SWEET CHEEKS: Yellow & Black Dinner/Silent Auction Fund Raiser

Saturday April 24th was the date of a great fundraiser event that I had the privilege of assisting at in Burlington. SWEET CHEEKS is the name of a local bicycling team of 19 riders who are training hard and fundraising hard in order to participate in "The Ride to Conquer Cancer" for the Princess Margaret Hospital. Most of these riders are not long-distance riders - in fact, at least one didn't even own a bike - and yet they are all committed to riding the 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls on June 12-13. Each rider is required to raise a minimum of $2500 in order to participate in the ride. That's a LOT of cash!!




And so, to help the team raise funds, they held a dinner/silent auction event. Approximately 125 people attended the event at St. Luke's beautiful church hall, which was all decked out in black & yellow, the colours of the ride. Gorgeous floral centerpieces were designed by Tracy of Lux Living.
There were well over 100 items donated for the silent auction and several great items were sold off through a fun live. Rick James, local musician & DJ, provided great musical entertainment throughout the whole evening. A delicious meal was provided by Gator Ted's Restaurant. An adorable cake was provided by Linda Jenner and delicious brownies from Jitterbug Java Cafe.

There were two unique features at this event. One was that all the riders brought their bikes to have on display - and attached to the handlebars was the rider's photo and a brief bio about why they are doing the ride. The other feature that was a focal point during the evening was a "tree of hope & memory". It was a white branch tree, lit by a spot light - and people filled out tags to hang on the tree. Yellow tags were for the names of people who have cancer or who have survived cancer. Black tags were for names of people who have passed on from this disease. It was a very visual and impactful image.

The event cleared just over $8000 for the riders - Congratulations Krista & team members for a job well done! And all the best in raising the rest of the funds needed to do the ride.

For more information about the ride, how to donate or how to be a volunteer, check their website: http://to10.conquercancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=to10_homepage

Brides - - -
You are invited to an amazing event on Sunday, April 11th
from 12 - 6 pm at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, Toronto...

WEDDING BLISS BRIDAL GOWN SALE and Bridal Show
www.weddingblisssale.com

This very special sale will feature brand new, beautiful, designer wedding dresses at huge discounts (ie - $800 - $4000 dresses on sale for $99 - $350!!!)
There will also be other vendors on site to help you with your various wedding planning needs.

But the really wonderful part about this sale/event is that ALL proceeds support a great charity called New Beginnings. The goal of this charity is to help improve the lives of women and children "in need" by providing specialized support and training -empowering women to become confident, self-sufficient, career-oriented and employable, thus improving their lives & the lives of their children.....

So not only will you help yourself by finding your dream dress at a great price - but you will be helping to support women & children in need!
How amazing is that?!!

Tickets for this great event are being offered at a very special rate of only $10 each ($25 at the door!) Brides can purchase tickets at this drastically reduced rate by going online to the Wedding Bliss website and entering the promo code "VENDOR".


Come on out to the Wedding Bliss Sale....
Buy the dress of your dreams....
and support New Beginnings charity!!

The Wedding Bliss is being organized by Weddings Jubilee and it is my pleasure to be working for Weddings Jubilee at this event.

"Added Value" Wedding Coordinator!

I recently got an email from a bride I'm working for this summer - and her comments really made my day! She thanked me for being "an added value wedding coordinator". I think that phrase really encapsulates what I try to provide in my services to bridal couples.

While I advertise that my area of specialty is in "day of" coordination, the packages I offer are in fact more "month of" coordination as I work hard for a bridal couple pulling all the details for their wedding together during the last month of their plans.

However, I really do more than that for my brides. Once they've booked my services, I tend to make myself available to them by email or phone to help them in many other different ways. If they need someone to research ideas or products for them, I'm happy to do that. For example - recently, I've done research for my upcoming brides for the following items: ice sculptures, wild edible hibiscus flowers, etched glass cake toppers, chuppahs, tropical trees, calligraphers, ceremony musicians, vases, submersible LED lights, etc. At weddings with children in the bridal party, I've been known to provide gift bags of "quiet" treats for them to keep them occupied during the ceremony. At the bridal party photo shoot, I provide a cooler of water & a few snacks for the bridal party. When I'm hired for the whole wedding day, I provide toiletry baskets for the washrooms at the reception hall. Umbrellas are always on hand as well to keep bridal party, photographers, guests dry in case of rain. And of course I bring my well-stocked "emergency kit" as you never know when you might need it! These are all examples of some of the "added value" services that I like to provide my clients.

So.... if you're looking for "Day of" or "Month of" wedding coordination services - why not hire a coordinator who will give you all that - - PLUS "added value"!!
Give me a call if you want to know more about how I will serve you so that YOUR wedding day be a wonderful success!

Going FULL TIME in the business!

I LOVE weddings!
And I LOVE planning events!

Over this past year, I have truly discovered my passion - and that is serving others through planning special events for them, and in helping them get through those events with "flying colours"!

(photo by Bassem Photography)

And so, in light of this newly-discovered passion, I have made the bitter-sweet decision to leave my part-time job so that I can dedicate myself fully to the event-planning business!

My primary focus will continue be to continue offering my "Day-Of" coordination services to bridal couples. This is the best deal for those couples who want to make all their own plans for their wedding, but who want someone on hand for the day of their wedding to ensure that all their plans happen as they expect them to. This service allows couples to just show up & enjoy their day!

However, there are many engaged couples who don't want to have to do all the leg-work and research involved in planning a wedding, or who just don't have time to invest in it (they say it takes about 250 hours to plan a wedding!!). These couples need more comprehensive planning assistance. So, for them, I will be offering full & partial planning services.

Throughout this coming year, I also plan to expand my business into the world of corporate, community, social, and other family events as well. Corporations & business often need help planning team meetings and staff Christmas parties. Community and social groups host banquets, dances, galas, assorted parties, fund-raisers, etc. And families always have causes for celebrations - baby & bridal showers, engagement parties, stag & does, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations... the list goes on! Any event being planned is something I'd love to help organize & direct!

So, while this change is a big step for me, I am jumping in with both feet & am VERY excited about this new direction!

If you have an event that needs to be planned - please let me know!! I'm here to help in any way I can.

Hamilton Bridal Show - January 2010

The Hamilton Bridal Show was another success this year! Thanks to all the brides & grooms & friends who came to check out the vendors available to them - and who went home laden down with brochures, flyers and business cards!

The show seemed different this year for me. This year, I felt much more confident as I spoke with brides & their fiances, moms & bridal parties, having a great season last summer under my belt. It was also interesting this year to observe that many brides I spoke with were familiar with what a "wedding day coordinator" is! I recall that at last year's show, I spent a lot of time "educating" people on the difference between a full planner and a "day-of" coordinator. This year - more brides knew the difference and more seem to be looking for help just for the last month of their planning & then especially on their wedding day. Good news for me for sure!

I also had a positive response to the 5 large gift baskets that I held a draw for. Five lucky brides won some great goodies in the Romance Basket, Spa Basket, Coffee Break Basket, Travel Basket & Stationery Basket.


To those of you who I've had the pleasure of connecting with post-show, thanks for your time as we've met to talk! I hope to have the chance to meet many more of you in the days ahead!

Don't forget - if you want to be able to just show up and enjoy your wedding day without the stress & worries of all that needs to be taken care of - then give me a call! "We take care of your wedding day details so you don't have to!"

But We Will Stand Tall - Photo Art Show

On December 3rd, a young photographer held his first public art show in Hamilton at The Freeway Cafe & I had the privilege of working with him to set up and decorate the venue and to help him organize all the planning details.

Jason Matos (yup - he would be my son!)has been working on series of photos for a few months now. They are all photos of people who attend our church, Grindstone Valley Bible Church in Waterdown. What makes these photos unique is that they all tell a story about the person - depicting in photos a struggle or difficult time they went through in their life - and then photos depicting how they are now stronger and stand taller today because of how they grew and learned and matured through that hard situation.

Jason photographed 12 people - some with just one photo, others with two, a few with 3 or 4 photos - and each person wrote out their "story", which was printed and mounted by their photos.


The Freeway Cafe was set up with lots of candles on tables as people came in to enjoy a cup of free-trade coffee or tea or specialty beverage, some great snacks and then sat around small tables or on comfortable leather sofas and enjoyed the acoustic music of 4 different musical sets. And throughout the evening, people mingled around the photos, reading the stories and often being moved to tears.


About 180 people came through the Cafe during the 3 hour show - and it was a resounding success for Jason.
Congratulations Jason on an excellent photo art show!

Wedding Florists & Decorators

Last month, I took a course in Toronto offered by "The Wedding Decorators" (www.theweddingdecorators.ca). It was a very informative and educational experience. But the main thing I learned from it was that brides & grooms should only hire professionals for their florals & decorating needs!

The morning of this training was all about wedding florals - bouquets, boutineers, corsages, and centerpieces. The guest florist was Shelley from Wedding Wows (www.weddingwowstoronto.ca) and she created some beautiful arrangements for us. There's certainly a lot to know about dealing with fresh flowers - how to properly wrap & tie them, treat them to keep them fresh, and arrangements to WOW any wedding!!




After a quick lunch break, we learned all the techniques of draping a head table, a backdrop and an archway. There are some beautiful ways to simply but elegantly spruce up your reception hall. Nothing looks more elegant than a head table draped with boile or satin - adorned with florals or greenery - and lit from underneath with spotlights. Adding a backdrop of matching or coordinating fabrics is a wonderful way to complete the look - and works great to hide a plain, boring or even ugly wall!!

Thanks to Shelley & Sherisse & Ali for a great day of awesome ideas, useful tips and a simply fun experiences!