Simone's Wedding

Today I’m introducing a new, regular feature on this blog – the WBride profile. It’s quick look at a Toronto-area bride’s upcoming wedding, created using the five “Ws”.

If you’re a local bride who’s planning a “common sense” wedding and you’d like to be profiled, please send me an email at wedtoblog[remove space]@[remove space]gmail.com

Big thanks to Simone for volunteering to be our first profiled bride!

Who are you: My name is Simone and the groom’s name is Sam. We are both in our late 20’s and have a 14-month-old daughter who was born on Christmas Day 2007. This wedding is as much about her as it is about us. We want her to bear witness to us affirming our love for each other and for her in front of God and our family.

When’s the wedding: March 20, 2010

Where is it: The ceremony is taking place at the Prayer Palace House of Worship in North York and the reception is at La Gondola Banquet Hall in Vaughan.

What will it be like: We are expecting anywhere between 200-300 guests and the colors are chocolate brown, gold and burnt orange. We are going for a romantic, warm feel. It is the wedding we both grew up wanting so we are incorporating all the things we want in it since we don’t plan to ever do this again J

Why are you having that type of wedding: We are having the type of wedding we both want and had always imagined ourselves having. The two of us are paying for it on our own and we are not going to incur any debt from it. We both have large families and based on our backgrounds (African and West Indian) a wedding is a large celebration.

Any advice for other couples who are busy planning: Enjoy the process because hopefully you will only have to do it once and while some aspects are stressful others are a lot of fun.

Involve your family to help you in any way they can as you will need the help. Do not make any rash decisions. No matter even if a vendor says you have to book today because your date will go it doesn’t hurt to sleep on it to make sure you are doing the right thing. NEGOTIATE… every vendor I have worked with so far has been willing to negotiate on at least one thing e.g if you’re paying with cash, get them to knock the tax off (I’ve done this with many of my vendors),

Keep track of how much you spend along the way as it helps keep you accountable to your budget and most importantly don’t “settle” when it comes to your reception venue. This is the part people will remember the most so make sure you are happy with it. We visited about 30 different reception venues until we found the one that was “us” and we are thrilled.