Review of 2015 & Our Goals for 2016
We had an amazing 2015. We have stated numerous times that we are so grateful to our family, friends and clients for simply being the best! We managed to get off to a running start and learned a ton along the way! We love sharing our successes and teachable moments with you. In that spirit, we wanted to share our 2015 social media statistics and our goals for 2016!
2015 Social Media Statistics
We made huge leaps and bounds with our social media in 2015!
Michelle created this beautiful graphic that outlines our areas of achievement. For example we had over 13K views on our website – which is awesome! We recently relaunched the site, so we’re very excited to see what these numbers look like next year! We also saw a huge increase in our Pinterest following and activity levels. Are you seeing this?? Almost 250,000 views on our pins! Love!
The coolest item? One of our Instagram posts went viral when the official Christian Louboutin Instagram page liked and commented on it!
We also saw areas where we could improve. For example, we only posted 43 blog posts for 2015. We also want to see more returning visitors to our website. We did a fab coaching session with Krista of KJ&Co and learned a whole lot that helped us improve our website a lot!
Now that we are well into 2016, the Whimlets have brainstormed and come up with goals for 2016. We each considered what we would like to accomplish for the year, and to stay accountable, we wanted to share these goals with you. Without further ado, I present to you our…
Goals for 2016! *Cue the Fanfare!*
Alisha
As a team, we accomplished a lot in 2015. Sometimes I forget that our journey began only a few short years ago. We looked at 2015 as the year that we made a name for ourselves in the Toronto events industry. I think we hit the mark and forged a ton of great new relationships. I’d like to see more of that in 2016!
One of my personal goals for 2016 is to create a stronger awareness for our company with venues that align with our brand. I will accomplish this in 2016 by conducting 1 (one) site visit at a new venue per month and writing a blog post on the experience.
Michelle
My personal goal for this year is to create a bigger presence for our Wedding Stationery sub-brand – RSVP by Whim. In order to accomplish this, I will create its own entity within our Whim website as well as build the brand using social media. Across all social media platforms, RSVP by Whim will always link back to the main website.
Lastly.. We have an office!
Yessss we do! This past week we moved into our first ever office! We achieved one of our goals for 2016 really early and we are so excited to invite you all to come visit us! While we aren’t totally finished decorating, we are already meeting new (and existing) clients at our office. We’re located at 8611 Weston Road, unit 28, Vaughan Ontario – the major intersection is Weston and Langstaff. Here’s a sneak peek of part of the space. Want to see more? Come visit :).
Sneak peek of our office space!
We are so thrilled to be able to serve you better, and to have a space that allows us to be productive and creative!
If you made it through this list… thank you!
Whew, it feels good to get that out in the open. We plan to be as open and honest about this journey as we can possibly be. In fact, we’d love it if you called us out on not meeting our goals! We want to be the best version of ourselves so that we can serve our clients better! Here’s to a productive and fulfilling 2016!
Events by Whim is a team of the best wedding planners in Toronto, and we’re ready to help you plan your dream day! Get in touch with us today!
- Published in 2016, Wedding Planning, Wedding TIps
Bridal Party Duties – Toronto Wedding Planner
Bridal Party Duties
What the heck is everyone supposed to do?!
You chose your bridesmaids and groomsmen because they’re the ones you love most, and you want to be surrounded by good vibes and positive people on your wedding day. Although they’ll help you have the most amazing wedding day full of memories you’ll never forget, they also have certain duties they need to fulfill. Here are a few key bridal party duties we think that they should handle:
Make sure the bride AND groom make it to the wedding in one piece.
There are a million and one things that can go wrong on the day of your wedding, but none of those things matter as long as both you and your significant other make it down the aisle and live out your happily ever after. Cold feet, flat tires, hysterical family members, and wardrobe malfunctions are all crises that can be diffused by your loving bridal party. You can choose to prep them before the big day with all of the emergency phone numbers and materials they may need, so that they can take care of all the minor calamities themselves.
Throw the bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Let’s be real, you and your spouse to be haven’t been ‘single’ since you met, but you can both still enjoy your respective parties. Take this chance to go out and really appreciate the friends who have been there for all the upsand downs, and who’ll continue to support you. Let your bridal party spoil you and take care of you on your bachelor or bachelorette party- let free, relax, and enjoy yourself before the big day!
Host the bridal shower.
This job is typically left up to the bridesmaids, but the groomsmen can definitely be enlisted to help with the bridal shower as well! There’s a lot that goes into planning a shower- decor, venue, food, favors, games, and more. This is an important event that requires a copious amount of care and attention to detail- it’s where you’ll get (almost) everything you need to start your new life with your husband or wife to be!
Go to dress fittings with the bride.
Bridesmaids, the most important thing you can do at your bride’s dress fitting is learn how to properly bustle her dress! You know what they say: a dress is only as beautiful as its bustle. Well, they don’t say that… but they should. Many brides will only let their train bask in its full glory during the ceremony, and will spend the majority of their reception with their dress bustled. Since you’ll be wearing your bustle for a while, it’ll likely be in pictures- and you don’t want to be looking at a lopsided bustle in your wedding pictures 30 years from now.
Help with the details.
Tying and curling ribbons on 250 wedding favours is a tedious task, but your bridal party should be prepared to do just that. It’s important that they lend a helping hand to you with all of the little details- you have a ton going on as it is, and we’re sure any help is appreciated. After all, they are your maids and men, they should be doing all they can to make your life easier!
These are just some general guidelines of what your bridal party should be handling throughout your wedding planning process. Don’t be afraid to enlist them to some heavy lifting- they’re honored enough to be an integral part of your big day, and they should help make it come to life!
- Published in 2015, Trends, Uncategorized, Wedding, Wedding TIps
Wedding Planner vs On-Site Coordinator
By Tarisha Beniprashad
Wedding Planner vs On-Site Coordinator?!
What’s the difference? Do I need both? What do they do?!
The wedding planner vs on-site coordinator debate is a pretty popular one in the wedding industry, but to be honest, we don’t think it should be a debate at all. The roles of a wedding planner and the duties of an on-site coordinator are completely different- each position has its own merits. If you’re unsure of your stance in this debate, we’ve got you covered- we’ll tell you all there is to know about wedding planners vs on-site coordinators!
Wedding planners:
That’s us! Wedding planners are independent planners that you can hire to help you coordinate all of the little details of your wedding day, and even the days leading up to it. We help you plan everything from the invitations to flowers to caterers to transportation, and pretty much everything in between.
Alisha & Michelle coordinating a styled shoot. Photography by Thomas Zitnansky Photography.
We’re with you on the day of your wedding from the beginning right until the end to ensure that everything runs smoothly from the morning of the wedding to the end of the reception. We aim to build both professional and personal relationships with our clients and really get to know them during their wedding planning journey so that we can do our best to make sure we plan a day they can’t forget, and have a little fun along the way!
On-site Coordinators:
These guys are usually employed by the venue of your wedding or reception, and don’t typically work with you on details outside of that. They’re the ones you meet to sign contracts and go over food and beverage choices, and pretty much anything else that’s going on at the venue. Their main job is to ensure that the festivities run in a smooth and timely manner, and that all of their services are delivered flawlessly. They may also suggest some vendors to you that they’ve worked with in the past, but that isn’t necessarily a part of their job description. You can depend on these guys to be present during your time at the venue, but they’ll likely leave before dinner is over and turn things over to the Banquet Manager, who will supervise things until the party is over.
So now that you know the specific roles of a Wedding Planner vs On-Site Coordinator, we’re sure that you can understand where we’re coming from when we say this shouldn’t be a debate in the first place. These positions cater to different needs, and generate the best results when they work together. If you’re trying to decide between a wedding planner vs on-site coordinator, here’s our advice: why not both? These two can work together to ensure your day goes off without a hitch, and will actually make each other’s jobs a whole lot easier. With a wedding planner you get someone to guide you through the entire planning process from start to finish and manage your vendors, and your on-site coordinator will take care of all the logistics relatingto the venue on the day of. Their jobs are equally important, and you’re guaranteed to have the day you’ve been dreaming of with both of them working together to make your vision a reality!
Whim Event Coordination and Design is a team of Toronto wedding planners who service the GTA and beyond. Leave a comment below and let us know what your thoughts are on the wedding planner vs on-site coordinator debate, and contact us today so we can help you get started on your wedding planning!
- Published in 2015, Wedding TIps
Why Hire a Wedding Planner?
Today on the blog I want to address a common question:
Why hire a wedding planner?
I’ve had many brides and grooms tell me that they don’t need my services because they have a (insert friend, relative, co-worker, etc) who can handle their wedding planning for free, or that they consider wedding planning/coordinating to be an unnecessary expense. While I do not doubt that friends and family have the best of intentions with regards to assisting with wedding planning, even the best laid plans can fall by the wayside on the road to your big day. Let’s discuss three reasons to hire a certified wedding planner.
I say certified because the wedding industry is largely unregulated, and hiring an uncertified wedding planner is risky because essentially anyone can masquerade as a wedding professional. Insisting on hiring a certified planner creates a safeguard for the investment you have made into your big day. For example, Whim Event Coordination and Design is certified through the Wedding Planners institute of Canada, and as such we are governed by a strict Code of Ethics. A certified wedding planner will offer you expertise, convenience and value.
1) Expertise
A certified wedding planner brings many skills to the table. For example, Michelle and I have an intricate network of vendors who know their way around most venues in the GTA. These are consummate professionals who are dedicated to customer service and creating a magical day for our brides and grooms. Since wedding planning is our passion, we are careful to create lasting relationships with other vendors who are just as passionate about weddings.
A good planner will have the skills to avoid (and if required, artfully fix) most wedding-day disasters. By employing a wedding planner at the onset of your planning, you will avoid a world of headaches on your wedding day itself. Your planner will know the vision of your wedding day, will be intimately familiar with your venue, and will have met and communicated with all of your vendors. Your planner will assist in creating your wedding day timeline, and will have a detailed list of your vendors and their set up times. Michelle and I usually act as a buffer between the vendors and the bride and groom on the wedding day, so that our couples can sit back and enjoy their day, and the vendors still have a point person to work with to ensure that everything flows smoothly.
An expert planner also has a fully stocked wedding day emergency kit and knows how to use it! A knowledgeable planner knows how to get red wine out of your white dress, how to quickly sew on a missing button, will have extra hairspray to fix your hair, knows how to repair a run in your pantyhose, and probably even has double sided tape to ward off any wardrobe malfunctions. Michelle and I always carry a huge emergency kit that has everything from safety pins, backdrop pins, snacks to keep the bridal party alive during photo sessions, lint brushes for the groomsmen’s suits, and even sanitary napkins in case of an ill-timed monthly visitor!
2) Convenience
Probably the most common reason that Michelle and I get contacted for wedding planning services is the convenience that we provide to our couples and their families. Since we are so well connected in the events industry, we are easily able to provide our couples with recommendations for almost every type of vendor to suit the theme and feel of the event. If we don’t have a particular vendor recommendation, we are always able to reach out to our WPIC network to find a great vendor who is backed by other planners who had positive experiences using them.
The average wedding takes over 250 hours to plan, and that is time that most couples do not have to spare to comb through every vendor in the pool of thousands that exist in the GTA. By partnering with Whim Event Coordination and Design, you are afforded t
he luxury of time – time that you can use to enjoy the fun aspects of wedding planning, like dress fittings, cake tastings and being pampered!
3) Value
We often have couples tell us that they feel as though they cannot afford a wedding planner because of a tight budget. While expertise and convenience ultimately save you time, which is, of course, valuable, a qualified wedding planner can save you actual money. We are the advocates of our clients and we represent their interests with every interaction with other vendors. We also spend a lot of time ensuring that your budget is followed so that you do not break the bank on your event.
I also mentioned that Events by Whim is WPIC-certified, and as a result, we adhere to a strict code of ethics. A key aspect of this is that we do not accept kickbacks. What I mean is that if a vendor offers us an incentive to refer our clients to them, we pass on any savings or perks that we receive directly to our clients. The reason for this is simple – when you sign a contract with us, you are our client and we are working for you, not for anyone else, therefore we do not accept payment from any vendor for referring them to our clients.
Many vendors offer kickbacks to incentivize their services, but a WPIC-certified wedding planner recognizes that vendors are only referred based on their merit, not based on any perks they may offer us. We have many vendors who are more than happy to offer discounts to our clients simply because of the relationship that we have built with them. Since we work for you, we are always very excited to pass along these perks to you! After all, it in our best interest for you to have the best wedding experience possible!
After spending so much money and time dreaming and planning for your big day, it would be a terrible shame to see those efforts wasted because there wasn’t an extra set of hands and eyes dedicated to making sure that all of the details were in place. At this point you have spent a lot of money to have a wonderful event for yourself, your family and your friends, so doesn’t it make sense to take precautions to protect that investment? As certified wedding planners, we are like insurance for your wedding; we make sure that your wedding runs beautifully and you get a top return on your investment!
Thanks for reading!
- Published in Budget