ride.

Thankfully, we crossed with no issues, and went to find our hotel the bride had booked us into – the General Wolfe Hotel – really – it was right out of Bates hotel, but that’s another story….we checked-in – got the grand tour – and finally shown our room – OUR REALLY TINY ROOM- one tiny double bed for the two of us (and we don’t like each other THAT much LOL).

So now we loaded all of the stuff into the tiny room – and left to go check out the tent….the tent was up…but the flooring had BIG issues …there were big divots, lots of bumps and all around not a safe floor. John with the tent company had assured Crystal the flooring he could access would work on lawn, but really – it didn’t…we spent a good portion of the day coordinating with the company about the different ways we could fix it and trying to find a solution the bride and groom would be happy with as well.

As the day went on, we realized our room at the General Wolfe was not near big enough for our stuff, and all the work we needed to do….so after getting the brides’ blessing – we removed all our items from the General Wolfe at 11:30pm (for those counting, we’ve packed vehicals 6 times by this point) and took the ferry back to Kingston, and in 4 loads, moved into the Confederation hotel (for the 7th movement of decor in one day).

We were exhausted, but we still decided to try to start working on our craft projects….which you’ll see later on….

It was definately an action packed day, and the wedding work had barely even started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, the piece de resistance was the Rehearsal Dinner. Completely created and designed by Distinct Occasions the bride & groom wanted the details left up to me to create a rehearsal I felt worthy of them both! And wow did I have fun!!!

(Here is me and the stunned & ecstatic Bride):

For starters, Jolyn & I draped the tables in a beautiful satin Pucci print pink tablecloth, added retro multi-bubble vases and rose balls and a LOT of candles. The finishing touch was the draped tent walls and the lit up plexi-bar to complete the look.

The couple was served BBQ casual with filet mignon and a deluxe assortment of salads.

And Jolyn & I of course made sure they were happy and then left the Island to deliver gift baskets to 3 different hotels in Kingston for guests. The gift bags were my “brainwave” to have each of the bridal party & couple provide an item for the bags to represent themselves, their relationship to the couple, and to celebrate Wolfe Island and here’s how they turned out…

So at 7:15am we arrive at the island, along with the work crew from the tent company. We reviewed all the problem areas of the floor, and between us, the tent company and couple, decided the quickest and most cost effective option was place plywood under the worst parts of the floor, to give the rolled flooring more stability.

Now this is the kicker, all of the wedding deliveries of rentals had been delivered on Thursday, and were piled in the far corner of the tent (taking up easily a 20×20 foot area)…our caterer was also supposed to be on the island at 7:15, but he wasn’t.

Because he wasn’t there – both Crystal and I had to move the entire area of rentals from the far wall, into the kitchen tent – we moved close to 200 chivaris, 35-40 tables, all the dinnerware and glassware for 5 courses, cocktail tables, linens and everything else you could imagine. This all came on 2 semi trucks, so you can imagine how much we had to move!!!

Crystal was calling the caterer every 5 minutes, and not getting an answer – needless to say, both Crystal and I were not made for this type of labor – but the items HAD to be moved in order for the floor to be fixed, which was a priority. Since all the items were his, they were piled into the kitchen tent and he’d have to sort them out later (we were secretly a little bit happy he’d have to move it all again, since he missed the first move LOL)

When the caterer finally arrived at noon – we quickly decided that I needed to deal with the caterer, since Crystal was likely to tear a strip off him and make him leave the island for good – which wouldn’t have been good. So Crystal kept working with the flooring company, I dealt with the caterer and we continued on.

Then we started the fun of removing 2 labels, from each of 140 glass vases….I think the goo-gone fumes were making us a little giddy, cause we probably had the most laughs of the week during this 3 hour work bee….note to self – always make the bride/groom take off labels themselves…I’m not doing that any time soon again!! LOL!

Once we were sure the floor issues had been resolved, we went back over to Kingston for late lunch/early supper and to complete our final meeting with the florist, and view the florals. Crystal quickly noticed that the bridal bouquet was not distinctive from the rest, so we then set in motions for us to ‘fix it’on the wedding day.

Our return to the island took a little longer, as we discovered one problem with the ferry in the area…as we waiting in Kingston, to go back to the island, we noticed the ferry was late for the first time in the last 3 days. Apparently, the ferry had to take an ambulance to another island, causing a significant delay….although it didn’t impact much of our schedule…we hoped this wouldn’t be a pattern of things to come…we were delayed by 1.5hours in getting to the island this time.

As our caterer had left all the physical labor to us in the morning, he promised us a steak dinner on our return to the island…we’re both glad we trusted out intuition and ate back in Kingston, because when we arrived back to the tent, the floor was done, but the 12 person caterering crew that was supposed to be there just after lunch, had not shown up yet. We had the one supervisor, with no equipment or food, and a wedding tomorrow!!!!

Because of the tight wedding timeline for the next day, we quickly began assembling our décor items and preparing, despite nothing being done by the catering set up team. We began filling vases with the garden hose, so the water would be room temperature the following day, and ready for all the florals.

At 8pm, the catering crew finally arrived, and began the kitchen set up.
We left the island at midnight, with the promise, that the catering crew would show up first thing, and they would do all the basic décor (table arrangments, linens, plating, napkins, chairs, etc) and we’d just have finishing touches in the morning to begin with….

Day Five – The Wedding!!! (Crystal writing)
Date: Saturday, July 26, 2008

Tanya & Craig’s glorious Wolfe Island Wedding Day on Saturday, July 26, 2008, began as a hazy July morning. Distant storm clouds looked threatening but strong will prevailed that this would be the most stunning outdoor reception any couple could hope for!

Working with Tanya & Craig over the last year has been a joy. Their passion for the details and ability to just trust in my skill and experience was a joy for me. I loved everything about this couple. Their love and passion for one another runs deep and for that above all else – doing this wedding was a passionate, creative and joyful experience.

Starting the day off bright and early began with a floral pickup (NOT a typical thing) but a paid favor to our couple. Assistants Emily Hodgins (intern) and Stephanie, met us at the ferry dock for what was to be a VERY hectic day of wedding planning fun!

The Catholic greystone church was beautifully decorated with guests greeted by the couples initials on the big church doors and pews decorated with handmade pew bows designed by the Groom’s mother. The altar was awash with florals of delphinium, dendrobium and roses to beautifully frame this white wedding.

The Mother’s donned beautiful handmade gowns custom created for them through a designer of the bride’s choosing. The Fathers looked regal in their dark suits. Groomsmen made a splash in dark suits accented with pale blue ties (for our “something blue”) and the bridesmaids in white designer gowns custom created for them. Even the five small flowergirls got into the act with gorgeous white princess dresses tied with a neat satin bow at their backs. However, the highlight of course was our stunning bride, Tanya, dressed in a silk, organza and tulle creation from Oscar de la Renta and walking proudly in gorgeous Christian Leboutin heels accented in pale blue, baby green and clear swarovski crystals with the trademark red sole. Stunning from head to toe!

While rain deterred setup a bit and threatened an outdoor cocktail reception focused on Wolfe Manor’s pool area the heavens opened up just beautifully as the bride gracefully walked the aisle and took her rightful spot next to the handsome groom, Craig.

After the ceremony a short recieving line was hosted in the church for everyone to give the couple their best wishes and with the sun shining passed cocktails including our speciality drink, Mojitos, were passed in the Manor’s gardens which guests walked to through the orchid strewn grove between ceremony and reception. Guests enjoyed mini comfort food appetizers including mini-burgers, french fries, fig & prosciutto biscuits, spanikopita squares and mini crab cakes before retiring to the main tent for dinner!

Walking down a lantern lined pathway from Manor to cocktails, guests were enthralled with a gorgeous white glow from inside the tent provided by rectangular white tables wrapped in crinkled satin linens, white pocketfold napkins, dendrobium orchid lamp centrepieces, swarovski beaded dendrobiums on their napkins, table names after the bride & groom’s flowerbed favourites, a lit up plexi bar and a sophisticated votive per guest with hand calligraphied placecards courtesy of the Groom’s mother. It was a vision of pure joy for everyone in attendance!

Every detail of the day was coordinated to match the bride’s beautiful white invitations created by Bella Couture in Toronto including the napkins, seating chart, menu cards, wedding cake, bride’s bouquet, pew bows, and chair decor for the bride & groom!

Dinner was a masterpiece for the senses featuring five gourmet courses to tempt the pallet and delight even the most finicky of eaters. Guests dined on an Amuse Bouche of sensual big apple mini martinis with double take peach carpaccio on citrus crisp. A starter of Plantain lasso wrapped Cosmo salad topped sugar daddy skewered jumbo shrimp & giant scallop with ginger perfumed emulsion. A delicate lemon sorbet pallet cleanser. A delightful and surprising entree duo of Pink peppercorn crusted pork tenderloin with fontina and celeriac mash on pink grapefruit silk sheet with a pan seared baby supreme chicken with, pineapple puree, grilled pineapple and saffron honey. Vegetarians even got in on the gourmet food with a Grilled Sicilian eggplant layered in artichoke compote, buffalo mozzarella, roasted garlic and grape tomato. Dessert was a tongue pleasing decadent chocolate trio featuring a Lindt flourless chocolate torte with strawberry ganache, white chocolate & raspberry risotto and an out of this world chocolate-cinnamon soup! Guests walked away very full, very impressed and wanting the recipes for such an unusual and delightful wedding dinner.

One of the most touching details of the day was in a ring worn by the bride on her right hand an heirloom ring passed down by generations of women in her family worn on their wedding days. The vintage look perfectly matched the clean simplicity of this elegant event and couldn’t have been more perfect.

So the scene was set, the beautiful white a scene setter for sure, and a backdrop of an Island Manor house a perfect locale. The food was savoury, delicious and a joy for guests. The couple stunning, in love and grateful to have everyone around them.

While not every wedding goes exactly as planned; every great wedding makes it look easy. And, with the help of the incredible Jolyn Saramaga, Emily Hodgins and Stephanie - this wedding was flawless (at least to guests) and definitely looked easy! Thank you for the love and support my sweet girls. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Congratulations to Tanya & Craig. May you always remember your city chic wedding in the country with fond memories. Cheers to a lifetime of joy… together!

Wedding Day Dramas

Rain
… yes, rain. Mother Nature truly didn’t like us and felt the need to not only sprinkle but POUR on our bride’s big day. The heavens opened up about two hours prior to the wedding drenching everyone and everything in it’s path. The worst of this was the pathways (down a hill) from the Manor and the washrooms/tent located in a valley. Thankfully for us, the fixes from Fri to the tent held tight but the bathroom certainly was a tad mucky. The back kitchen also turned into a veritable pit near the BBQ for the poor serving staff!

Late Bride
Our beautiful bride was so bummed by Mother Nature that she purposely was late to the ceremony trying to wait for a break in the weather. But this drama at least worked in our favor as the reception still needed more time for setting.

Catering
Short staffed due to rain and an off-site locale (their from Toronto) we had 6 servers not show up for their work (typical but still sad). The caterers were so short staffed that I ended up Expediting in the kitchen while the expediter served plates with the staff throughout the evening.

Washrooms
Portable washrooms (6 units) were brought in for the big day. Major concerns included lighting (they forgot to put this in) and the wet locale. Eventually plywood solved much of that concern until the washrooms ran out of toilet paper, paper towel and the wash basin out of water. A quick phonecall solved the paper issues but unfortunately nothing other than sanitizer instead of water could fix the water concern.

Photographer
Altho the couple spared no expense on their vendors (including myself) they did choose to go with a local photographer. She was “interesting” and barely took any photos but did manage to follow Jolyn & I around while we took photos and copy EVERY shot!!! Seriously funny!!! 

Day 6: The Final Saga (Jolyn writing)
Sunday, July 27, 2008

Sunday morning started bright and early as Crystal, Emilie and myself climbed out of our king size bed (thankfully I think all of us were so exhausted, we didn’t move all night LOL).

We caught the morning ferry back to Wolfe Island. and dropped Emilie back at her vehical and went to check out the aftermath and pack up final details. We had to pack all the tall vases, and rehearsal decor for the caterer to take back to Toronto, since Crystal now had to drop the rental truck in Ottawa and fly back home. She also had to leave the caterer her emergency kit to take back, as there were lots of restricted items in it LOL.

Sadly, the bride and groom were already up and starting clean up in the tent – they should have been sleeping still!!

Anyhow, in just over an hour, we got our stuff packed and piled, the catererer again had not yet arrived. We called him, as he had to get the tables, chairs and linens sorted before the rental semi’s rolled in.

While we were in the ferry line up to head back to Kingston, we saw the rental semi’s roll off the ferry, caterer wasn’t happy when we called and told him to get his butt over there….LOL…he totally dropped the ball on that one! But it wasn’t our problem any more!

We began the drive back to Ottawa for us to both catch our flights, but there wasn’t near as much giggles….I think we were all beyond exhausted, and also a little bit sad the adventure was over.

Although we did discover that when you hit highway speeds with the pick up, the truck liner lifts right out of the back – LOL – so we still had some chuckles.

In Ottawa, we ate comfort food, walked around a little and started going through the photos of the week to decide what we’d keep or erase.

We initially thought about erasing a bunch of the set up photos, but then starting thinking they might be something good to share with everyone, especially those new to the industry….and thus, this post was born….

At the airport, the exhaustion was kicking in, as we couldn’t stop giggling about every little thing! Our flights were leaving 10 minutes apart….and although Crystal and I only really met in February at the conference….this week was the start of an incredible friendship that will last despite our distance!!!

One High End Wedding + 2 long distance friends + one strained ankle (Crystal) + 1 broken toe (Jolyn) + numerous bruises + plenty of exhaustion = a week full of memories

Crystal – I have teased you forever about you just ‘having to fly me in if you needed more help’ and I never in a million years thought it would happen LOL, but I’m really glad you did….it was a trip that was much more than a wedding, and was truly honoured to help you pull it together….

When we came up with the brainwave for this story, we really wanted everyone to see that even pros have to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, it’s the nature of weddings….even the best planners, can’t plan for everything…but what separates a great planner from a good planner, is the ability to roll with it, and rise above any issues, and be able to produce a wedding that LOOKS flawless despite all the running around behind the scenes.

We know a lot of new planners aren’t aware of how much work goes into producing a wedding day – both Crystal and I agree that planning a wedding is the easy part, its the day of that takes the work and skill!

So hopefully this will help some new planners prepare for what their first wedding will entail (maybe minus the car problems LOL), and for all the pros, when you have a crazy wedding, hopefully, you’ll remember our wedding, and know you aren’t alone in having days like this….because I think as pros, we get hard on ourselves sometimes when things happen outside of our control.

Final Words by Crystal

Jolyn – I couldn’t have done this without you. Although it’s only been since Feb we actually met, I couldn’t ask for a better friend or colleague. Your love and support means the world to me and I thank you for packing up and joining the adventure. I hope we have many many more to come!

For all other wedding planners – Planning is easy, Coordinating takes skill. Remember you’re never alone. Make friends, and keep them. You just never know when one will fly halfway across the country to keep you sane and share some memories. Oh and ALWAYS wear flat shoes to a wedding, and think like a girl scout “always be prepared”.

PS – I’m amazed we weren’t tossed out of the airport by security – 2 grown women crying at the thought of leaving one another, taking wierd photos and laughing like the worlds gonna end! hehehe

Final Words from Jolyn

I’m posting this now, 4 months after the wedding, and remember it like it was yesterday.  Crystal and I were fortunate to meet at a wedding planner conference and become instant friends…you never know who will sit beside you at a conference, and you never know when you’ll need to give them a call for some help.  We can work together in this industry, there is strength in numbers, and great things can happen when two or minds work together.

If you’ve read this far, I applaud you…this was one wedding, where no one would believe what we went through unless we had documented it  – so I hope you’ll remember our escapades the next time you are stuggling with all the details of a wedding!

Jolyn Saramaga | Nuance Occasions | Edmonton

Crystal Adair-Benning | Distinct Occasions | Toronto

 

 

 

So, no post from Jolyn & I could be complete without explaining the behind the scenes dramas from the day and why should the wedding day be any different?