By Simon Daykin

What a crazy few weeks, sorry I missed last week’s ezine. I have been travelling my ass off but I’m back now. Last week I was speaking to a group of wedding planners at the Wedding Institute of Canada’s annual conference in beautiful Turks & Caicos. I can tell you it was AMAZING! I spoke on the subject of Décor and Design and how to get an amazing look and atmosphere at the weddings they plan. The week before that, we attended the Association of Bridal Consultants conference in Indianapolis where my wife spoke to 250 planners. So many airports…so many crying babies on planes, but we do what we must right.

We’re back in Canada now, putting the final touches on a huge New Years Eve wedding, this wedding is gonna be so cool, we’re making it snow in a ballroom at midnight. We’re also taking bookings for 2010, so if you’re currently engaged or looking to get engaged over the holidays and you want to reduce the stress of the planning on both you and your wonderful wife to be…just click here and we’ll make it all better.

By Ciara Daykin

I had the pleasure of sharing my story with 300 wedding planners this past week at the Fall in Love with Indy Association of Bridal Consultants conference.

Tonya Shadoan, a member of my elite mastermind group for wedding planners did such a great job of designing the enchanted woodland lunch (complete with a scent machine!) that I spoke at. The atmosphere and the energy of everyone in the room were absolutely amazing!

I just wanted to share these pictures with you quickly, as I am off to Turks and Caicos in less than 24 hours for another speaking engagement. Hope you enjoy!

It’s been a crazy week here for me, my wife is off in sunny Los Angeles supervising an event we planned and I am stuck here in the cold and snow. Oh well, she returns just in time for Thanksgiving dinner tonight so I’m looking forward to seeing her again. This is the longest we have been apart since we got married. OK, enough sappy stuff. We had a great Bridal Expo a couple of weeks ago and now I’m fielding so many emails from people wanting to book our services for planning their weddings. Seriously, I haven’t worked this hard in months. So if you’re on the fence about hiring a kick ass planner, get off that fence and come hang out in my yard…no frilly pink wedding for you my friend…I GOT YOUR BACK!!!

Cheers,

Simon

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By Simon Daykin

It’s been a wild and crazy few weeks for us. In the last month we have done 5 weddings and we still have quite a few more to go before the year is over. We just booked a great couple who are getting married on New Year’s Eve and I’m really looking forward to that one.

A couple of days ago I packed up my tote of tricks and headed into the City TV studios to chat on Breakfast Television about the “Mighty Man Shower”. I wrote an article about this a few months back and people are really getting into it. So at 7:30am I outlined a few key points and showed off some cool stuff that would make any Man Shower a BLAST!

I don’t have the dedicated link but you can find the clip here: Simon chats about the Man Shower on Breakfast TV. Just scroll along the video clips until you find me.

I’m home from Grand Cayman after an amazing experience at Engage’09, a luxury wedding business summit. I met so many amazing people like Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings, Randy Fenoli the Fashion Director of Kleinfelds, the cake artist to the stars Sylvia Weinstock, Abby Larson blogger extraordinaire of StyleMePretty.com and so many more. It was truly an honor to be with the crème de la crème of the wedding industry and to be the only Western Canadian company represented and one of only 2 Canadian companies in attendance.

But as you’ll see below… We’ve expanded! We’ve opened an office in Beverly Hills, California and we are taking on clients in the Los Angeles area. I’ve been getting requests for a long time to do weddings and events outside of Calgary and with our new LA office this is a reality. Having our LA Division Manager, Annette Hoegner on the ground in LA to scope out the wedding scene for me has been invaluable. She’s awesome! In her first week she even went to the Young Hollywood Awards. We’re having a launch party in LA in September and I’m super excited and of course I’ll share all the details with you first.

Simon and I have really enjoyed being away together (we worked in a little Seadooing and snorkeling in Cayman) and we came up with some great ideas together. The fact is, that we plan our client’s weddings together. The different energy we both bring to the table makes our clients unlike any other wedding. They are truly special and a work of art. That’s why we’re really stepping up to bring that energy to all brides and grooms planning their wedding through our newly redesigned SheAndHePlanWeddings.com blog. Our blog brings you the she said, he said perspective on weddings. And like you and your groom, we don’t always agree. So make sure you check it out with your groom because our motto is… “Plan it Together.”

We just completed an amazing Midsummer Night’s Dream wedding at the Calgary Fairmont Palliser this weekend and it was amazing. The bride was overwhelmed by the transformation of the room and she and her groom had a fantastic night. I’m so glad. On the other side of town, another bride and groom had a fantastic day as well. We helped grant a wish to a lucky couple through Vibe 98.5FM in Calgary. This couple had been living in a shelter with their 4 kids and they had recently gotten engaged. A letter had been sent into the radio station about them and I helped grant their wish for an amazing wedding day. I rallied the Calgary wedding industry and they totally came through with much generosity and love. I want to thank everyone who helped put together this wedding by acknowledging them here:

Linens & Rentals: Great Event Rentals- Whenever I need cool rental items, great linens or a fab tent, I call on Great Event Rentals. Monica and her team there rock and they have been so generous with their assistance with this wedding.

Bridal Flowers: Mandala Floral- Mallory is a true artist. She always wows my clients with ideas and did she ever wow this couple. When the bride saw her bouquet she was floored.

Photographer: Cory Tomlinson Photography- The power of Twitter was proven when I tweeted about this wedding and Cory tweeted back saying he would do it. He gave the couple a day in the limelight that they will never forget, even producing a print of the couple in time for the reception (and providing us with the picture aove!) His photos are great and his heart is big!

Dress: Beautiful Bride- Simone is the owner of Beautiful Bride and she’s an angel on earth. I looked high and low for a wedding dress for our bride with no luck and Simone came in during her vacation to donate a wedding dress to this cause. She really came through and is an asset to all brides looking for their wedding gown.

Tux: Bridal Centre- Peter and the team at the Bridal Centre are great friends. We refer all our grooms into their expert hands. Our groom for this wedding said that he felt like James Bond in his tux and that truly touched my heart.

Caterer: Savour Food- Carla and her husband at Savour Food didn’t have to be asked twice when I told her about this couple in need. They jumped at the chance to help. She is such a sweetheart and a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen! She made so many delicious items and they looked too good to eat (but of course, I ate, and ooooohhhh it was good!)

DJ: Prism Sound- Cam has been with us since the beginning and we adore him. Simon and I hired Cam to DJ our wedding and he has been a staple at our functions ever since. I can tell you how great Cam is by telling you what he’s not- a cheeseball, a DJ that likes to hear himself talk, a DJ that doesn’t read the crowd- Cam is always the utmost professional and I can always trust him to play what the crowd wants and have them chanting for more (seriously, that happened at one of our weddings with him “One More Song, One More Song”).

Hair/ Makeup: Pink Lime Salon- Bassem and his team at Pink Lime Salon are the type of people that you just want to put in your purse and take everywhere with you. They are so kind and generous and just make you feel like a queen, and I know that they did that for our bride on her wedding day. It was an experience that she’d never had before and they made both her and her young daughters feel like royalty when they did their hair and makeup.

And I have to give a shout out to Colleen at Central United Church who’s always a friend to brides and wedding planners and Marlene at the Albert Park Community Center who made us feel so welcome. To Jennifer at Inn from the Cold who wrote the letter to Vibe 98.5FM. To Dani and the whole morning crew at Vibe 98.5FM- thanks for thinking of us to be involved. And to our wonderful bride and groom, Edna and Kevin and their 4 kids… Thank you for having us be a part of this magical day with you. We’re so happy that you had the wedding of your dreams.

Sorry I have been MIA for awhile, I know I didn’t get an E-zine out last issue…I’m sure you all couldn’t sleep because of it. It has been a bittersweet few weeks around here. We had a great time in Cayman for the Engage 09 Summit, I met a ton of great people and got so many new ideas I’m looking forward to bringing to both my Grooms and their Brides, truly an amazing experience, can’t wait to see what island it’s on next year!

Sadly the following week I had to make an impromptu visit to Toronto to see my Grandmother, she has been sick for awhile (she was 92) and the doctors had told us it was nearing the end. I got back, spent 4 days with her and we said our goodbyes. I came home and the following week she passed away quietly with my mother and sister at her side (The 3 generations…as my mum called it). I am now heading back to Toronto to attend the funeral. Having my Grandmother be a part of my wedding was very special to me and I have all the photos from that day to remember her by, plus much, much more.

Also last weekend we had our Midsummer Night’s Dream wedding, I can tell you it was simply stunning, the Bride broke into tears when we showed her the space for the first time…yup, real tears! We really out did ourselves on this one, from the crystal backdrop behind the head table to the 8’ fountain in the center of the dance floor…this really was one of my favorite wedding designs.