Lucky Girl Photography
We did this post for Tina Wiebe Photography and thought there was some great stuff in there we should share with you here on our blog too!
About Amanda Douglas Events:
With years of experience in events, hospitality, and landscape and decor design, Amanda Douglas Events is a combination of my experience and love for all things elegant, unique, and beautiful.
I am a certified WPIC planner/coordinator and have diplomas from the University of Winnipeg in public relations, marketing and project management. I also was lucky enough to do a creative events internship filled with planning and coordinating fashion shows, products, and weekly and monthly events.
Bringing my creative and organizational strengths together as well as my passion for great and beautiful events, I founded Amanda Douglas Events (formerly Lace and Lavender).
With Amanda Douglas Events you’ll have the experience and expertise of a professional planner and stylist at your disposal to help you put together your event and take away the stress and pressure, leaving you with only enjoyment and a wonderful memory of your day!
Moore Photography
Why do you love what you do?
I love event planning because I love to see my couples or clients get what they want. Planning an event can be overwhelming but if I can bring it together for them, bring together those visions and dreams they have in their mind and make it a reality in their event, that is the best feeling!
Why is it important to have a wedding planning or coordinator for your wedding?
Of course we believe that everyone should at the very least have a Wedding Day Coordinator. If you think about it, after spending thousands of dollars planning your day, and making it exactly what you want to only have no one there to make sure it all happens? That would be horrible! For our clients, we take off that pressure, we take on every detail, no matter how small, and make it happens for them. The stressful or tiring part should be the planning (unless we’re helping you with that too!). The wedding day is all about fun, love and enjoying themselves, their friends and family! That is where we come in. We take all that planning and are the go to person. We make sure it all happens and that no one is asking the couple anything other then where they got their dress, suit, wedding bands or telling them how beautiful everything is.
What are some tips on hiring a planning and working with one?
One thing to remember is they are there to make things happen for you and to have fun with you in the process. Planning with our clients is what we love. That’s why we do it! We’re so honoured to get to be a part of their day in this way.
We always start with a meeting to break it all down and hear exactly what they want. When working with a planner make sure you’re honest with your exceptions and what you want out of your day. No dream is too big. Be honest with your budget, what you want, and your planner will tell you if you’re living in a dream, or if you’d have to increase your budget to get what you want, or they’ll help you with creative ways to make things happen.
When hiring a planner don’t just take the pricing and compare. There are people that plan weddings on the weekend or here and there. Then there are professional planners, like us, that do this every day, as our jobs, passions and professions. Planning events is what we live, eat, breathe and sleep. It’s important that you know who you are hiring. When someone is a lesser price there’s always a reason. It could be because they have less experience or aren’t offering you the same services. Always consider the quality for money but most importantly you should like them! If you don’t think it will be fun, or you’re not excited to be working with them they’re probably not a good fit for you.
Photos by Krista
Some final thoughts on starting the planning process?
Start with your budget! ALWAYS start with your budget. Don’t book a thing until you’ve sat down with your family, groom, or anyone else that is contributing to your wedding and get a clear idea of what you have to work with. One of the biggest stresses that couples run into is running out of money because they started spending before they knew how much they had to spend.
Secondly, meet with and book your Wedding Planner! Even before your venue! When we book a client the first thing we do is create a complete budget with them (or go over what they already have and make sure it’s all accurate and realistic). We talk through everything and come up with a plan to work with their budget and get them everything they can within in that.
If your planning your wedding we’d love to hear from you! We’re still open for dates in 2014 and are now expecting bookings for 2015!
Happy Planning!
