Starfish Fall Wedding Workshop

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting at the Fall Wedding Workshop hosted by Starfish Weddings. The event was held at Dominique Levesque Bridal Salon here in Ottawa and it was so much fun. The idea was to provide hands-on learning from professional from the wedding industry to help couples maximize all the personal touches for invitations, photography, video, entertainment, cakes, flowers, centerpieces, decor … well pretty much everything wedding!!

Party Time Rentals provided furniture for the evening and the various vendors pitched in with presentations, displays and activities for the couples while Starfish brought delicious goodies including Barefoot Bubbly.

Alongside the snack food for the evening were these truly delicious cupcakes from Sweet Clementines. I resisted them until after my own presentation, but after I was done I got to enjoy one of these mouthwatering treats!

Before the presentations got underway, everyone was able to chat about wedding services and of course, browse all the amazing dresses at the salon. There were so many dresses it was hard to keep my focus on the evening as all I really wanted to do was start trying them on!!

Flashpoint Photobooth had their booth setup for everyone to enjoy and everyone had a blast playing with the props and getting their photo strips!

Details Ottawa had a gorgeous table setup with an amazing gold theme. I loved it!!
And as an added bonus, Flowers Talk had provided a simply stunning bouquet that later was given to a lucky future bride as a door prize!

The workshop included several presentations from various vendors who went over a bit about their businesses, but more importantly tips and tricks to getting the most from their specialty for your wedding day.

Brian from Quality Entertainment let the couples know about the various levels of service you can get for your dj’ing needs during both your ceremony and reception.

Dominique Levesque Bridal Boutique was not only the venue for the evening, but Dominique herself gave the couples some tips for how and when to get their dresses including the optimal time to order your dress.

Aaron Rodericks Photography and Video gave so many amazing tips about videography for your wedding day. He outlined the different levels of videography available and also outlined the importance of ensuring that the videographer and photographer work hand in hand to get you the best coverage possible. This is something I completely agree!!

Next up was us at Stephanie Beach Photography and I was super nervous. I am not a very good presenter and am more used to being on the sidelines (taking photos of course). My presentation was all about maximizing your photographer’s time with you on your wedding day. I walked the couples through the difference between a First Look and Traditional timeline, tips on what to include in your timeline so your day doesn’t get delayed and so you don’t lose valuable portrait time, and of course, a few highlights from our coverage to date including images from Teri + Greg wedding and Sarah + Anders wedding.

Details not only had that gorgeous spread shown earlier in the post, but they also talked to the couples about adding those little extra touches to your venue. They reminded the couples that even if they have selected a beautiful venue, they should consider adding some extra decor to truly make it the venue gorgeous and unique to them and their wedding.

The last presenter was Samantha from Starfish Weddings. She had been our MC all night and at the end of the presentations she walked the couples through so many amazing tips and tricks for planning your wedding!!

After all of the presentations had been made, some lovely models showed us some of Dominique’s gorgeous dresses! Dominique showed everyone the fine details in the dresses and in the case of my favourite dress, the many, many layers (one that included sparkly sequins!!). I then had a blast shooting a few details of the dresses before the night was through.

Every couple who attended the workshop walked away with a lovely swag bag full of items from all the different vendors. We snagged one to be able to take some shots of the goodies and boy did the couples really get some good stuff including a copy of Ottawa Wedding Magazine, Be Healthy Be Beautiful Magazine, discounts to vendors, a disc of music from Quality Entertainment, a delicious cookie from Sweet Clementines (yummy!), and of course, tons of info cards and contact names for the various vendors participating.

And since this is a post by me, here is an extra couple of photos of our swag bag item. The new About Us cards went so well with our business cards – and as an added bonus, we made delicious sugar cookies with pink icing of course.