Wedding planner Kadeshia Bennett, of Essence Occasions, answers all of your wedding and event questions!  Kadeshia and her team at Essence Occasions offer you a stylish and sassy approach to wedding planning.  With her love for all things pretty, Kadeshia tirelessly strives to create one of a kind wedding planning that is both personal and professional.

Dear Kadeshia,

It’s time to go shopping for my wedding dress!  I have no idea where to start.

How many people should I bring? 

Shopping for your wedding gown should be a relaxing experience. Having too many people to accompany you can take the fun away from your moment, due to difference of opinions. The least amount of people you bring the better the process will be. In this case the more is not always the merrier. I would recommend not having more than four people with you for your consultation.  

 
How do I know I’m getting good value for my money?

Like all other purchases for your wedding, including services; you should be contacting references.

Other than ensuring the quality of the material by researching the designer and the store itself, a reference will assist with giving you that added peace of mind when purchasing your gown. Talk to past brides who have purchased the same or similar gown and get their opinion about the quality. All dresses are not guarantee perfection but it should be made for exactly what you need; whether that is to move and shake all night or your bonfire beach wedding. Don’t just ask for references, call them!

With that said it is not only the quality of the gown but also the quality of service that you receive from your wedding boutique. They should be able to answer all your questions upfront or at your fitting. 
 

Which questions should I be asking the consultant?

Along with your consultation date and time, you should always ask who your consultant will be and what the duration of your appointment is (one hour, two hours…).

 Questions to ask your consultant are:

What are your policies?

Do you have onsite alterations?  If so how much extra and how long will it take?

How should I care for my gown, Storage and preservation?  

Do certain dress styles suit certain body types more?

Yes! Just like us ladies, wedding gowns do come in all shapes and styles.

What is a perfect fit for you might not be the same for me. There is a “this is it” dress out there for you. To find it, know your shape and what dress suite your structure the best. By knowing this, your search for your dream gown will be easier. If you have a boyish figure, dresses with an empire waist will suits you to a “T”. If you are curvaceous, a mermaid dress will accentuate your curved silhouette.

 What else should I know beforehand?

Before starting on your quest to find the perfect dress, think about how you want to feel at your wedding. Having a good idea of what you want will help your consultant in finding you the perfect dress.

Never go to a consultation without a budget. If you are splurging on your dress, you still need to know your price range of how much you are spending so that you do not go overboard.

These are some of the questions you should know either before hand or while you are there.

Do they have different payment options? Is there a limit to how many dresses you can try?

Do you pay a deposit and then instalments or do you pay the full amount upfront?

Do they have a limit as to how many people you can bring with you? Are they insured?

Bring your own robe and wear a bra that can be converted into a strapless. This way you are prepared with a proper bra that you do not have to fiddle with and the robe to cover up for when you are between dresses. Ask as many questions as it take for you to know that you have chosen the right boutique.  

Happy shopping!

My name is Jessica and my fiancé, Allan, and I got engaged what seems like forever ago, on December 25^th, 2007! At that time we had been dating for just over 10 months – but what seemed quick to others felt like a lifetime to us, because quite simply we are each other’s soul mate. We moved out to North Vancouver, B.C. from Ontario during the summer of 2007, me to start my career post graduation and Allan to continue pursuing his education. Not to mention the mountains were calling us, as we have a shared passion for snowboarding.

Who We Are

Shortly after moving to B.C. I got back in touch with my artistic roots, which were a bit stifled while I pursued my BBA at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. I combined my business skills with my artistic talents and environmental concerns to launch ecocessoriesÔ – an eco-friendly designer jewelry company. With love and patience from Allan I was encouraged along the way, as I took silversmithing courses to hone my metal skills, and launched my jewelry recycling service as the source for all my recycled beads and vintage materials. ecocessoriesÔ now has a budding online store (http://ecocessories.ca/collections/shop), and is carried by a number of retailers in Vancouver, B.C., recycles jewelry (http://ecocessories.ca/recycle) from women across Canada, and has big plans for national growth in 2010.

Allan returned to school right here in North Vancouver, and is a business student at Capilano University. He is excelling in his courses and has lots of real life experience to apply his education to with an entrepreneur right here at home! ecocessoriesÔ has been the subject of a number of Allan’s school projects. As well, Allan does all the graphic design work for ecocessoriesÔ, including logo design, marketing materials, and weekly homepage banner updates.

When we aren’t working on ecocessoriesÔ you can usually find us cooking up delicious organic meals in the kitchen, snowboarding on Grouse Mountain, or planning our upcoming nuptials!

The Proposal

While Allan and I had discussed our plans to be engaged a number of times, I was not sure when the actual proposal would happen. However, I put ‘diamonds’ on my Christmas list so I think that was a good hint! Christmas morning came around, and it was the first Christmas ever not spent at home with our families, and our first Christmas shared together.

We opened all our gifts, and had conversations with our families, and had just sat down for a snuggle on the couch, when Allan announced he had one more gift! He told me not to look, and tied a scarf around me eyes. When I was told to remove the scarf, Allan was down on one knee with a ring box. He asked me to spend the rest of our lives together and after I cried, “Yes!” he opened the box. Inside was a diamond! Allan explained that he was proposing with just the diamond so that we could go pick the engagement band out together. The diamond would then be set in my choice. A very smart man indeed!

The Wedding Plans

We announced our engagement to our families, and decided that we’d like to have a long engagement, especially since the proposal happened so quickly. We still had a lot to learn about each other, which we most certainly have over the past 3 years. Our bond has grown stronger with each passing day, and I wouldn’t have done it any differently. Making that commitment to each other early on made a big difference in how our relationship has grown.

We went back and forth on choosing a date for about a year! Then on Dec. 25, 2008, one year after the initial engagement, I proposed to Allan – I proposed the actual date we would be wed with a sterling silver men’s engagement band that I designed and created myself. August 21, 2010 was chosen, as it was the original date we had considered.

Right away we decided a few things:

• We will be married in my mother’s garden
• The wedding will be an eco-friendly affair
• Our budget will be $10,000

Since then we have envisioned most of the details of the wedding, and are slowly executing those decisions and learning quite a bit along the way! I hope you’ll follow my blog posts, and my journey to marrying the man of my dreams.

Stay tuned later this week for Jessica’s wedding plans!