One recent email conversation with a bride-to-be was about how she would decide on the venue first and then see if she had enough money left in her budget for wedding planning services. My post today and my reply to this comment is that wedding planners are not simply an expense but they can actually save a couple money. Really, it’s not a sales pitch, it’s true! How, you ask? Here are a few ways that a wedding planner can save you money.

Photo credit: Captured by Cassidy

A wedding planner is up-to-date on the news

Wedding planners are the first to be contacted when a venues or vendors have new promotions, openings or discounts. They want planners to let their clients know. When I attend event conferences, for example, venues will sometimes have great promotions just for our clients.

Our network of Canadian Certified wedding coordinators keep each other updated on the latest promotions and deals as well, so you can bet that a deal will pass through the hands of your planner if you had something specific in mind or they can surely find a great deal.

A wedding planner can get you discounts

The most obvious way a planner can save you money is through discounts, aka hookups! I have built relationships with vendors over the years that I’ve worked with and they can offer my clients a discount. They want to know that the clients are going to be easy to work with and have a reputable planner helping them out (it makes their job easier!).

Discounts range from 10-20% off what the vendor would charge you normally without a planner referral. This can be significant if you do end up spending on them and it certainly adds up! With floral for example, a typical bride may spend anywhere from $1500-5000 on bouquets, arrangements and centerpieces so even a 10% discount will make a big difference.

A wedding planner is a resource

Even without discounts, a wedding planner is a great resource in sharing best practices in planning and securing your vendors. If you’ve never planned a big event before, you won’t know whether you require all the extra add-ons they are trying to sell you or if you are able to find them elsewhere for a better price.

Because I plan numerous weddings and events every year, you can be sure to ask me about whether something is a good deal or if something is a great deal, or if there are hidden fees that you should be aware of in calculating costs.

Couples are starting to realizing that hiring a professional wedding planner is not just a luxury expense, but an imperative service if you are wanting to get the best for your wedding day. Contact me today and let’s get started on talking about your wedding!

Rebecca Chan is a Toronto wedding planner and day of wedding coordinator providing sophisticated planning for the modern bride. Whether you need planning assistance or wedding day coordination, Rebecca can help you create your dream wedding day. Contact her today, she'd love to hear from you.

Hi folks!

In case you haven’t seen it, check out this article I am featured in, alongside Danielle, the president of WPIC:

How to Save Coins When Getting Hitched
The joys and perils of an urban wedding

Krista, the author of the article, asked me about the unique challenges couples face when planning a Toronto wedding. The unique challenge is that Toronto is such a huge city; couples have a ton of choice when starting their wedding planning adventure. The wedding industry is booming and options are available more than ever.

On Eventsource.ca, just looking at venues within the “City Of Toronto” alone, you get 150 results. This doesn’t even include smaller venues, venues who aren’t registered on the site or options in the suburbs.

Just to give you an idea, I had to go on an extensive venue search for a few of the couples I am working with this year. Before narrowing the search down to 3 for them, I must have looked into 15-20 for each of them. A lot of couples hire me because they are overwhelmed with the many options. They want to get recommendations from a trusted source instead of looking blindly.

And that’s just talking venues. That doesn’t include endless options for vendors like DJs, florists, makeup artists, and the list goes on. If you ask 10 people for their recommendation on a DJ, you might get 10 different recommendations. Sometimes too much choice is challenging and it certainly can be the case when planning a wedding in Toronto!

My recommendations:

Rebecca Chan is a Toronto wedding planner and day of wedding coordinator providing sophisticated planning for the modern bride. Whether you need planning assistance or wedding day coordination, Rebecca can help you create your dream wedding day. Contact her today, she'd love to hear from you.

Couples who are engaged are talking all about it (and heck, everyone else heading to weddings as guests are likely talking about it too) — giving cash gifts. With couples paying out of their own pockets for wedding expenses and many already owning a house prior to the wedding, it makes sense that many now prefer monetary gifts over a traditional gift. Here are some commonly asked questions regarding giving gifts and asking for gifts.

Question: “How do we politely ask for cash gifts in the wedding invitation?”

The short answer is, well, there is no polite way! Any attempt to word such a request will sound rude or tacky. I’ve even seen some websites dedicated to giving people poems that are apparently tasteful in saying that a couple prefers gifts. Here is one:

Therefore there’s no wedding list
The household things we need are few
So if you’re thinking of a wedding gift
Money’s the practical thing to do

Asking for money on the invitation is tacky enough, but then adding a tasteless poem to the mixture… well, all I can say is, don’t do it! There honestly is no polite way to asking for money on an invitation. Afterall, the purpose of the invite is to invite a guest to the most special day of your life; not to ask for gifts!

Question: What is another option to let guests know that I prefer a monetary gift instead?

I always suggest to couples that if they prefer to receive monetary gifts, the best way to do this is to let your family, close friends and/or bridal party spread the word.

Trust them to tastefully communicate the message to guests who ask. It doesn’t have to be a big public service announcement either. It can be as easy as saying, “I know they are looking to save for a down payment, so they would really appreciate a monetary gift if you are thinking of giving something.” This way, guests who inquire will find out without having you sound rude on the invitation. Even if a guest asks you personally, tell them the truth about what you might be spending it on (honeymoon, house, new furniture, etc) and thank them for their thoughtfulness.

Are guests expecting to give a monetary gift that is equivalent to the cost of their plate?

I have heard the term “paying for your plate” many times, and I do not agree with this mentality.

One, it is hard to determine the real cost of one’s dinner meal to accurately give the equivalent, especially to determine this amount prior to coming to a wedding. So much goes into the cost of dinner—Food, staffing, venue rental, DJ/band, dessert, rentals, etc—that if a guest really were to pay for their plate, it would be very expensive! Not to mention, it is impossible to really know how much a dinner plate costs as a guest.

Two, it is difficult to come to terms with this rule of thumb when a couple has expensive taste and has invited a guest to, say, the Fairmont Royal York (beautiful venue!), for a 5-Star meal and has not held back on the best vendors in town. Is a guest expected to pay $200+ a head for a family of 5 because the couple has chosen to embellish their wedding with the works? It is the couple’s choice to host an extravagant party and it is, by no means, a guest’s responsibility to pay for it.

When giving a gift, I always give what I can, depending on what I can afford and how well I know the couple. At the end of the day, any gift will be appreciated and it is a symbolic gesture to bless them as they start their journey together. As a couple, do not expect gifts but be gracious when receiving them, as it is not to be an expectation or obligation of guests to give.

Should we open a gift registry anyway?

There may be some guests, especially the older generation, who are not comfortable giving cash and would prefer to give a tangible gift. For this reason, it is always good to open some sort of traditional gift registry, even if it is small. This will give them an idea of what you like, and you can always return or exchange the gifts after the fact if needed. Even then, the registry is not to be announced in the invitation. A more appropriate place to put it is on the wedding website where more details are given or, again, let those closest to you spread the word.

What are some tips on thanking guests for their gifts?

Make sure to send personalized thank you notes to all guests who gave a gift after the wedding. It is best to send these shortly after your wedding (within the first two months is great) and it is a nice touch to let them know what the money is being used for. As a guest, it is always nice to know that the monetary gift I gave the couple is being used for something useful. Select a weekend, or a week, and make an activity out of it with your new spouse and it is a good way to reminisce on your wedding day too.

Rebecca Chan is a Toronto wedding planner and day of wedding coordinator providing sophisticated planning for the modern bride. Whether you need planning assistance or wedding day coordination, Rebecca can help you create your dream wedding day. Contact her today, she'd love to hear from you.

My last blog post before the holiday season was about planning an awesome road trip and finding unique (and affordable) accommodation. This post is about something that is equally important for planning, and that is using online tools at your disposal to make planning easier. I’ll use a trip I took to Montreal last year as an example.

1. Google Maps
Being a recent Android convert, it is suiting that the first two items on this list are Google related =) On short road trips, I like to make use of my visit so that I’m not wasting any time thinking of what to do next. “Winging it” has its place, but not when I am only spending a few days in a city. I start by creating a list of places I want to see, restaurants I want to eat at and routes to get there. I like using Google Maps and marking all of these plotted locations on a saved map. Saving the map allows you to go back to these plans at any time, and you can share it with those you are traveling with. I like to colour-coordinate and use different icons to differentiate the types of places they are. If I really have time on my hands, I might add the phone number, address and website into the plotted location’s details. I like to start with plotting the locations on the map, so I can plan my route accordingly based on where things are located. Also with Google Streetview you can practically visit the location you will travel to ahead of time to know what to expect.

2. Google Docs – Spreadsheet
While I am plotting my map locations, I am simultaneously making a spreadsheet of the places I want to go to. There is something really magical about columns and rows of neatly organized information! When planning a trip, you often are planning with other people, and here is where Google comes in handy with their Google Documents. You can create a spreadsheet (or word document, powerpoint, etc) and share it with other people. It gets updated live as you change it, and it centralizes all your planning efforts. This is the second place I would throw in all the details like phone number, address and website, in case I don’t have the Google Maps handy.

3. Gas Calculator
If you notice on my spreadsheet, I also like to monitor how much I am expected to spend on the trip in a separate column. Online gas calculators are handy to let you know how much gas money you will be spending if going on a road trip. This will be good to know if you are splitting it between passengers. This image above was pulled from http://www.ontariogasprices.com.

4. TripAdvisor
Finally (sometimes I do this first), before I make final decisions on where I will be spending my time on a trip, I like to double check what other travelers have to say about it on http://www.tripadvisor.com. Hearing someone else’s good or bad experience firsthand is a great way to tell if a place will be worth visiting or not, especially if it is a big ticket item like accommodations. This is also a great place to start if you don’t know where to go or what to eat, since you can look up the top rated things to do and places to eat.

Rebecca Chan is a Toronto wedding planner and day of wedding coordinator providing sophisticated planning for the modern bride. Whether you need planning assistance or wedding day coordination, Rebecca can help you create your dream wedding day. Contact her today, she'd love to hear from you.

Preface

As the winter rolls in, I start to feel my itch for travelling again. I love taking mini trips to quaint destinations, whether it is warm or cold outside. In the last two years I’ve enjoyed short trips to Port Colbourne, Niagara-On-The-Lake, St. Jacobs, Collingwood, Montreal and Wasaga Beach to name a few!

I obviously find a lot of pleasure in planning anything… and trips are at the top of the list! I’m starting a new mini series for how to plan an awesome trip, walking through the steps I would take to plan on my own trips. Note that when I travel, I consider myself more of a budget/local/experiential traveller than someone who seeks luxury experiences, so know that this will taint the kind of tips I will give.

Getting a good deal on accommodations

Anyone can book a simple hotel room at regular rates, but did you know there are other options? These are some of my favourites when I am looking to travel to a nearby destination:

Bed and Breakfasts:

Emerald Falls B&B in Niagara Falls. My friends and I booked the whole place for a bachelorette and it was like having our own private house! Best part was the great breakfast we woke up to.

B&B’s usually involve booking a room within the building/house and having a host who serves you a scrumptious homemade breakfast. A unique part of this is that if there are other travellers staying at the same place, you will likely eat together. It is a much more personal experience, allowing you to interact with others in a home setting. Sometimes if you are travelling in a group you may find a B&B that has enough rooms to accommodate everyone in the group, so you all stay in the same house (like the photo above).

My favourite place to check out B&B listings is http://www.bedandbreakfast.com as I like to take advantage of their “hot deals” and discounts throughout the year.

AirBnB:

Rented this entire apartment in Montreal from Airbnb for $70 a night!

Newer to the accommodations scene is a site called http://www.airbnb.com. It is a site that helps you find vacation rentals, private rooms and sublets in the city you are travelling to. You can even find a couch to sleep on if you wanted something real cheap. You don’t have to be an established bed and breakfast or hotel to rent your space out, so you can find some really interest and unique spaces.

This year, they implemented a number of great safety and security features for both hosts and guests, showing their commitment to what they do. For example, money is transferred through the airbnb site, and the host receives payment only after a successful stay.

On my second trip to Montreal last winter, I stayed at a private apartment suite (kitchen, living room, 2BR!) for just $70 a night! It was like I had my own place, it was really awesome. This is a very economical option if you are travelling with a few people and looking for a place where everyone can live together. Also it is a great way to find a home-away-from-home, allowing you to cook your own meals if you wanted to and go in and out as you please.

Priceline

One of my successful bids from “Name Your Own Price” on Priceline on another trip to Montreal. It was likely $50-60 a night, which is pretty sweet!

If you opt for a hotel, consider using http://www.priceline.com to find a hotel at a discounted rate. With the “Name Your Own Price” feature, you get a chance to bid on hotel rooms usually with 40-60% off the regular price. Similar to Hotwire, hotels stay anonymous until you successfully bid and buy it, so there is a bit of risk in that you don’t know exactly what you will get.

However you choose the general area it is located in, the star rating and how much you are willing to pay. Also http://www.betterbidding.com will give you a glimpse of successful bids in the same city/area from other users, so you can get an idea of what hotels are available for the bidding and what they paid for successful bids. If you aren’t too picky about the hotel specifics, this is a great way to get a deal on a room.

Rebecca Chan is a Toronto wedding planner and day of wedding coordinator providing sophisticated planning for the modern bride. Whether you need planning assistance or wedding day coordination, Rebecca can help you create your dream wedding day. Contact her today, she'd love to hear from you.