Getting hitched without a hitch …

By Jenn Heighington

Bringing your work home with you. This is my reality as of late. While my 9-5 (or 6 or 7 or 11 …) is planning events for others and making sure their evens go off without a hitch, I don’t often find myself doing anything of the sort during my personal time, until July of this year when I was asked to plan the most special event ever, my wedding. So when the newly engaged cloud of romantic dust settled, it was time to get down to business.

The first task was to ward off all the suggestion from family and friends that we needed to hire a wedding planner. Although YellowHouse focuses on corporate events and brand marketing, a wedding has many of the same elements of a major event series for any brand or business out there. So no need for a planner, I’m more than up to the task.

You can’t really plan a wedding, or any event for that matter until you have a venue, and now I put on my venue sourcing hat, google a few key phrases, read specs and peruse floor plans and galleries, make a few calls, do site visits and talk shop with the Catering Managers and voila! Venue = date = largest item checked off event planning list.

What might have seemed like the most daunting task for an event planner/bride-to-be, was the easiest for me. I knew what kind of questions to ask, what to look for at the venue (i.e, scary washrooms and frilly table linens) and how to negotiate a contract to make sure we were getting exactly what we wanted, which are all skills I’ve acquired in my time at YellowHouse.

Since booking our venue and locking down our date, we’re now focusing on making sure everyone else does too, we’re ready for our Save The Date! Another skill that’s ever-useful in the event industry is graphic design, and if I’m not designing an invitation for an upcoming YellowHouse event, I’m putting my skills to use by creating our Save The Dates and eventually, our invitations. I am lucky enough to have worked with some wonderful printers and will be saving major bucks by designing and printing these myself.

With my “event” just under a year away, I look forward to the coming months of choosing flowers, décor, tasting menus, picking party favours and wines to be served.

I don’t usually get to pick out a beautiful dress and shoes for my clients, so perhaps that is the part I look forward to most.

Just like all YellowHouse events, I expect getting hitched to go off without a hitch.