Write Down The Details

I’m sure you’ve already been told dozens of times by now to get all the key details – start times, end times, deposit deals, etc. – in writing. And while I certainly add my voice to that chorus, I want to also take a moment to encourage you to also get all the little details in writing too.

Now, people say “don’t sweat the small stuff” but on your wedding day, someone will be sweating the small stuff. If you’re a super-carefree, go-with-the-flow kind of person, you might not be the sweater, but someone, your mom, your maid of honour, your venue contact, will at some point be staring at something and wondering if it’s looking the way it should. And that’s where having the small details documented comes in.


How these details are organized is up to you, the point is that you and those associated with you have a printed reference to everything from your timeline to your flowers to your cake. This way everyone’s on the same page, people are better organized (and therefor ideally calmer) and issues can be spotted and dealt with earlier.

Another reason for documenting the little details is that having all that stuff written down makes it a lot easier to get a refund, should things not work out. This seems to be a situation that pops up the most with florists and decorating, maybe because there’s so much “imagining” and “visioning” going on. Also, many decorators and florists sell packages that then get modified and well, if those modifications aren’t written down, you can see how things can easily go to a disappointing place.

The point is, it’s much easier to get money back if you can say, “Hey, there’s the email where you promise that for this price, I’ll get package A but with roses instead of lilies and no underlighting on the head table,” than to say, “Hey, I know the contact says that I’m paying for package A but don’t you remember how we talking about changing some stuff?”

A few details that you’ll want to get written down:

• All flower types and colours being used as well as approximate quantities; ribbons, bouquet jewellery and other related items should be detailed out


• Such vase/container/centrepiece details as size, shape, colour, quantities


• Such cake stand details as size, shape, material, any extras/enhancements


• Drapping details would include colours, fabric types, sizes and placement. This is an area where ideally you have a photo of what the drapping should look like, as well as a photo of what fabric(s) is being used


• Chair cover details would include colour, fabric type and any extras/enhancements. This is another area where a photo is ideal


• Your caterer should provide you with a detailed list of what exactly is being served and while you don’t need to know how many baby potatoes each person is getting, you will want numbers for your hors d’oeuvres and possibly even your midnight snack


• Bar details should touch on both alcoholic and non-alcoholic offerings and could even look at what types of glasses and garnishes will be available (though even I’ll admit that might be too detailed for some)

10 Random Wedding Lessons

And we’re married. The wedding was this Saturday and overall it went quite smoothly and was a lot of fun.

But while the wedding might be over this blog still has a bit of life in it and I will definitely be making a few more entries to help you out with your wedding planning.

Let’s start with 10 random things I learned from this past Saturday…

1. Take time off before the wedding: Shawn and I were able to take the whole week off and that was very nice. If you can’t do that, try to take at least the Thursday and Friday off.

2. Take time off after the wedding: But I wouldn’t recommend taking your actual honeymoon right after the wedding. I’d be way too tired to properly enjoy my honeymoon if I was on it right now.

3. Write out a detailed timeline: Ok, maybe you’ll be the only one who really reads it but writing out a detailed timeline will likely help you feel more prepared and will help you discover any missing items.

4. Write out a packing list: A few days before the wedding, write out what you need in what bag and then refer to the list as you pack things up.

5. Remember, you can return liquor: As long as you have the receipt and your permit. So don’t lose those things and err on the side of too much rather than too little.

6. No one looks at the website: Ok, this isn’t completely true; I know some people did check out our wedding website. I also know that most people didn’t and so because of that fact, I’m glad I didn’t spend too much time on it.

7. The caterer always makes extra meals: Worried you screwed up the meal list? Or maybe someone decides they want ribs instead of salmon? Don’t worry, most caterer prepare extra plates.

8. Have a “quiet area” for the old people/non-dancers: For us, the quiet area was outside where the old people could also smoke.

9. Use your dress’ “dancing loop”: I found our first dance to be quite awkward because of my dress’ train. Then, maybe two-thirds in to the dance, I remembered that the dress had a special loop sewed onto the train that I was supposed to wear on my wrist so that it was easier to dance in it. Oops.

10. Get your baked goods from Sweet Escapes: Our cupcakes were a huge hit. We bought 120 and had about seven leftover. We only had 98 guests and I know not everyone had a cupcake so yeah, they were popular.

Our Menu Tasting

I was just looking over some older entries and I realized that I never wrote about our meal tasting so I’ll write about that now.

We did our tasting back in April. We were allowed to bring two other people and we decided to bring a pair of friends, one who is a big foodie and the other who is quite honest in his opinion. We figured they’d be the ideal people to help us decide what to serve.

As for the food, we were allowed to taste five different items. The Berkeley gave us a menu of items they could do but also told us that we were welcome to request any specific items that we wanted. We ended up picking a salad off their menu as well as the two items we were considering as our beef option: A steak and then the beef ribs.

The other main option that we want to serve is a salmon, something that interestingly wasn’t on the Berkeley menu. But thankfully they had no issues with preparing twp different types pf salmon for us to try.

We were able to schedule our tasting for near the end of the work day which was nice since that meant we could double it as dinner. We were each given our own salad to eat while the four mains each came on their own plates and we just eat off of those. The mains were also accompanied with the sides that we’d picked out and everything was plated as it would be plated on our wedding day.

It quickly became clear which of the two beef options we should pick: The ribs. While I didn’t taste them (I don’t eat beef), Shawn and our two friends both said they were amazing.

It was a bit tougher to pick which salmon to go with but ultimately we decided to go the salmon in a tarragon cream sauce.

The salad and the sides were all quite yummy as well and tasting them confirmed that we’d made the right choices.

Overall our tasting went quite smoothly and everything tasted excellent. At the end of it, our contact at the venue sat down with us and asked us for feedback. But besides stating which mains we wanted to go with, we didn’t really have any.

However, while our tasting went great, I’ve heard many tasting horror stories. In fact, I have one friend who ended up changing her venue because the tasting was so bad and the venue didn’t really seem interested in improving things. So because of that, here are some food tasting tips:

• This is more of a caterer tip than a food tasting tip but it’s crucial that you don’t sign a contract until you have in writing that the caterer can create the type of menu you want at a price that works for you
• Do your tasting six-four months in advance, maybe even earlier if you’re not familiar with the caterer and/or if you’d asking for something a bit out of the ordinary
• Before going to the tasting clarify exactly what will be served and how. Ideally you want to see the actually quantity/presentation that your guests will be seeing
• Always make sure to taste your main dishes since this what your guests will notice the most (and what generally is costing you the most)
• Bring other people who will be brutally honest about the food
• While it can be useful to have the caterer rep sitting with you throughout the tasting, it’s fine to ask him/her to leave so that you can discuss the food more freely
• If you can, taste your food alongside the wine you’ll be drinking (we could have done this had we bothered to bring wine but we didn’t)
• While it is your wedding, be flexible, realistic and listen to the chef/caterer rep. Sure, you want the chicken to be spicier but are most of your guests going to enjoy that? These people are professionals so do listen to their opinions
• But at the same time, do be vocal. Speak up if you don’t like something and don’t be afraid to make reasonable requests

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.

Questions to Ask Before Your Food Tasting

So it looks like Shawn and I will be doing our food tasting near the end of March. In preparation for this big day, we’ve been asking a lot of questions, some of which you’ll want to ask your venue/caterer:

• How many people can I bring?


• How long will it last?


• Will it just be us or will there be over couples? (Unlikely but it could happen)


• How many hors d’oeuvres can we try? How many appetizers? How many entrees? How many desserts? (You get the idea)


• We want something that’s not listed on the menu. Can that be made for us? (Note: this is really the type of question that should be answered before signing any contracts since many places don’t allow for custom requests)


• How much can we change/substitute items? For example, salad B sounds great but we’d prefer it with pecans instead of walnuts.


• Does the tasting include a wine pairing?


• Will the table be set like it will be set for our meal? If not, can that be arranged?

If specific costs have yet to be given to you, do get this information before you try any food. Also find out if it costs more to offer three meal choices instead of two, if there are any allergy-related substitution costs (generally there isn’t), etc. Basically you want to have the money side all figured out before you put anything in your mouth.

Food tastings are one of those things that really vary from venue/caterer so be prepared to ask way more questions than the ones above. Of course, maybe you’ll luck out and get a company with such amazing communication skills that all of the above questions and more are answered before you can even think of them (hey, it could happen).

If you’re not getting answered, or you’re not getting answers that make sense/match what you were originally told, do speak up and push the venue/caterer for better communication. Now, I’m not saying you should harass them but do make it clear that you won’t be ignored or pressured into something you don’t want. There’s nothing bridezilla about making sure you’re properly informed, especially when it comes to your big day’s food!

Disaster Averted!

LCBO workers won’t be striking after all—the union and the liquor store reached a deal earlier today—so you no longer have to stress about having a dry wedding this summer.

Of course, if you’re one of the many brides out there who stocked up in preparation for a strike, congrats on being so organized! If you want, you can take any unopened bottles back for a refund or just keep the bottles at your place and have one more thing crossed off your to-do list.

Fun With Caterers

Shawn and I were hoping to have picked a wedding venue by now. However, because we’re still waiting on catering quotes we’re still waiting to figuring out whether it’ll be the Berkeley or the Steam Whistle Brewery.

While Berkeley only works with one catering company, Steam Whistle works with seven. Dana, the events manager at Steam Whistle, told us to send a mass email to all seven that contains our wedding’s basic details (number of guests, what sort of food we wanted, when we were having it, that sort of stuff). So I did that and six caterers emailed me back.

Three wanted more details over email. They wanted to know things like where we were having the ceremony, approximately what time dinner would start and what my fiancé’s name is. So answered all those questions and one caterer, Rose Reisman Catering got back to me with a proposal. While the end number is likely a little too high for us, the proposal was very thorough and it’s very clear that this company consists of true professionals who would be great to work with.

The other three caterers wanted to talk over the phone. I was able to talk with representatives of Amazing Food and Eatertainment restaurants/panorama/ relatively quickly and both companies promptly sent over detailed quotes.If took me a little longer to get in touch with the representative of Beyond Catering but when we finally talked, she had a ton of questions for me. However, she wanted the answers sent to her over email. While I understand that me emailing her the answers certainly makes a lot of sense, I didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t have emailed me her questions. It certainly would have saved us some time.

So now I’m off to write that email and then once we receive her quote we’ll make our decision.

Let's Talk About Cakes

Actually, let's just look at pictures of some cakes and other yummy treats made by Just Temptations.

This is an elegant-looking cake. I like how the flowers are used on it.

I'm also a fan of how the flowers look on this square cake.

The chocolate fountain. I hope to have one of these at my wedding. It will use the darkest chocolate that I can get.

This impressive cake is too much for me but I think it would be perfect for someone with a big wedding.

Cupcakes aren't my thing but I think how these ones look, with all the variety and different shades of purple.