How to choose a banquet hall:The most important thing before you start looking for a banquet hall is to set a date for your wedding. Even if you found your dream place, you can’t book it without knowing which date you want to book it for.

Price: This should be your biggest consideration in picking a banquet hall since price of the banquet hall makes up the biggest % of your wedding budget. So how I determined what my budget would be per person is that I took the total $ amount I want to spend on reception/banquet hall and divide by the # of people I plan to invite to the wedding. This would give me the maximum $ amount I could spend on 1 person in order to invite the number of people I want and also keep it within my budget.

Menu: What type of food do you want to serve at your reception? Italian, Greek, Chinese, or Indian? Does the banquet hall give you a wide selection of cuisines to choose from?

Location and size: Is the banquet hall large enough to accommodate all your guests? Or is it too big for the number of people you want to invite and looks empty and lonely? (Source: Squidoo.com)

Banquet Halls in Toronto and Greater Toronto Area

How to choose a Wedding Cake: It’s best to start considering what you would like soon after you’ve chosen your reception site and the style of your wedding. It may help to look at photographs in magazines and books or online for inspiration. Think about the look and the flavor you desire to help narrow your focus. Have you always wanted a pristine white cake? Or maybe you love strawberry filling. The ideas you find may help you come up with creative ways to incorporate your favorites so they fit your wedding. (Source: Martha Stewart Wedding)

Design: The cake’s design should match the aesthetic of the day. A formal wedding generally calls for a structured, multitier cake; it can be elaborately or simply decorated, so long as its style implies something ceremonial and grand. These cakes are often round, but square or even hexagonal shapes are more unexpected — and the tiers can be stacked for a solid look or set on pillars for an airy grace. White is the classic color for a wedding cake, but chocolate and tinted frostings can be just as elegant.

Flavor: As for the flavor of the cake, often the layers are white or yellow cake, but there’s no reason they can’t be chocolate, lemon, carrot, or hazelnut, to name a few. You can also tailor the cake to the rest of the meal; for example, a Mediterranean-themed dinner might inspire an orange-flavored cake, while an Asian feast could end with a cake featuring ginger. The fillings are another way to bring in more flavor. In addition to buttercream or other frostings, you can select jam, lemon curd, fruit purees, whipped cream, or chocolate fudge to complement the cake. (Source: Martha Stewart Weddings)

How to choose a decorator: It is important to take into careful consideration who you choose to work with, as they must be able to bring to life the idealistic picture you’ve always envisioned for your wedding day.

Research: Establish the style or feel of your wedding before the meeting. Gather images of floral decorations that appeal to you from websites, bridal magazines and wedding planning books. Include a fabric swatch of your bridesmaids’ dresses and a photo of your wedding dress.

Location: : Pick your decorations based on your location. For an indoor ceremony you may have to look at candles, flowers and pew decorations, while for an outdoor ceremony you may have to look more at arbors, paper lanterns, plants and aisle runners. Look around and use the atmosphere surrounding you to help choose your decor.

Rentals: : Rent items from a specialty store catering to weddings and parties. Items like tables and chairs, linens and even table decorations are all great to rent rather than purchase. Often the venue where you choose to hold your wedding may have closets full of decorations you can use for no additional cost.

Wedding Decorators in Toronto and Greater Toronto Area

How to choose a DJ: A great wedding DJ can make a reception, while a bad or poorly prepared disc jockey will break it. A good wedding DJ will be able to read the room, have everyone up and dancing and, ultimately ensure everyone has a great time. On the other hand, a bad wedding DJ can kill the mood of even the most party-ready reception crowd.

Use referrals: As with any other wedding professional, ask people you know and trust for recommendations. Your best bet is to go with a DJ a friend or family member has seen in action, rather than someone’s cousin who “DJs.”

Consider your budget: Some DJs are pretty expensive, while some are actually relatively cheap. It’s probably not a good idea to go with either extreme. Make sure you stick to your budget.

Experience: The bottom line in deciding on your DJ, and the single most determining factor, should be experience, experience, experience. You should always opt for the DJ with the most experience – specifically wedding reception experience – that you can find.

DJs in Toronto and Greater Toronto Area

How to choose your wedding dress: The most important aspect of choosing a perfect wedding gown is to look in the mirror, get flutters in your stomach and jump up and down for joy because you absolutely love it!

Decide on a silhouette: Wedding dresses are made in several different silhouettes. Before considering anything else, know which type of gown will flatter your figure the best.

Ball gowns have very full skirts and generally will look beautiful on any body type, unless the bride is very short and small.

A-divnes usually have a fitted bodice with a skirt that flares gently from the waist to form an “A” shape. They generally work for everyone as well, and are a terrific choice for someone who would divke to hide lower body flaws, but does not want a ball gown.

Sheaths flatter women with sdivm, balanced figures. They shouldn’t be worn by brides who disdivke their figures.

Empire waist gowns have a skirt that falls from just below the breasts. Although usually divsted with various waistdivne types and not always considered a type of silhouette, they are a wonderful choice for a casual, non-formal wedding, or weddings in a tropical cdivmate.

Bring along bridesmaids for your dress shopping: Invite one or two people who know your taste, will be honest with you, and whose judgement you trust.

Set a Budget: Typically, a wedding ensemble, including veil, undergarments, and any other accessories, accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of the total wedding cost.

Keep an open mind: This is the mantra repeated over and over by bridal consultants. So take their advice, even if what they urge you to try on doesn’t seem like your style. Some dresses don’t look like much on the hanger but look great on

How to choose your florist for your wedding day: always try and get recommendations, if possible, from recent brides, family members or friends. Chances are if someone had a really great experience with the florist, they won’t have any reservations about pointing you in the same direction

Color: A good place to start is with the bride’s and bridesmaid’s bouquet, work with those colours and flower types to create your centrepieces, alter arrangements and other floral decor.

Collect Pictures: You can probably envision what you want your wedding to look like. The hard part is getting that image across to the florist. Start keeping notes early. Clip magazine photographs, collect files from online wedding Web sites, and plunder Facebook profiles and Flickr accounts of friends and strangers alike for wedding pictures. The more information you can give your florist, the better. The research will refine your choices, making it easier for your florist to provide a perfect realization of your vision.

Remember the extras: Besides the regular trappings of centerpieces and the bride’s bouquet, there are tons of other ways to get more mileage out of your florist — petals for the send-off, corsages for honored guests like readers and grandmothers, and small floral arrangements to make the venue’s restrooms look elegant.

Keep in mind: If your wedding date is around the time of a flower giving holiday (mother’s day, valentine’s,etc) you’re going to pay more for your flowers. The florist will also be very busy during this time and you can’t expect to be the centre of attention. Meet and speak to the person that will be making your flower arrangements.

How to choose a great limo service for your wedding day:

Experience: Business Experience is important. Services with some time under their belts are usually better than start-ups.

Inspect the Limo: Check out the limo in person. If the vehicle isn’t available, ask the company to email photos. It’s important to inspect the vehicle and verify the make, model, and amenities inside the limousine.

Provide itineraries: Upon signing the contract, make sure you provide all the data pertaining to your wedding day. A great idea is to provide the limousine company with an itinerary outlining the events of the entire day including the following details:

How to choose a wedding photographer for your wedding day: Wedding pictures are a cherished keepsake, passed down through generations, and the only commemoration of the thousands of hours and dollars spent to plan the most important day of your life.

Pictures: Visit each photographer’s website. Carefully review his or her portfolio. Good photographers usually show plenty of their recent work online including full weddings – you will save time by pre-qualifying photographers who have comprehensive online portfolio for possible meeting. Create a list of those photographers. Most important is – see if photographer’s work looks appealing to you.

Full wedding: If you have a chance look at a full wedding album. Don’t get fooled into looking just at one gallery of favorites. Make sure they are capable of creating what you expect at each and every wedding.

Personality: Interview several photographers, and select someone who makes you feel very comfortable. When you “click” with the photographer, chances are your photos will also look more natural.

Budget: Determine your Budget. Photographer fees, prints, albums, etc. generally come to approximately 10% to 15% of the entire wedding budget.

How to choose a wedding videographer for your wedding day: The most important thing to look for when choosing a videographer is experience. A seasoned professional will be technically and artistically proficient. He will know how to gather the right footage, how to properly frame and focus shots, how to discreetly and properly light a scene and take care of audio considerations.

Demos: Ask to see a demo. Better yet, ask to see 5 demos. Even better than that, ask if they will bring 25 FULL wedding videos with them to your first meeting. If a videographer cannot bring at least 5 full weddings to the a first meeting, then they probably haven’t even filmed 5 weddings. Ask the videographer if they will bring 5 (or more) full weddings to view. If they refuse or stumble, then don’t meet with them. All true artists and professionals have a portfolio of their work. If they don’t, how can anyone expect to make an educated judgment on whether to hire them?

Styles: Different videographers have different styles and you should choose one which you are comfortable with. Common styles include:
– Fly-on-the-wall, reality-TV style
– Documentary, including interviews, voice-overs, etc
– Arty, cinematic styles

Editing: Learn what type of editing and graphics treatment they offer. Some videographers use in-camera editing (which is basically just footage as it was shot, with little or no editing afterward) which is the least costly but most limited method of editing. Others may spend up to 100 hours editing your video to make it cinematic quality.

How to choose the right wedding planner: hiring a wedding planner can help reduce stress and take the grueling planning out of one’s wedding journey. A professional planner helps you maintain your sanity by assisting with all aspects of the event, such as creating a budget, choosing ceremony and reception venues and incorporating a theme or design scheme.

Clear Agenda: A planner should be able to send you a projected timeline and expected deliverables. This should detail out your months of planning as well as detail out the services you can expect and be ready for. In addition, a planner should be communicative and express what they can handle on your behalf and what they cannot, so your expectations can be met.

Investment: Keep in mind that wedding planners charge for their services. Some wedding planners charge a flat rate but will charge additional costs for items that are not spelled out in the contract or agreement. You want to be sure that you and the wedding planner agree on what their job is and have all of your expectations down in writing. On the other hand, some wedding planners will charge by the hour. If additional hours are needed on the day of the wedding, it will be added on to the total cost.

Don’t lose your control: Remember, unless you’ve instructed them otherwise, the wedding planner’s job is to guide you through every step of the process, not to completely take over. Make sure the planner you choose is willing to let you have as much say as you want to ensure that your celebration is unique to you.