Wedding Planning « Lavish Wedding Design

Becky & Nabil – what can I say about these two!?!?

Becky & I hit it off right away, during our initial consultation. It was really funny – at the end of our meeting, I told her to think about everything we’d talked about, and to contact me in a few days if she decided to move forward with having LAVISH as her Wedding Planning company. She got as far as the parking lot before she turned around and came back inside and said “OK! I thought about it! Let’s do it!”

We had the most amazing time working on this wedding. I loved that this wedding was all about bringing two families with vastly different cultural backgounds together – it made it challenging and really exciting for us. I love that Becky & Nabil always kept the “guest experience” forefront in their minds as we were planning – they have such big hearts, and care so much about their family & friends.

Thank you, Becky & Nabil, for trusting us with this most special day. And thank you the amazing team that we put together to make it happen:

Flowers: Brides Mom & The Nosegay – Lighting: SilverMoon Productions – Venue: Fairmont Palliser – Cake: Brides Mom – Entertainment: the Dino Martini’s, Kenna Burima, Allegra String Quartet, Arabia Adorned – Stationery: Plush Invitations – Photography: HANAFOTO – Videography: SNAP

HUGE kudos to SNAP for doing such an amazing job on this highlight video!

Nabil & Rebecca [Calgary Wedding Videography] from SNAP Weddings on Vimeo.

Well hello!

We are so excited to announce that we’re finally all set to go with the lovely Lavish Blog! We’ve spent the last few weeks brainstorming new ideas and topics that we want to share with you, and let me tell you – the next few months are going to be chalk-full of ideas and eye-candy! You won’t want to miss a single day, so make sure that you’ve subscribed to our RSS Feed!

To get things started, we wanted to introduce ourselves, as our team has been growing and changing over the last few months.

I thought I’d start us off:

I’m Mary! I’m the founder/owner/president/person-in-charge/ceo/cfo/blah blah… and yes, I’m a Wedding Planner and Designer as well!

Here’s one of my “official” head shots, so you can see what I look like:

I started Lavish is 2009, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job. I can honestly say that every job I have ever had was preparing and leading me to my career as a business owner, Wedding Planner, and Designer. I know that sounds sorta cheesy – but there it is. This is my destiny. I have worked harder and more hours than you could possibly imagine in the last (almost) 3 years. And you know what? None of it really felt like WORK. What it felt like was a privilege. I feel that my job is an HONOUR. I feel so honoured that so many couples – in Calgary, Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, Edmonton, and beyond – have trusted me to plan, design, and execute their dream wedding day.

It makes me kinda teary-eyed, to be honest.

As Lavish has grown – I now have 3 AMAZING Wedding Coordinators working for me – I’ve had to take a step back and spend a little more time focusing on the business side of Lavish. This has been harder than I would have thought, because I really would rather spend my days with my clients, at floral studios, at cake tastings, choosing linen… but I also know that the time that I spend ensuring that Lavish is a well-organized, well-run business ultimately benefits all of our couples as well, so I’m ok with it. Plus – I know that Cara, Lauren & Renee are taking fantastic care to provide each Lavish Couple with the same love and attention to detail that I do. And of course, I still work with couples myself – just not as many as in years’ previous.

We also have come together as a team, and now each Lavish Couple knows that when they hire us, they hire ALL of us. We meet weekly to ensure that each of us are updated on each couple, and we ALL work together to come up with ideas and designs for each wedding.

You know what they say – “Two heads are better than one”… well, we feel that 4 Planners is better than 1!

I’ve grown as a person as Lavish has grown as a business, and each couple that I’ve been lucky to work with has been part of that growth. Many, many of my former clients are now good friends, and I can’t imagine my life without them in it! Maybe it’s the snow on the ground, the Christmas trees, the carols… it’s that time of year, for sure – and I have never felt more blessed to be surrounded by my family, friends, clients, vendors, colleagues, and my amazing Lavish staff.

Thank you to all of you for being part of my life.

WOW – I did not think I would get so sappy/emotional writing my “Introduction” blog post, but there it is.

In other, non-sappy news, here are a few things you may not know about me:

1 – I have three amazingly beautiful, sweet children.

2 – I have been married for 11 (!) years… we fell in love when I was only 18 years old.

3 – I have a degree in classical music performance.

4 – I can (and do) sing the lead guitar and/or saxophone melody from pretty much any song from the 80′s. Loudly.

5 – My passion is bringing people together to celebrate. I host numerous parties, organize bi-weekly get-togethers for my girlfriends, co-host monthly networking events for the Wedding Industry… and oh yeah, I plan unforgettable, fabulous weddings. Seeing people surrounded by their loved ones, having an amazing time… that makes me happier than you can know.

Thank you so much for reading this blog, and I hope you’ll continue to tune in each day as we share our passion for all-things-wedding!

Siewmee & Ryan