Event planning 101 or How I survived planning my wedding solo without ending up certifiable

 Planning (and surviving) a wedding is an awful lot like consciously choosing to avoid a mental breakdown. There are meetings, scheduling conflicts, and (quite frequently) wine.

I just survived my first.

Wedding, of course.

After nearly two years of planning, plotting, and drinking, it's all over.  And I have managed to wrangle five key tips for event planners and future brides:


1. Make a battle plan.  Set up a strategy and plan every last task that has to be done down to the hour.  You may be cross-eyed after doing this,but it'll make life a lot easier in the long run.  While only half of your tasks will have hard deadlines, it doesn't hurt to set personal ones for everything else, this way you can schedule yourself to death in advance and still have a bit of wiggle room for when the s*** hits the fan.

Never underestimate the importance of caffeine.

2. The devil is in the details.  Pick three things that you really want to focus on and stick with them.  If you try to focus on every little detail and make every little thing special, you're likely to fail and/or go insane.  Besides, if one tiny thing is forgotten, only you and your team will know.  Everyone else will be too busy having a great time.

Always look on the bright side of life.
Monty Python does.

3. Never underestimate the importance of flexibility.  Sometimes things will go wrong and you'll have to improvise, fast.  You'll have to roll with the punches and live with it.  Depending on how flexible you really are, you can either have a blast, or end up crying in the corner.  Take your pick.

Despite losing power, we still managed to rock the night with a capella
versions of pretty much any song we could think of.

4. Things will get overwhelming.  There are a lot of decisions to be made that rest on your shoulders and people will judge you on.  Everyone will deny it, but let's face it, this is an event that uniquely represents you (in the case of the brides) or your organization (in the case of event planners).

Take the time to slow down and take a breather, even when you're convinced the world will end if you do, it will be a good thing.  Being calm will help you deal with the ups and downs or at least come down from that crazy night-before-the-event adrenaline-high that'll have you crashing hard.

Sometimes, holding a big ball of fur can be helpful.
Sometimes, not so much.
Especially when that ball of fur really wants to get at,
and destroy, your big expensive dress.

5. Build, and rely on, a great team.  They can be your support network and helpers.  They will be the ones to pick up the slack when you're exhausted and keep you cheery when all you really want to do is burn all of those ribbons to cinders.

Having the support of a great group is key.

Bonus tip 6.  Enjoy it!  It's been a long haul and it's finally happening/over!  Find moments for yourself and savour your victory.  It all goes by in a whirlwind and it's nice to be able to remember it.  Pictures are great but they tend to lessen in meaning if you don't remember the event depicted happening.

Another year, another Relay for Life

Recently I had the opportunity to participate both as a team leader and a committee member in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Having been a participant for the past few years, it was interesting to see the other side of things.

A large portion of my evening was spent walking around the track at Brampton's Fair Grounds taking pictures of teams in costume and generally making sure that everyone was having a good time. (Pics can be seen at the Brampton/Caledon/Georgetown/Dufferin County Unit's Facebook page.)

The main thing that I noticed about this year's Relay compared to the last few was that the focus had shifted from individual team members to families. There was a sports area set up for kids as well as a bouncy castle and even a clown doing balloon animals. Having all of these things made the event more kid-friendly and I saw that a lot more families were present for the event, compared to last year.

I think it was a brilliant move on the part of the committee to have more kid-friendly activities. Apart from drawing more families to the event, it made the whole evening feel more like a social get-together where the focus was on celebrating victories over cancer, remembering those who have lost the battle, and symbolically fighting cancer as a community.

Congrats to the Unit's successful event and I'm looking forward to next year's.

Howling to the wolves

I was recently fortunate enough to participate in one of Algonquin Park's most famous activities: the wolf howl. According to the report, the wolf howl that I attended was the only one this year to get a response from the guides' calls by wolves.

Apart from anything else, I was very impressed with the level of organization from the staff. Although there was a relatively small group for the howl (around 600 people) the staff were more than ready to leap into action and help everyone out.

The naturalists were knowledgeable about wolf ecology and were able to explain it in a way that everyone was able to understand. All in all, it was a great event to raise awareness of wolves and to help combat people's prejudice against these amazing predators.

Mustangs stampede the Vanier Cup

The Vanier Cup is the crown jewel of Canadian University football. This was the first year that I attended, mostly because it's been a while since Western has made it.

I was really impressed with the level of management that I saw at the game. Ontario University Athletics (one of the organizing bodies) had its own event management staff present and so did the Ivor Wynne Stadium, Western, and Laval. The city of Hamilton even had a presence with their boys in blue.

It was a good thing that the police were at the game; over 16,000 people attended and a few of the fans did get a little out of hand. I witnessed a Laval fan waltzing over into the Western side of the seating and harass some of the Western fans so much that a beer bottle was chucked at his head (yes, it did connect).

All in all, the crowd was controlled really well by all of the event management staff around the stadium. The game went smoothly with only a few small hiccups that weren't even noticeable enough to make the news. It just goes to show that after 43 years, they've got it down to a science.

Me to We day 2008

Free the Children's second annual Me to We day was held today at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto. It was my first time volunteering at/attending Me to We day and I've gotta say that I was impressed. For such a large-scale event, it was very well organized. My volunteer training the night before was a little rushed, but I realized the next morning that this was a necessity and that the best way to learn was on the "job".

Over 8000 students came from all over North America to listen to Justin Trudeau, Michel Chikwanine, Mia Farrow, and other speak, as well as musical guests Crash Parallel, Sarah Mclachlan, and others. The main message of the conference centres around youth empowerment: age doesn't matter - you can make a difference. It was definitely inspiring to listen to the variety of speakers that Free the Children had lined up for the day, ranging from the political (John Turner) to the emotionally-gripping and awe-inspiring (Michel Chikwanine).

Me to We day succeeded in motivating me to think about Free the Children as more than just another charity for helping those in need. Don't get me wrong, but there are a lot of charities out there helping people in need by one method or another. Me to We got me thinking about Free the Children as something that will help both people in need and the people doing the helping. So often, youth hear about the terrible things that are going on in the world and feel unable to do anything about it. Me to We day proves them wrong by showing them how to act and how to make a difference.

Bravo, Free the Children. I'm looking forward to next year.