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One of our favorite way to WOW wedding guests is by the music. Music sets the mood and the overall atmosphere of the wedding. Music will determine whether or not your guests will mingle in the seating area or hit the dance floor. We love when couples play unexpected and unconventional music. Chances are, if you love the song, so will everyone else! Play a one hit wonder that was popular when you met. Play an old romantic song that your grandparents listened to. Play a top forty song to get the party going. Play a song in a different language just for fun!
A band hired to play soft jazz music during dinner is always impressive. At one Firefly Wedding we had Italian opera singers dressed as waiters. They unexpectedly started singing during dinner. They sang an old Italian folk song that the bride always heard from her grandfather as a little girl. The opera singers got a standing ovation as everyone was shocked and awed.
One of our favorite WOW factors is the excitement of dancing the night away with friends, family and of course your new husband or wife!
All About Engagements
Hello Calgary!
Tune in tomorrow, January 7, at 4 p.m. to catch the Firefly team on Shaw TV! The footage takes place at our new downtown office location on Macleod Trail. Gentlemen, if you are planning an engagement be sure to check us out. Groom expert, Simon Daykin, discusses how NOT to propose, how to make it successful and most importantly, how to make it a special event she’ll love to reminisce about. The proposal will be a story to tell the children, a fairytale to tell the girlfriends and a tale to tell the in-laws. Do it once and do it right… take it from wedding expert, Simon Daykin.
Did you think there was no such thing as a bad proposal? Think again! CEO of Firefly Occasions, Ciara Dakyin, will also discuss what makes a good, bad and horrible proposal!
Kendra Scott, our Wedding Division Manager, and soon bride to be, will tell the story of how she became engaged. Kendra will also be sharing some helpful advice.
Meet the Firefly team tomorrow at 4 p.m. on channel 10 and every hour afterwards.
1. Say something! Resorts won’t know it’s your honeymoon and won’t have time to prepare anything unless you tell them ahead of time. Benefits may include room upgrades, specials, champagne, and even chocolate covered strawberries.
*Note: Be sure to bring your wedding certificate or have a copy since many resorts need proof of marriage.
2. Wake up early. Wake up early one morning and watch the sunrise. Your honeymoon is all about doing things that are special and doing things that you don’t normally do.
3. Presents. Bring little gifts for your spouse that you can give whenever the moment arises. Anything from jewelry to a new CD will be extra special.
4. Breakfast in bed. Sleep in one morning and watch TV in bed. Indulge in your favorite breakfast such as strawberry cream waffles!
5. Walk in the moonlight. Take a walk together one night alone in the moonlight. Walk along the beach if you are going somewhere tropical. *Note: Ask you hotel where it is safe to go at night.
6. Get a couple’s massage. If this isn’t something you do on the regular, don’t be afraid to indulge and don’t worry about the cost…. after all, it is your honeymoon!
Firefly Occasions Inc. is an international event planning company specializing in Haute Couture Weddings and Luxurious Event Design. We have gained recognition nationwide winning awards such as the Wedding Industry of Canada’s Best Ceremony Décor. Firefly Occasions Inc. has been published in numerous bridal publications.
Learn from the best with internationally recognized Wedding Planning Coach, Ciara Daykin, as your CEO and mentor.
Firefly Occasions Inc. is now looking to fill our highly saught after winter 2011 internship positions within our
new downtown Calgary location. Winter internships with Firefly Occasions Inc. run from mid- January through April and are unpaid positions. This could be your chance at a new career with Calgary’s premiere wedding planning agency.
Please send your resume and cover letter to our Wedding Division Manager, Kendra Scott at
kendra@fireflyoccasions.com before 6:00 p.m. on Thursday January 6th 2011.
1. A pet ring bearer. Ensure your pet is well trained. Remember practice makes perfect.
* Be aware that trained pets that have practiced the role many times perfectly may feel scared or anxious on the day of the wedding. Be prepared to have a backup plan.
2. Have your pet carried down the aisle by a family member or bridal party member. Putting your pet in a little basket is an extra personal touch. This is an option for pets that aren’t well trained or that might spook on your wedding day.
3. Include your pet in wedding photos. Many pet stores now make little doggy tuxedos. Check out Carrie Underwood’s wedding to see how she trained her little Chihuahua to walk down the aisle in a jeweled tux.
4. Have an outdoor reception. Pets are free to run around and play at an outdoor wedding. *Note: It’s important to ensure that nobody at your wedding has an extreme allergy to your pet.
“How to always love your wedding! “
When your wedding is over it’s important to still love your wedding regardless of what other people are saying and doing for years to come.
Wedding décor, styles, and fashions will always change and more and more people will always get married.
When planning your wedding, make it personal and sentimental. You can do this and still have haute couture design. Don’t try to re-create a carbon copy of a friend’s wedding that was popular. Chose those tall tower vase centerpieces and hanging crystals because YOU love them and because they say something about your personality. Don’t choose them because they’re the signature style of 2011.
Choose wedding décor, a dress, menu items and an overall theme that speaks to you, as a couple. You won’t care if next years wedding theme is blue and silver while you chose orange and white at your wedding since orange represents the first day you and your husband met at the beach in Orange County years ago. Get the idea? Stay true to you and you will always love your wedding, as it will be dear to your heart for years to come.
Photo Credit: F8 Photography
“Remember You Once Loved Your Wedding”
Your wedding day is now but a wonderful memory of the best day of your life. You have all the photos and find yourself reminiscing over them before you fall asleep each night. Perhaps you were one of the first of your family or social group to walk down the aisle, so that means you will have many more wedding days to attend to, as a guest.
As the trends change and new ideas fly out of the box, it is a natural reaction to find yourself comparing and maybe even feeling a little jealous at all of the upcoming weddings you will attend and how they are so different (but not better) from yours.
But beautiful ladies, remember you picked everything for your wedding because it was YOUR wedding and you fell in love with all the ideas and the colors and the trends. Remember the feelings of awe and the complete high that you were on throughout your day as it was everything you could have dreamed of and more.
Instead of comparing your wedding to the others that you will attend (the good and the bad) and be courteous to the fact that there are so many factors that determine a wedding design and celebration such as budget and general taste. While you may be in awe of the wedding that you are attending after yours, engaging in negative comparison will only make you start to regret your wedding day and all the effort that you put into it.
It is easy to compare because you at one time thought that your wedding is the best of the best and that is completely true. Your wedding was a visual masterpiece of your ideas and that is all that matters. Your wedding was the one day that you got to do everything your way and you did it that way because it is truly what you wanted and felt, which is and always will be a priceless emotion.
Photo Credit: F8 Photography
“How to make the best of a bad situation so you can always love your wedding”
If you’ve listened to Ciara’s DIY Wedding Planning System you would have heard her tell a story about the horrible florist they hired for their wedding. Apparently the florist drove the whole way out to Banff without putting the flowers in water. It was a super hot day and the flowers were all completely wilting.
Most couples spend a lot of money on their flowers so it’s understandable that this would cause upset on the day of your wedding. The thing to remember is that the only thing that really matters on this day is that you are being married. You want to look back on the day with fond memories.
Ciara was able to see that and when her bridesmaids asked her if they could throw their bouquets away before the reception had even started, she told them to go down to the river and take the photographer with them so the photographer could capture them tossing their bouquets into the river. You have to admit, that’s not a photo that many brides would get to have.
As it turns out, that’s Ciara’s favourite wedding photo! So what began as a downfall to an amazing day was able to be turned into something that now will give her great pleasure for the rest of her life. Everytime she’s sees that photo she’ll always think about how much she loves it.
Photo Credit: www.fireflyoccasions.com
“What is Post Nuptial Depression?”
Postnuptial Depression is not uncommon. It is a feeling of “the blues” and let down in the months following your wedding day and the glitz and glamour of the wedding have settled and you and your new husband have re-entered your normal lives. Some brides find themselves obsessing and trying to re-live their wedding day that they will start letting their marriage suffer because they can’t step out of the “bride” and into the “wife”. Others might start to recognize that the expectations they had for one another post wedding are unrealistic which can lead to tension and regret. Realizing that there is actually a marriage after the wedding is very hard for some couples to grasp, as they get caught up in the planning of the wedding.
After the vows, to defeat the postnuptial blues you and your new hubby should take some time to wind down from the wedding day. Make sure you get adequate rest and exercise things always seem worse when you are exhausted. The key to a healthy relationship is communication so be sure to communicate constantly, especially if you have just moved in together after the wedding. Just because the wedding is over doesn’t mean that you have to enter into a boring marriage, in fact it is quite the opposite. Focus on the benefits of marriage, like having a built-in support system and start thinking about the future in terms of starting a family, building your dream home or taking that amazing vacation together. There are so many other important milestones in your life where you get to be the center of attention again, so look forward to those but for now, just enjoy being the new Mrs.
Photo Credit: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1861028,00.html
“Symptoms of postnuptial depression”
1. Depression: You feel beat down, lifeless and have a general negative outlook on your life. You don’t want to wake up in the morning. You think I’m married, now what? What is there to look forward to?
2. Exhaustion: After being stressed and living life at such a quick pace you feel like you are extremely exhausted even months after the wedding. You don’t feel as energetic as you once were.
3. Illness: When the adrenaline from the wedding leaves your body, it’s not uncommon to fall ill and get a cold or a viral infection.
4. Loss of interest in sex: You’re exhausted and just not in the mood.
5. Arguing: This is also not uncommon. Tying up lose strings from the wedding can cause some head butting.
6. Disappointment: You’ve been waiting for this day your entire life and now it’s over. You reflect back and think of anything you could have done differently.
After all the wedding commotion is complete you may still be feeling anxiety. Perhaps you haven’t been getting enough sleep, and taking care of yourself and the stressors in your life, you may still have an uncomfortable feeling. It is important to understand that there is someone to talk to if you are feeling some level of post nuptial depression. Speaking to your parents is generally a good start to opening up and finding out where these anxieties stem. However, they may also be coping with giving you away. There is always a professional who can help you understand these feelings and find a way to dissolve them.
Do not feel guilty or ashamed of these feelings as they are yours. Find a way to open up and get the helping hand you require.
Sometimes when the stresses of life and planning a wedding get to be overwhelming, a natural reaction might be to act less than the composed bride that you are when things don’t go according to plan. You might throw a temper tantrum or just be down right mean to one of your wedding vendors in hopes of trying to bully them into giving you what you want.
This is the best way to NOT get what you need for your wedding day. As bullying is becoming more and more socially recognized, so is a zero tolerance policy towards it. Often times, vendors will ask you to take your business elsewhere if working with you means taking the brunt of your negative emotions.
So how do you handle yourself when one of your wedding vendors is being difficult or unresponsive you ask? You act with grace and be completely professional and well mannered.
First think of how the situation with your vendor got off track. Was there a miscommunication, are there factors that are out of their control, are you not providing all of the proper information? Vendors are on your side for your wedding day and will always go above and beyond to help you.
However, if you believe that there is nothing justified for the way something has gone off track, the best way to handle it is to send an email or call the vendor and ask if there is something they need from you in order to do get you what you need. By approaching the situation and finding out first off if there has been a miscommunication somewhere, you avoid the unnecessary tantrum that could essentially make things worse and you still remain the graceful bride that you are!
Bridezilla is not a myth. With all the stress and worries of planning a wedding you can lose sight of your cool and collected self. This hectic atmosphere wears away at your friendly and generous nature, leaving your partner as the prime target to unleash stress. Picking on your partner can fracture this otherwise happy time. To banter less with your partner it is important to delegate responsibility so you are less stressed.
Take time away from planning your wedding to spend time with your loved one. Go out to dinner, go to the spa, visit friends and family to discuss topics other than your wedding. When you can relax and give some responsibilities to those around you, you can avoid taking out frustration on your partner. If you have hired a wedding planner they can help keep your worries at bay so you can celebrate with your loved ones the proper way.
Wedding invitations are actually quite formal and do have very specific rules around how best to word the invite. For example, who is hosting the wedding, is it yourself and your fiancé or is it your parents?
If it’s your parents, many people believe that the invite should say “Mr. and Mrs. Jones invite you to celebrate in the marriage of their daughter Melissa Jones to David Morris, son of…” If you are the host you could say “Melissa Jones and David Morris invite you to celebrate with them…” there are numerous options. What if your parents are divorced, what if one has passed away.
We encourage you to meet with a stationer to discuss all of the options for your custom invitations. They will normally have all of your wording options available for you to browse through while you’re discussing style and colour as well. If you’re from Calgary, take a look at www.glimpz.ca or www.crackleinvitations.com
Seating your guests does not have to be with a boring paper tent and block letter names. Have fun with seating your guests. Table numbers or names can hang from your centerpiece, be floating in glass bowls, or be a photo of you and your newlywed holding their table number.
Instead of your table number or name sitting in a card holder, paste it on a wine bottle with flowers pouring out. Make the table setting playful. If you choose to seat every guest specifically around the table, you can put personal photos on their plate. Choose a fun photo that can become a conversation piece. Such as baby photos or your guests in costume so the other guests have a fun icebreaker to meet those who will be seated with them. For a more elegant choice, have their wine glass engraved with their name. This is a great wedding favor as well. Seating your guests with flare is the perfect welcome to your special day.
