Well hello there,

I believe it’s been so long since I blogged, I nearly forgot that I had a blog to begin with. Well, not exactly. I have had one hell of an insane year {2011, that is}, and I think it’s time I told you about it.

2011 started on a so-so note. For the first time, like, ever, I decided to greet the new year by myself. As in, me myself and I, plus my laptop and a bottle of bubbly. Take it from me, don’t attempt this unless you have nerves of steel. To say the least, I was miserable by 12.01, drunk and very miserable by 12.30, and in bed by 1. I had just moved into my new condo, which was a great thing considering it’s a tiny loft and I’ve been wanting to live in a loft ever since I saw Flashdance {although my place is, like I said, a whole lot smaller, and also a lot less grunge}; and so I thought I could handle celebrating all by myself.

A week later, I opened my wedding season with a lovely wedding, and my spirits went up. And then, a sudden and unprecedented swirl of the loveliest new brides ever followed. In April, I went down to Mexico to stand by my brother as he married the love of his life {in case you still don’t know this, they’re the incredibly talented Davina+Daniel duo}. Along with about 40 of their and our closest family and friends, I laughed, cried, drank, soaked in the sea, sun, and ridiculous amounts of love. Although it had started on a not-so-great foot, 2011 was turning out to be an amazing year.

In June, I had some free time between weddings, and decided to take a road trip down to the Big Apple, mainly to see Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty at the Met {which blew my mind}. Upon returning, I realized it was high time to pick up my other passion, dancing, where I had left it over a decade ago, and immersed myself into salsa. Oh yes yes, smack in the middle of wedding season. Call me crazy if you must, but I swear it’s helped me keep my sanity.

And then, oh boy… Just when things were positively looking up, I came home on a certain Friday night in early July to discover my apartment had been robbed. As in, emptied out. All my family jewelry, all electronics, pillows, a bottle of wine, cameras, fans, you name it. All gone. Oh, and did I mention my computer, hard drives, printer, and basically everything else that my office is comprised of? 7 days away from my next wedding? After spending two days in bed, feeling like the workload to catch up on was so ginormous I might as well just give up, I picked up the phone, called all my brides, re-planned their weddings in 24 hours, and well, the rest of that is now history. Well, I’m still considering getting a doberman and a firearm permit, but I’ll tell you about that another time…

The rest of 2011 is a whirlwind of all of my favorite things in life, mostly gorgeous fun weddings, amazing clients, travels, and salsa dancing.

I am so insanely grateful to have not only a job that I can’t imagine living without, but that this job also allows me to indulge in all my other passions. I am grateful I was not home when the burglars came in, or that whole story could have had a very different ending altogether. I am grateful for the incredible experiences 2011 brought me, such as challenging clients and a parasailing-100ft-up-in-the-air in Mexico {which sadly confirmed that I do indeed have a paralyzing fear of heights}.

And I am ridiculously grateful for all the brides and grooms who continue trusting me even though my answer to the “have you ever done a wedding there” question has lately become “I did, I swear, but all the pics were stolen”.

Here’s to 2012, which is definitely and positively off to an amazing start.

xoxo

Hello!

I was making myself dinner tonight, when I realized I was cutting up sweet orange peppers on a bright turquoise cutting board… And boom! I thought this would make an amazing palette for a colorful wedding.

Here is my inspiration board.

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo

Hello!

So, you got the rock on your finger, the man by your side, and every detail of your wedding down and under control. You’ve even got a pro {i.e. a wedding planner} standing by your side to make sure the big day goes down smoothly. Think you’re covered, right? Think again. I have nearly 70 weddings under my belt, but as I count down the days to my 2011 season opening, I still find myself telling my brides: “97% is planned, 3% is entirely up to chance”.

By chance, I mean the “old man up in the sky”, or whatever other name you want to give him/her/it. You know, the force that decides it will pour buckets when you’ve planned an outdoor ceremony…

In the last five years, I’ve had a lot of unforeseen potential disasters happen to me during my weddings. Most of them were due to the inexperience of my earlier years, but some were complete flukes, even as I look back on them today. Now, when I prep my brides for their big day, I always sit them down and mentally prepare them for what I call the “worst-case scenario”. Trust me, having a wedding planner there to help fix the situation is a great thing, but I sometimes wish we, the wedding planners, could also bring shrinks along to help us fix, well, us.

Here’s a rundown of my top 10 worst case scenarios. Yup, they all happened to me.

1- A guest forgot to mention he was allergic to shrimp. At a Chinese wedding. How one forgets to mention something like that boggles my mind, but all I can say is that the outcome involved an ambulance, and me frantically scavenging the kitchen for a new knife, fork, plate, glass, and something, anything, that hadn’t come into contact with the darned crustacean so that said guest could enjoy the rest of the reception.

2- This one happened a while ago, but thinking of it still sends the bad kind of shivers up and down my spine. Imagine a beautiful vineyard, about 40min from the city. Imagine it’s midnight, and the party’s raging. Now imagine one of the main sound wires gives out. Yes, my friends, burns out and dies. All I can say is that the 10 minutes it took us to rewire the entire sound system were the longest 10 minutes of my life.

3- My number 3 is a classic, fit for a romantic comedy. The bride and groom sit next to each other at the head table. The groom is holding a full glass of red wine in his hand. The groom spots a long-lost friend and waves to him. The entire contents of his glass of red wine end up on his bride’s immaculately white dress. That is the night I discovered the magic powers of Ginger Ale.

4- This mishap is most likely due to me still being a bit of a newby, as it happened 3 years ago. I had a countryside wedding almost 2 hours away from Montreal. And I realized I forgot the box of favors {I had so painstakingly wrapped} at home. Two hours before the ceremony. I was very lucky there were no cops on the highway that day, because I performed some crazy maneuvers on the road and managed to get everything back to the reception site on time.

5- Some of you have definitely heard this story, so please forgive me if I repeat myself. But here goes anyways: I ripped out my belly piercing during a big installation at the Marche Bonsecours. At 9am. Nearly fainted, and had to call for the security guy over the walkie-talkie; he came to my rescue and applied a full bandage. That wedding lasted until 5am, and that bandage was very much soaked in blood at the end of the night. Yes, I love my job. And no, for those of you who are curious, I did not muster the courage to have my belly re-pierced.

6- Last May, I had a pretty big wedding at the Montreal Science Center. I was expecting a big truck of deliveries {tables, chairs, linens, etc} to show up at 9am. They showed up at noon, with the wrong delivery. This is the story I tell all my potential clients when they ask me why they need a wedding planner. Needless to say, I also no longer use that rental company.

7- Imagine a wedding, again, 2 hours away from the nearest city {I seem to have a lot of those}. Now, this wedding is very much in the middle of nowhere, at a quaint little B&B in the countryside. And now imagine that the absolute unthinkable happens: we run out of beer. At 10pm. Guess who emptied the beer stock of the nearest convenience store…

8- My number 8 is such a random fluke, I still can’t really believe it happened. I had a beautiful wedding at an art gallery, and we had hung tons of Chinese lanterns over the dance floor. For some random reason I still don’t quite fully understand {as the lanterns were attached with duct tape to some pipes along the ceiling}, half a dozen of them decided to get detached and smack down onto the heads of guests below. Thankfully, they were only made of paper, and no one was injured.

9- From time to time, a wedding venue with a solid reputation will miscalculate the number of bartenders it needs to serve 400 guests. And for some really strange reason, this has to happen at the one wedding where the groom requested there be absolutely no wait line at the bar. So, as it turns out, I can also mix a mean vodka-orange.

10- Last, but certainly not least, is the story so many of you have heard before. Two years ago, I had a wedding at a beautiful hall that was also part of a university campus here in Montreal. The university had been particularly strict with us in terms of what could and could not be done inside the room, and a very detailed, 12-page-long contract had been drawn up. What the university forgot to mention to me was that their security personnel did not actually work for the university. They were sub-contracted. And that Saturday, all 10-15 security guys banded together and decided they had much better things to do than to watch other people having fun. All I’ll say is this: I did not even know that someone who only stands 5’2″ tall {i.e. me} could yell so loud. I’m also pretty proud to say that I used every single insult I know of, or have heard since I was about 5 years old. Finally, I simply threatened to call the police. It ended up working, but it took me a full week to recuperate from the amount of harassment they gave us {can’t park here; can’t cook here; can’t flush this toilet; can’t burn candles; can’t put chairs on the grass; and the list goes on and on}

And there you have it! I hope I have not scared any of you out of getting married in the first place. I simply wanted to warn you that random things happen to the best of us, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the amount of dedication and preparation that goes into your wedding day.

So I hope that when your day comes, you’ll stay cool and calm, and remember to look at the big picture. Besides, you still get to keep your man {and that rock} even if some paper lanterns come crashing down.

xoxo

Happy New Year everyone!

I’ve spent the past few days in a little “friendship marathon” with my good friend Azar from Principal Planner. We got to talk about our pasts, our parents’ journeys, and our own joys and mishaps in this beautiful business of wedding planning. And since the new year is upon us, I thought I would take a moment to count my blessings and look happily into the future.

When my parents came to this country, it’s an over-statement to say that they had nothing but the clothes on their back. Leaving the hardships of USSR behind them, I can not even begin to imagine what it was like for them, at such a young age, to take a leap of faith and delve into the free world. What it must have been like for them to no longer fear government authorities, to be able to work hard and actually earn fair pay for it, to see fresh food in over-stocked grocery stores.

As the first one in my family born on Canadian soil, I grew up free of worries, learning English and French pretty much alongside Russian. Although I consider myself a full-fledged Canadian, I can’t omit all the stories that were ingrained in me as a young child. My parents’ refugee months in Italy, my grandparents’ refugee years in Ouzbekistan during WWII, my father’s 20km walk to his first real job interview amidst a snow storm… To say the least, I grew up with a very strong sense of just how much had gone down before me, and how free and lucky I was to be.

And that’s precisely what I feel so lucky for: the choice to be. The choice to be a wedding planner, even though I excelled all throughout my schooling, and would have probably made a very good lawyer or accountant. The choice to do as I please, to choose an “out of the box” profession. To enjoy my work every single day, to work with wonderful people. I can choose to do something so creative, to live in a pretty loft, and I don’t have to worry about putting food on my table.

As the years come and go, I am so thankful for all the battles my parents fought in order to afford me and my brothers this freedom. I hope I never take any of it for granted. I still get overly excited every single time a book a new client.

And nearly five years day for day after registering my business name, the young woman in me -who felt she was jumping out of an airplane without a parachute when she signed her first contract- can’t believe she still hasn’t crashed. For that, I am incredibly grateful.

So here’s to looking forward to a New Year filled with joy, love, and lots of pretty weddings!

xoxo

Hello!

For those of you who remember, I blogged about a month ago about my decor plans for my new little condo {if you missed it, read up here}. My dilemma was that I had to make the space pretty and cozy, while maximizing on functionality. Hey, 490 square feet is really not a lot of space to work with!

It’s now been a month, and the space is finished, for the most part. I’m still missing a gorgeous rug as well as some minor accessories, but I really wanted to share with you what it looks like right now.

To refresh your memory, this was my inspiration board:

And this is what the actual space looks like:

{the lounge area}

{the office}

What do you think?

xoxo

]]> http://unity-weddings.com/home-sweet-home-the-sequel/feed/ 0 http://unity-weddings.com/the-good-memories-part-2/ http://unity-weddings.com/the-good-memories-part-2/#comments Sun, 21 Nov 2010 06:16:26 +0000 Elyna Kudish http://unity-weddings.com/?p=1572

Hello everybody!

I’ve managed to go m.i.a. again… I guess November is the new July because I am swamped with work!I recently received these pictures from Isabelle Paille, and I am head over heels in love with Marie-Eve and Benoit all over again. This couple was the most amazing to work with, and needless to say, this was one wedding where I cried quite a bit {as you already know, I’m the crying kind of wedding planner}. I hope you enjoy the photos!

xoxo

tables and tabletops by Celebrations

cake by Jessica Berard Cakes

venue: The Hillsdale Golf Club

Hello!

It’s been a little while since I wrote {again}. I don’t seem to be so good at keeping this a regular thing. I had a pretty awful week {last week}, and wasn’t feeling so chatty. But then today I received the photos from two weddings I had the pleasure of planning over the past summer, and my heart is smiling again. I usually do this in my featured section, but I thought this wedding deserved a little post of its own.

I feel terrible saying this, as all of my brides and grooms are completely adorable, but some weddings just stick with me more than others. Karen and Guillaume’s was one of those. It wasn’t that the decor was the most elaborate, or that she wore the biggest, most extravagant dress. It was in the small things. Their kindness; their great mood on the big day; their spontaneous decision to have guests donate money to the Canadian Cancer Society instead of clinking their glasses for them to kiss. This couple totally stole my heart, and had me crying like a child throughout their wedding day.

So here are a few of my fave shots, graciously shared with me by George Mavitzis from Candlewax Studio:

Congrats to these two again!

xoxo

Hello!

I hope you are all having a fabulous week. This being Wednesday, and me being caught in between everything on my to-do list and some weekend relaxation, I thought I’d take a little break and touch on a touchy subject today. Said touchy subject being copying in the design world.

Now, please understand me, this is a pretty tough subject to touch on. Unless you are Leonardo Da Vinci, or, in our case, Mr Preston Bailey, none of us really invent anything. As event designers, we constantly hash and re-hash what has been done before, attempting our best at making it all look fresh and new. I mean, none of us have actually invented the wedding cake or the color purple. We also don’t get to put copyrights on our designs, and we certainly don’t think that we’re the first or last ones to use a particular color combo. Which makes it that much harder to accuse someone of copying.

Famously enough, Mozart was a student of Bach; it would sound preposterous to accuse Mozart of copying Bach, as he completely reinvented himself and developed a style quite different from his teacher’s. As such, we, the wedding planners and event designers and florists and photographers {and pretty much anyone else in the creative field} get inspired by the great ones and then strive to develop our own style. This style, that we work so hard at achieving and perfecting, becomes our staple, our signature of sorts.

The bride and groom might not readily recognize this, but we the wedding vendors follow each other {or rather stalk} and learn to differentiate everyone’s unique signature. This signature, as I said, becomes our trademark. So I have to admit: Although I do follow and stalk and try my best to get inspired by some of the great artists out there, it shocks and infuriates me when I see that something has been copied.

I am not one to kiss and tell, so I will not drop names, but you know who you are. And shame on you. Really. You saw a beautiful sweet table and wanted to re-create it? Great, but please do say that it’s inspired by so-and-so {especially if you are going to copy it down to the last flower on the cake}. Seen a beautiful shot? Perfect, learn how you can incorporate some of that creative technique into your own style. But please, I beg you, stop trying to pass it as your own “invention”.

Voila. I’ve spoken my mind and I feel better for it. Being copied seems like a great sign of admiration, but it’s also a way of stealing from that person, a way of picking at their brains without their permission.

Oh, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

xoxo

Hello!

I really don’t know what’s wrong with me lately, as I’m not usually a very colorful kinda gal. Perhaps it’s all the gray weather… But I’m suddenly and incurably obsessed with pink. Oh yes, pink dresses, pink couches, pink pretty much everything. If I didn’t think it would make me look slightly off-balance, I would paint all my walls pink and would never leave home…

So here’s my inspiration board du jour, hoping to rub off some of that pink happiness on you!

xoxo

Hello!

How is your weekend going? I am getting ready for my big move…. I am moving next week into the cutest, tiniest, 490-square-feet condo. I mean, how minuscule is that? But hey, it’s exactly where I want it to be, it has floor to ceiling windows (light is essential when one runs a business from home), and it’s generally pretty.

I’m using this “anticipatory” time to dream up my dream decor. Most of you don’t know this about me, but I’ve always harvested a secret dream of being an interior designer. I’ve always loved playing with space, and the design element is probably one of my favorite parts of wedding planning.

So, I’ve decided, this new place will be a pilot project of sorts. I will keep you posted here on my inspirations and developments, and when it’s all said and done, y’all can decide if it’s yay or nay. For starters, here’s what I’m thinking:

The space is tiny, so I need to keep my furniture to a minimum without sacrificing functionality and usefulness. I have also decided that said furniture should be generally light in color {I mean, a black couch in there is going to feel like an elephant!}. And because said furniture will be kept to a minimum, each and every piece needs to be super pretty.

In general, here’s my little inspiration board. I’ll keep you posted on how the rest unfolds!

xoxo

Well, hello everyone!

It’s been so ridiculously long since I blogged, I kinda feel like a typing-virgin all over again. But I have the best excuse ever: I was insanely busy over the summer (we rolled close to 20 weddings), and then I went away on a well-deserved vacation. And so now I’m back, refreshed, and ready to jump right back into planning for all my amazing 2011 brides. But first, if I may, I’d like to take a moment and recap how incredible this past year has been.

You see, the business of running your own business can be exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Each new couple is an extraordinary opportunity to design something new. Every wedding that passes is a {slightly} frightening moment where you wonder “what if I never ever sign on another client ever again?”. So when a season as great as 2010 was comes and goes, there really is no option but to stop and wonder if I’ll ever get this lucky again.

My favorite part of my work is the special relationship that grows between me and each of the couples I work with. Unity Weddings is not a “wedding-popping-factory”. I get along with all of my clients fabulously, and we sometimes even hang out and go for drinks. So it’ll come as no surprise to you that when the Big Day actually rolls around, I’m a big emotional mess.

Most Memorable Moment #1: At a small, intimate, August wedding, the groom interrupted the priest in the middle of the ceremony to thank all those involved in him meeting his bride. He then proceeded to casually announce that she was pregnant {she had found out on the evening of the day before}. He also promised to make her smile every day and to continue writing her little love notes. Let me tell you: I cried like a baby in the ladies’ room for a good 10 minutes.

Second to my love for my clients is my love for designing. Given, not each and every couple wants you to turn into Preston Bailey, but I still completely adore bringing someone’s ideas to life. And then, once in a blue moon, you get THE client. The one with no limit to their budget, but most importantly with no limit to their imagination. You can agree or disagree all you want, but the point of the matter is that a client like this is challenging. And boy-oh-boy do I love a challenge!

Most Memorable Moment #2: Executing a logistically excruciating and difficult wedding. The setup took two entire days, and I had a huge wedding on the following day {yes yes, 2 back-to-back weddings}. Total hours worked over the weekend: 72. Total hours of sleep: 2. Now you know why I really needed that vacation.

Once the big day rolls around, my one and only concern is that everything runs as smooth as butter. As I often tell my clients when I meet them for the first time, I’ve literally done it all. I’ve held a big pouffy dress as my bride used the loo. I’ve carried heavy boxes when there was no one around to do it. I’ve fixed smudged icings on cakes. I’ve made last-minute boutonnieres when the original ones went missing. You name it, I’ve most likely done it.

Most Memorable Moment #3: I had the pleasure of working with the most adorable couple on their September wedding. This wedding was held at a little b&b in St-Martyrs-Canadiens. Don’t know where it is on the map? Almost 3 hours away from Montreal, in the middle of nowhere. I mean, so far out in the fields we were all out of cell phone range. After the ceremony {which, by the way, was held in a church so old one of the photographers fell right through the floor!}, the couple went for their photo shoot in a field. The bride took off her cover-up and put it down on the grass. And forgot it. After getting to the reception, she realized that said cover-up was forgotten in a field. So I looked long and hard at the photog’s camera {“see, the field with the house with the red awnings and the pile of wood outside”}. And then I got into my car, drove out into the wilderness, and found the cover-up. I think I’m pretty awesome sometimes.

And then, just like that, after running for months with barely any sleep or food, the season was over. I went away, and after dreaming about it for so long, put my toes into the wet, salty sand of the Mediterranean sea. Although I’m still suffering from a bit of post-vacation blues, I am so happy to be back at work. I know I’ve said this time and again, but I would keep doing what I do even if I won the lottery and never needed to work again {although, I don’t gamble, so there’s no chance of this actually happening}. I feel refreshed and ready to do it all, all over again.

So bring on the tears, the mad working hours, the gamut of emotions. 2011, I am so ready for you!

xoxo

Who doesn’t love warm chocolate chip cookies with an icy glass of milk, hardy macaroni and cheese, sweet peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and yummy grilled cheese with tomato soup? Did I get your taste buds going yet? These maybe some of your favourites but you don’t necessarily see them on your “menu du jour” for the big day. Don’t count them out just yet…

Serving comfort foods doesn’t necessarily mean de-formalizing your wedding – all of your homemade favourites can be presented in an elegant, chic way. They don’t have to be the main course – you can offer them either as appetizers or during the midnight buffet. Spoil guests with a top-notch gourmet five-course dinner and then, after everyone’s had time to digest and work up their appetites dancing, present an incredible spread of everyone’s fave comfort foods – tasty sliders, cookies and milk, French fries, lemonade, ice cream sandwiches, cotton candy, and more. Presented in individual serving sizes, these “ordinary” foods become extraordinary.

If you and your husband-to-be are more of a “burger and fry” type of couple, then don’t restrict yourself to rack of lamb and asparagus spears. Sprinkle in a few of your favourite foods, whether it’s pasta, loaded baked potatoes, or PB&J sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

I understand the appeal of having a wedding outdoors – who wouldn’t want the natural beauty of nature to be the backdrop of their special day? Because I got married in October (in a chilly, unpredictable city like Montreal) an outdoor ‘do was a major “don’t” in my mind. But a lot of couples, especially those who live in cold climates, seize the opportunity of summer and opt for a wedding outside beneath the skies, trees or stars. And when Mother Nature decides to have a hissy fit (albeit in the form of cold, rain, or humid heat), there are a few “Plan Bs” you can prepare ahead of time to help your guests battle the elements (and put your worrying mind at ease).

In case of rain, stock up on inexpensive umbrellas – you can put them in tall umbrella stands (or even sturdy baskets) near the entryway of your ceremony. When it’s an unusually hot day, offer guests bottled water with custom-made labels or pretty paper parasols to provide shade from the scorching sun. Handheld fans are great too – they’re relatively inexpensive and come in an endless array of styles, from traditional foldable fans to beachy woven designs and even personalized paddle shapes. And finally, if a cold front is moving in on your wedding day and you’re worried guests will be chilly, warm them up by setting up a small hot chocolate bar with creamy warm cocoa, marshmallows, orange slices, and more.

Don’t let the elements beat you – if you’ve decided to have an outdoor wedding then you’ve got to expect the unexpected. With a little bit of planning, though, your outdoor party will be a hit no matter what the weather forecast.

There’s no denying that flowergirls give weddings that “aww” factor. The frilly dresses, the flower petals, those cute little-girl smiles – is there anything cuter?!

The traditional flowergirl will usually carry her coveted petals in a classic white silk basket, which are lovely (I opted for something like this at my wedding). They come with pretty detailing like bows, pearls, and crystals.

But there are also many different, creative types of holders, so you don’t have to confine yourself to just one standard model.

Baskets in various hues are a nice way to tie in the accent colours of your bridesmaid dresses or bouquets. Holders with organic accents, such as dried flowers or moss, add an earthy touch. I personally love baskets with adornments like charms, ribbons or silk roses.

You may be the “big” princess of the day, but you can also spoil your “little” princess with a lovely unique flowergirl basket.

Good morning everyone!

Today is the day I officially open the wedding season. I mean, I’ve already had a few this year, but from today on it’s all one big roll all the way til October.

Since I’m really, really ridiculously organized, I’ve been on location since 7.30am this morning. And this means that since 9am, I’ve been pretty much done, waiting for my deliveries, and sipping on a latte on this golf club’s gorgeous terrace. So I thought I’d share with you some very last minute advice.

If you are getting married today in Montreal, you are pretty lucky, since the day is glorious. If you’re elsewhere and it’s raining, don’t sweat it. Weddings are a joyful, emotional, happy occasion, so remember to plan ahead for what can be planned and let the rest go. So many things could potentially go wrong… Your cake could fall, someone could step on your dress and rip it, a passing bird could poop on your groom’s head… Trust me, if I’m saying this, it’s because it really does happen.

Having a strong team of vendors whom you trust to attend to all sorts of emergencies definitely minimizes the impact of such potential catastrophes. But when it comes down to it, try and see the big picture. Will it really matter in 30 years from now that your flower girl panicked halfway down the aisle? Probably not. What you will remember is the laughter, the joy, and the love.

So wake up, have your OJ and your coffee, get pretty and decked out, and go out there to have fun!

To all of you getting married today, have a wonderful W-Day!

xoxo