The year I officially launched La Vista Events I obtained my wedding planning certification via the Wedding Planner’s Institute of Canada. It was really important to me to supplement my experience and enhance it. That was 2014. Flash forward to 2020 and the certification has brought me more value than the paper itself. Since attending the course, I have been invited to attend as a guest speaker each time the course returns to Vancouver (a couple of times a year).
In 2017, WPIC launched the WPIC Wedding Awards to recognize their alumni. I’ve had the pleasure of submitting some of our best wedding planning and design work over the years and here are the results:
2017 Finalist - Best Wedding Planning over $50,000
2018 Finalist - Best Wedding Planning over $100,000
2018 Winner - Best Wedding Planning over $50,000
2019 Winner - Best Wedding Planning over $50,000
I have proudly worked on over 100 weddings but this wedding I will share below has been one of my proudest accomplishments. In a short time span, I worked with our sweet couple (Karen + Chirag) to plan and design their two-day celebration to welcome their many out-of-town guests to beautiful Vancouver. We incorporated unique cultural elements and many personalized touches that really elevated the guest experience. Yes, we wanted to plan a gorgeous “west coast” style wedding but we wanted to make sure the guests felt the love and energy.
Here are the some of their beautiful wedding memories captured by the talented photography team: Shari + Mike
Here are some of the points I included in my submission for the wedding awards:
VALUE → Initially, K+C didn’t want to book planning & design (they wanted wedding management only), but after our in-person consultation, I was able to convey the value of hiring me to guide them to save their time, sanity, and money.
FLEXIBILITY → K+C had busy work and travel schedules. They had a lot of ideas for an elaborate wedding with a more conservative budget, but I was determined to bring it to life for them and surprise them by being under their ideal budget. Using my connections, I brought together a team of six different decor and floral companies to work together cohesively to save the couple over $10,000 on their final budget!
DETAILS → We planned a 2-day multi-cultural wedding with a Catholic Ceremony and luncheon on Day 1, and Zoroastrian Ceremony + Dinner Reception on Day 2, while finding creative ways to repurpose decor items to save the couple money while enhancing the guest experience. The church hall luncheon was designed with a casual, west-coast feel with 2 styles of tables, fun games, delicious food, and friendly bartenders. For Day 2, we designed a whimsical, fall-themed garden with twinkling lights on tables and ceiling.
CUSTOM DESIGNS → For both days, we incorporated mix and match tables. For day 2, we incorporated a mix of tables and linen, assorted centerpieces, twinkling lights and candles, custom stationery, welcome lounge, cultural stage (which we flipped into their sweetheart table + cake display), and much more.
Here are some other cool things that we explained in our submission:
Shari + Mike Photography | Riverway Clubhouse
PHOTOS WITH GUESTS → In addition to family photos, it was important that the couple had a photo with every guest. During the buffet lineup, the couple stood near the lounge backdrop to take a photo with each table/group of guests. Guests LOVED this photo-opportunity with the couple and were so appreciative, and the couple still had time to eat after.
GUEST BOOK → we guided our couple in creating a beautiful photo guest book with an assortment of prompted questions for guests to answer (such as advice, travel suggestions, etc). Not many had filled it out so our team took it from table to table/encouraged guests.
GUEST MANAGEMENT → we assigned a team member at the hotel to check-in guests to confirm they made it on the shuttle bus on time/track who was missing to notify parents.
FALL WEATHER → we knew the weather would be wet, so we had umbrellas/blankets ready for the couple’s photoshoot, AND we included a tarp for the bride to stand on to be covered by her dress, so she wouldn’t have to get her dress/shoes muddy.
REPURPOSING ITEMS → in order to save the couple money, we offered solutions to repurpose items from day 1 to day 2, and even items from day 2 ceremony were repurposed for the reception.
TIMELINE → the wedding day timeline and details document included a cover page with all the key event times and then elaborated on everything on further pages, including key addresses, photo lists, set-up checklists, important songs (with youtube links), scheduled timing for sound-checks, musical performances, outfit changes, and so much more.
STATIONERY → I did all the stationery designs to ensure details were cohesive/logistically informative
CUSTOM DESIGNS + MOCKUPS → mix & match tables, assorted centerpieces… and a confused couple - to help them see the vision, I did sketches as well as mock-up sample tables to show them sneak peeks and they loved it!
VIDEO STREAM → because we couldn’t do a room flip, we needed to ensure all guests could SEE what was happening during the Zoroastrian ceremony at day 2 reception, so video team set-up a live-steam that played on all the TVs in the room
PS. Here is Karen + Chirag’s highlight video that was beautifully captured by Farawayland Weddings.
Magic Vision Photography | Toronto WPIC Wedding Awards | 2019