Our Menu Consultation

Yesterday we had our menu consultation with the Berkeley and we came out feeling much more confident than when we went in. Let me explain why…

We’ve been having a bit of planner confusion with our venue. Shortly after we signed our contract last spring, we were assigned a planner named Kristin who turned out not to be the best at promptly answering emails.

Earlier this year, we got an email from her saying that we need to pick a date for our menu tasting. I was a bit confused because I thought we had a consultation meeting first but Kristin didn’t mention anything about that so we picked March 30 as our tasting day. Kristin and I then started emailing back and forth, kind of doing the consultation over email. Then she went quiet but since this had happened before, I didn’t think much of it.

A few days later we were invited to this wine-tasting thing at the Berkeley. We went, hoping to meet Kristin, but instead found out that Kristin was no longer with the Berkeley and that we’d be getting a new planner and that yes, we were to have a menu consultation.

I was then put in touch with Julie who was very helpful and told me that our new planner would be Kathy. She also booked a new date for our tasting since our original tasting meeting would need to become our menu consultation.

So you can understand why I walked into our meeting yesterday a bit concerned.

Thankfully Kathy seems to be much more organized and was ready to meet with us even though we were twenty minutes early. In addition to going over the food stuff, she asked how we saw the day unfolding and gave us a quick rundown on how liquor would work since we’re supplying that ourselves (more on that in another post). She was very helpful and had solid answers to all of the questions we had, whether it was about what vegetarian dish would be the best choice to how the uplighting worked.

I think it helped that we also came to the meeting very prepared. Because we thought that we weren’t going to get a menu consultation, Shawn and I had already talked in detail about what sort of food we wanted served and had a list of ideas and questions.

I definitely recommend walking into any menu consultation as prepared as possible. In addition to knowing what you want to eat (and spend), keep in mind your timeline the day. For example, do you really need appetizers? Or, because you’re disappearing for three hours to do photos, do you need a lot of appetizers? An issue for us is our photographer’s time. We only have him for six hours and because of that, we’re doing our first dance and then cutting the cake before we eat.

Also go in knowing roughly what kind of food your guests enjoy/expect; any cultural requests, allergy concerns, etc.

And don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. Yeah, you might sound a bit annoying, but I find that asking a ton of in-person questions is a lot less annoying than a ton of questions over email.

My (Probable) Hair Stylist

Question: Why does this city have so many at-home makeup artists but so few at-home hair stylists? I guess it’s easier to move makeup supplies than hair styling supplies but still, the ratio seemed way, way off.

Through the magic of Google and the wedding boards I was able to get the names of a handful of people who will come to your house to do your hair. Three or four of those names were quite pricey, like over $200 pricey.

Now maybe if I wanted some super-elaborate style or my hair was super-difficult I would consider paying $200. But no, I want my hair pulled back in a fairly simple style that I am not paying $200 for.

A few others were located outside of Toronto and I didn’t really want to have to worry about them getting stuck in traffic and showing up late or charging me travel fees so I skipped them.

And then there were the people who did hair and makeup. My original plan had been to find one of these vendors but then I started talking to Kim and she seems so nice and such a good deal that I didn’t want to not use her.

Thankfully I was able to find someone who would just do hair. Well, actually I found a company called The Mobile Stylist, which specializes in at-home makeup and hair stylists. So far my dealings with it seem fine. Charlene, the woman who runs the company, gets back to me quickly and answers all of my questions. While she is a stylist, she won’t be the one doing my hair, it’ll be another woman who I’ll meet in April when I have my trial done.

I will be going up to Charlene’s salon to have that done (cheaper than having it done at home) and the location’s a bit of a hassle (way up on Bathurst) but the price is right ($65 for the trial, $88 for the wedding day) and she tells me that my stylist has tons of experience and is really talented. I’m hoping she’s right!

I’ll make sure to post about how my hair trial goes and share any tips I pick up.

My Makeup Artist

I knew early on that I wanted to have my hair and makeup done at home; it just seemed quicker and easier then heading out to a salon and back. But of course that convenience comes at a price.

I started my search for a make-up artist online and while there are plenty of options out there, most of them seem to fall into two categories: super-talented and expensive and not-so-talented and more affordable.

Thankfully a friend told me about her friend, Kim, who does at-home bridal makeup. I contacted Kim and she gave me a price that while not a steal, is reasonable: $125 for my trial and wedding day make-up.

Kim was able to offer me that price because while she has done a few weddings, she’s still a fairly new makeup artist and currently she just does it on the side. I know that her level of experience might make some people nervous but I saw Kim’s portfolio, my friend vouched for her skills and personality and she gave the right answers to the questions I asked her.

And here are a few questions that you want to ask you makeup artist:

1. How many weddings have you done?
2. What other kind of events have you done?
3. Do you have any non-wedding photographer shots of your work you can show me? (because wedding photographer photos are often touched up)
4. What kind of makeup brands do you use?
5. Will you take photos of the trial’s end results?
6. Will you make a face chart?
7. Does your price include fake eye lashes? (if you want them)

Your makeup artist should also ask you a few questions, including:

1. Wedding date & time
2. Location
3. Theme/feel/etc.
4. Any skin concerns/sensitivities you have
5. Whether or not you want to use your own foundation
6. Whether or not you have any ideas or inspiration photos

Kim currently doesn’t have a website up but I will post the websites of a few other makeup artists I came across in a future entry.

The G20 & Your Wedding

Have you read this wedding disaster story that appeared in today’s Star? It’s about a couple who can no longer use their chosen church for their June 26 wedding because it happens to be located inside of the G20 summit’s security perimeter.

The article mentions that at least three other weddings have been disrupted by the summit’s security concerns and it sounds like it might impact at least a few more. While the exact coordinates of security perimeter probably won’t be released until two weeks before the summit starts, the tentative area covers from Lake Shore Blvd. W. up to Queen St. and then from Yonge St. to Spadina Ave.

If you’re getting married the weekend of June 26 and your wedding somehow touches on that area (think about where your vendors are located), you should probably start thinking about a “G20 back-up plan” in case that event does somehow impact your day.

That doesn’t mean that things need to be cancelled or dramatically changed, it just means that you should, for example, get in touch with the appropriate vendor and ask if they have any thoughts on or plans for the situation.

Our Cake Shop:The Sweet Escape Patisserie

So we’d been having some problems finding the ideal place to get our cake from. Thankfully Twitter came to the rescue.

I tweeted our dilemma and my friend Andrea replied and recommended The Sweet Escapes Patisserie, a bakery that I’d actually tried during this “bake-off” event that she organized back in December. As soon as she told me that the bakery she was recommending was responsible for the amazing macaroons that had been served at this event I knew we had our bake shop.

I emailed Sweet Escapes and its owner Michelle quickly got back to me. She said the cake we were interested in would run us about $350 for 100 servings, no charge for delivery. This, in case you’re wondering, is an amazing deal.

She also mentioned that we could do cupcakes, something that really hadn’t interested me until I started looking at Sweet Escapes huge cupcake selection. You have to check it out.

The bakery is located in the Distillery District so we headed over there on a rainy Sunday and meet up with Michelle. She was friendly, helpful and very low-pressure.

She showed us a three-tiered cake stand and explained that we could do something like having a small cake as the top tier and then have cupcakes as the rest of the tiers. It’s a great idea that we’ve decided to go with since this way we’ll be able to do the traditional cutting of the cake and offer our guests a wide range of tasty flavours including chocolate mousse. And, as a happy bonus, cupcakes are cheaper than a traditional cake.

While there we tried three flavours: Hazelnut, strawberry and red velvet and all three were amazing and will be making an appearance at our wedding. The cake part was moist and tasty while the buttercream icing was flavourful and not too sweet. And overall the cupcake was very filling; I have no worries that our guests will feel hungry after eating one of those.

We did leave a deposit though we still need to figure out our cupcake flavours. I think that in addition to the four I’ve already mentioned we’ll also have creamsicle and mint. Any other suggestions?

I have a few other bakeries that I’d like to highlight for you so watch for a future post about that.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but we’ve been super-busy crossing stuff off our today list. Here’s what we’ve gotten done over the past few days:

• Booked our cake (though we still need to figure out the flavours
• Ordered Shawn’s ring
• Booked my make-up artist
• Bought my dancing dress (I know, I said I wasn’t going to get one but then my mother offered to help pay and I found the perfect dress)
• Finalized the flowers
• Finalized the invites (they are being printed now)
• Blocked off the hotel rooms

Over the next week or so, I’ll detail out how we got all of this done.

Reviews Of A Few Toronto Wedding Dress Shops

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile you’ll know that I didn’t buy my dress in Toronto, I bought it in Edmonton while shopping with my parents (they live out there and bought the dress). So because of that, I don’t have personal reviews of Toronto wedding dress shops to share with you.

Thankfully, the fine ladies over on the Canadian Bride Talkboards have been posting reviews and you can find a collection of them over here.

Yelp.ca also is a great source of reviews and lets you easily see a bunch of shops’ ratings at a glance. Nice to see that Fashion Crimes got top marks!

Monique Lhuillier Trunk Show

Ok, there’s nothing “common sense” about getting a Monique Lhuillier dress. While beautiful, these dresses are also quite pricey, costing as much as $10,000. But if you really have your heart set on a Monique, you’ll want to check out the Monique Lhuillier show taking place March 19 and 20 at Yorkville’s White.

You do need to have an appointment (call 416-849-9196) and it’s not clear if you’ll get any kind of discount by buying through the trunk sale though usually you do. Also, be aware that White is one of the city’s more upscale bridal shops so go in expecting beautiful items and high prices.

Stag & Does

On Saturday night, I went to my first stag and doe and I have to say I had a pretty good time (and not just because Shawn and I won the 50/50 draw).

From my understanding, stag and does are really a rural Ontario thing and aren’t usually seen in Toronto. That being said, I have seen a few posts on wedding boards about where in Toronto one could hold a stag and doe and of course Toronto is filled with former residents of rural Ontario who head back to their hometowns to host their wedding fundraiser. So because of those reasons, below are a few tips for those of you out there who plan on hosting a stag and doe.

• Get help: A stag and doe can be a lot of work so make sure you have people who can help you out with setting it up, running it and taking it down. Ideally, these same helpers can sell tickets and assist with obtaining/purchasing prizes
• Consider a theme: Yeah, themes can be a hassle but they can also make planning things a bit easier and they give you another way to “sell” your event
• Keep the ticket price low: $10 is fair; maybe even $15 if you plan to get fancy about the food
• Provide plenty of food: The food we were given on Saturday was more than appropriate and it never ran out. Offerings included veggies, chips, squares and of course the must-have build-your-own bun platters
• Keep the games simple: Popular events at Saturday’s stag and doe included the twoonie toss, the raffles and the game where you buy glow sticks to give to the bride or groom and whoever ends up with the most has to do something embarrassing
• Have an MC: I don’t think you need to have a DJ at a stag and doe (though it’s certainly nice if you can) but you do need someone with a mic who can run the show and get people participating in the various events

As for the “ethics” behind throwing a event intended to raise money for your wedding: I think that if stag and does are the norm in your circle, it’s fine to have one. Just don’t be too greedy and make sure that everyone, including yourself, has a great time!

Wedinator

Time for a bit of Sunday silliness.

Need a good wedding-related laugh? Then check out Wedinator. This blog, brought to you by the same people behind I Can Have Cheezburger?, says that is all about “trashing your special day.”

What it really is is a collection of user-submitted photos and videos of wedding disasters, some just in bad taste and others accidental. Actually, if you’re prone to wedding nightmares, you may want to skip this site but trust me, you’ll want to stop by it once you’re wedding is done with.

My favourite pics are the really random, weird ones. Below are a trio of examples.

Ring Picked, Cake Still A Mystery

This is how wedding planning goes: one step ahead, two steps back.

The step ahead came yesterday when the quote came in for my wedding ring. Because of how my engagement ring is designed, I can’t wear a regular wedding band (well, not without it looking weird) so I needed a custom one. A few weeks ago, Shawn and I headed over to Made You Look, a Parkdale jewellery shop that has a great reputation for creating high quality stuff. After a bit of back and forth and quick meeting last Sunday with a ring designer, we got our number and it fits within our budget so that’s good.

My ring is being designed by Jilian Maddin and so far she’s been great to work with. While Made You Look certainly isn’t the cheapest spot in town to get a custom ring made, they are reasonable and the end result is great so if you’re looking for custom jewellery I recommend them (the store also stocks all kinds of beautiful, sparkly things and its smaller sister shop located across the street offers lots of fun, and cheaper, pieces).

The steps back are the result of the stupid wedding cake. I should start by explaining that our wedding cake will be doubling as our dessert and I want it to be one of the best cakes that my guests have ever tasted.

Cakes, and desserts in general, are important to me and I really, really want this thing to be one of the highlights of my wedding. But I also want something that’s in my budget and that looks nice. So I got a few quotes, ate a few samples and then decided that really, my best bet would be to get a couple of amazing mousse cakes from Patisserie D’Or in Oakville.

This place makes cakes that you think about for days after and even though our cake likely wouldn’t look like a tradition tiered wedding cake (you’re not supposed to stack mouse cakes), it would taste so good that no one would care what it looked like. And this place is totally within my budget. Sadly, it’s closed for month, starting mid-July and continuing into August. So no wedding cake from there.

I do have a back-up bakery (no, not Dufflets; getting a custom design pushes the price above our budget and I don’t like their wedding cakes enough to make that splurge) and while they make great cakes, I wouldn’t say they make cakes that you dream about. I have emailed a couple of other places to see what they charge and hopefully we can get this cake business wrapped up soon.

7 Pretty Wedding Bouquets

Let’s continue with the topic of flowers with some images of a few bouquets that caught my eye while I was browsing through the hundreds of images over on TheKnot.com (remember, to see stuff on TheKnot.com you usually have to sign into the site).

I love this combination of orchids but I bet it's quite pricey

This is a pretty purple combo though it's a bit too light for my wedding.

Here's a delicate pink combo, perfect for anyone who loves roses.

I quite like the contrast between the dark calla lillies and the little green berries; they really brighten this bouquet up.









If white was one of my wedding colours, I would seriously look into having this bouquet (even though I know it's on the pricey end).










This one is just so colourful and eye-catching!











And this one's quite dramatic. I think it's using quail feathers or something like that.

Wedding Flower Links (Including My Toronto Florists Shortlist)

Here are a handful of flower-related links that you might find useful:

• Big Wedding Tiny Budget: The DIY-section of this site is must-read if you’re thinking of saving some cash by doing your flowers self (end verdict: you’ll save money but you might also drive yourself insane so keep it simple)
• Bride.ca: See what flowers are available in which season and then read a ton of other articles
• Bronze Budget Brides: Lots of useful posts on how to keep your flower costs down; includes links to online flowers shop and even a few how-to videos
• The Knot’s Flower Guide: OK, so it’s a bit overwhelming but there are a lot of good ideas on here and you can search by colour
• Sierra Flower Finder: It's like a dictionary for flowers

And here are links for a few Toronto florists who I thought looked interesting:

• Cool, Green and Shady: Located on Queen East; has been featured on Rich Bride, Poor Bride
• King West Flowers: Located at King and Bathurst; offers tons of choices and bouquets start at just $40
• Pink Twig: Located on College near Crawford; offers lots of fresh, contemporary designs
• Jackie O: Located on College near Bathurst; has a standard package for $950 that includes 10 centrepieces
• Costco: Several locations; Costco is must-checkout if you’re doing the flowers yourself. Most shops also offers simple arrangements

March Wedding To-Do List Update

A quick update on our to-do list:

January

• Get sample invite: Done!
• Write invite copy: Done!
• Get guys’ outfits: Not yet started
• Block off hotel rooms: In progress
• Start the registering process: Done!
• Make short list of cake bakers: Done!
• Make short list of florists: Done!
• Make short list of officiates: Done!

February

• Figure out flowers & hire a florist: Florist picked, in the process of figuring out what we want
• Figure out hair & make-up & book: In progress
• Hire cake baker: Waiting on one last quote
• Hire a DJ: Done!
• Hire an officiate: Done!
• Buy invites: Done!

March

• Figure out ceremony music: No clue
• Pick first dance song: Ha!
• Figure out rings: In progress
• Have all guest list info in our magical guest list spreadsheet: In progress

So the big lingering item from January is the guys’ outfits and I hope to have that sorted some in the next couple of weeks. The other January item is the guest hotel rooms but we have the hotel picked and we have a quote, we just need to tell them to block off about a dozen rooms for us.

I’m confident that the cake will be sorted out by the end of this month. I’m pretty sure we have a design picked, we just need Dufflet to get back to us with a quote (for some reason it takes them a week).

I am a bit worried about my hunt for an in-house hair stylist. There seems to be a ton of talented, in-home make-up artists out there but hair stylists seem rarer and I’ve yet to track one day who I think will work.

Then there’s figure out our first dance song and ceremony music. I have no clue what we’re going to use there.

Our First Consultation With a Florist

The one aspect of wedding planning that had me the most worried was the flowers. I know nothing about flowers, we have a tiny budget for flowers, florists’ websites are generally vague when it comes to useful info, florists themselves always want to arrange a face-to-face consultation before they give you any numbers/ideas, etc., etc.

I had started making a shortlist of possible florists back in January but then stopped when I found out that our venue, the Berkeley, now had a preferred florist and not using her would result in us incurring extra fees. Shawn pointed out that since our original contract says we can hire whoever we want, we shouldn’t have to incur those fees if we go with an outside person but I said I was fine with this new arrangement and am actually quite happy that the Berkeley now has a preferred florist. I really wasn’t looking forward to trying to get some kind of comparable quotes out of florists and really, unless you’re DingIY or have some kind of inside connection, all florists are expensive.

We met with Jenn, the preferred florist last night and things went pretty smooth. She’s been working with flowers for a few years now, loves doing weddings and her website is currently under construction. She was quite friendly, great with my psycho dog and not at all offended that I know nothing about flowers and that we weren’t spending a ton of money of them.

She came prepared with a bunch of magazines and her own portfolio though we only ever looked at the portfolio. I had a few clippings that we looked at and she gently broke the news that the only flower I really liked, something called a Picasso lily, is really expensive. So we talked about a few other options such as callas lilies as well as great bang-for-your-buck flowers such as hydrangeas.

While I had an idea for our escort card table (which I’m now re-thinking), Shawn and I were wide open to suggestions for everything else and Jenn came up with a great one that involves two giant water-filled vases that can do double-duty for the ceremony and the head table.

Jenn is now preparing a quote for us though I think I’ll email her this weekend with some ideas that I now have. I spent most of our meeting being really vague and saying useful things like, “Whatever you think works best” and “We’re open to whatever” but as soon as she left I started picturing what I wanted.

Here are a few basic bits of info you should know before you meet with any florists.

1. Colour scheme and how much you care about it


2. Date
   
3. Venue location
   
4. Theme/feeling/ambience


5. What you’re going to need flowers for, complete with numbers (so number of centrepieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, etc.)
   
6. Any flower preferences


7. Any flower dislikes


8. Any “shape” preferences


9. Any venue restrictions (no open flames or no water for example)


10. And most importantly, budget

Over the weekend I’ll get a post up with some links to some useful flower-related sites along with my original florist shortlist.

Clever Bride

You know those ads that show up on the right side of your Facebook profile? Well, generally I just ignore them but today an ad for something called The Clever Bride caught my eye so I decided to click and check it.

What I found was a surprisingly useful site. OK, so it contains a lot of pink. But it also contains a lot of info. Basically, Clever Bride is a wedding vendor directory that allows you to search for your ideal vendors based on price point and other details. For example, you can narrow your vendor search by such criteria as cuisine type, handicapped accessibility or even whether or not the place allows outside caterers.

All your typical wedding categories are covered; so dresses, rings, DJs, photographers, etc.; along with some less traditional though still related ones such as gyms, teeth whitening, group activities and fireworks. You can also easily search the site for a vendor who you’re thinking of hiring.

Clever Bride does allow you to review vendors but unfortunately not a lot of people are using this feature. There are also no boards or commenting or anything like that so Clever Bride doesn’t really have that community feeling that you find on sites like Canadian Bride or Wedding Bells.

However, I will say that in terms of pure functionality, Clever Bride has both of those sites beat. It’s quick, easy-to-use and while it certainly doesn’t have every vendor out, it does have quite a few.

The site also contains some basic planning tools like a guest tracker, a photo gallery that you can get inspiration from and a blog.

There are also sister sites for Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Vancouver so if you have friends getting married in any of those cities, let them know about Clever Bride.