We are so excited about re-launching our new Shops @ WG and we can’t wait to get our new Vendor Showcase operating in full swing!
This blog is for wedding industry professionals from around the world — giving all of you an opportunity to showcase how amazing you are to all of our brides!
Web Presence
Through regular updates, encoded images, embedded meta-data, and ongoing networking initiatives, all of us at WeddingGirl.ca have been so lucky to welcome thousands of web visitors each day from all around the world.
Through genuine contact, personal endorsement, and a strict “no-flash-banner” policy, our users have referred to WeddingGirl.ca as “warm”, “welcoming”, “approachable”, and “personal”. We’ve found that by maintaining this very genuine interaction with our website visitors, our ability to personally endorse products and services is more powerful than generic advertising on other high-traffic wedding websites.
With over 30,000 page views every month, now more than ever we are seeing the need to expand our Bridal Marketplace and Vendor Showcase to shine a spotlight on some amazing vendors in the wedding industry and continue connecting them with the brides who frequent our site. With this in mind, our 2011 Vendor Showcase has been re-designed as part of the Shops @ WG; a brand new, online retail wedding boutique.
Showcase
As part of your Showcase Feature, you will be listed in the WeddingGirl.ca Vendor Showcase under your specific industry category within the Shops @ WG.
For one year, you will have a feature space in our Showcase, an exclusive introductory Feature Post on the WeddingGirl.ca Blog, and the opportunity to promote yourself monthly through the Blog at your own discretion. You can use space to highlight featured promotions, to share your recent work, or to write expert articles to educate your target market.
Regardless of how you choose to let brides know about who you are and what you do, you will be personally addressing hundreds of brides every single day! All vendor feature posts are also linked the WeddingGirl Dot Ca profile on Facebook, followed by over 1500 users.
Link Building
In order to optimize your search engine rankings, it is imperative to cross-link with high-traffic, quality sites. Not only does cross-linking enhance your search engine rankings, people follow the recommendation! As part of your Showcase Feature, you will receive a “WeddingGirl.ca Loves Us!” logo to display on your website.
To become a part of our upcoming features in the new WG Vendor Showcase, please submit an email to info@weddinggirl.ca with the following information:
Business Name
Business Post Address and Email Address
Industry Category (photography, décor, florals, cake, etc)
Promotional Pictures / Business Card Image / Graphic / Logo
In your email, please describe (in 3 to 5 sentences) yourself and your business.
Which Investment Category do you feel your business best reflects?
$ – Budget $$ – Moderate $$$ – Deluxe
Note: Budget information is for our personal records and will not be displayed publicly.
Which geographic region(s) would you prefer to provide services in?
For additional information, please contact :: shop@weddinggirl.ca.
We look forward to Showcasing you alongside these fabulous vendors!
The amazing Anne and Garry of White Orchid Weddings
The fabulous Chris from Fresh Canadian Content
The super talented DJ Patryk from Liquid Entertainment
The incredible Heidi, of Weddings Heidi Style!
The wonderful Anne, of Inviting Elegance
The ultra-creative Melanie, from Lush Florals!
The contemporary-couture Jessica, from Fleurish Design Studio
What first inspired you to become a jewellery designer, Veronika? Were you always an artist, and how did you learn how to do what you do?
Veronika: My main influence came to me from nature itself.
Where did you grow up? Did this influence your design vision?
Veronika: I grew up in Ukraine. The East meets West influence was quite obvious in my early collections. Now I’m learning towards styles that involve luxurious gemstone designs that you can wear every day, simple styles that won’t overwhelm the woman who wears them.
What about them appeals to you (atmosphere, attitude, people, stores)?
Veronika: Sophisticated cities like San Francisco for its vibrancy in colours and Quebec City for its diversity in styles. I’m definitely a city girl!
Name a few of your favorite stores or places NY, Chicago, San Francisco or elsewhere?
Veronika: The Mission – is a neighborhood in San Francisco; Ocean drive in Miami.
What inspires your jewellery design? How do you stay inspired and motivated?
Veronika: New beads! Aren’t we all motivated by new beads? But otherwise I will see something out my window that will inspire me – the scenery here in Toronto is awe inspiring. Or I will just start putting beads side by side and inspiration will strike. I feel like I’m really affected by all of the things I do, see, hear and say. I notice jewellery other people wear – the shapes of buildings and furniture – the beauty of people, flowers.
You are a painter and a jewellery designer. Which is your favorite to express yourself?
Veronika: I’d probably say jewellery design, that make people feel more beautiful, but I love all of the work I do and I consider that to be a real gift. In general, I’m not limiting myself to one career. One of the biggest themes of my life is the fact that the skills I learn carry over from one thing to another. As a painter I taught myself to see the world, the objects around me, in a totally different light. I let go of the common definitions of things for a while, and I think it has affected other areas of my thinking.
A few months ago, Rick, Jay and Mary got together to create the Wedding Day Threesome contest. The inspiration behind the idea was to join fabulous forces and give one lucky bride and groom an amazing wedding package that included photography, cinema, and event design and planning. With some sassy marketing, some creative talents, and lots of time, effort, and dedication, the Threesome Contest was born.
Phase I of the contest, Sharing, left dozens of brides in a frenzy to get 100 of their Facebook friends to Like + Add + Join the Rick Denham Photography Page, the WeddingGirl Dot Ca Profile, and the Captivate Bridal Cinema group on Facbeook. It didn’t happen without some competition, though! Brides begged, pleaded, and bribed friends and family to join in the madness. There were anonymous letters of speculation emailed to us about brides creating “fake profiles” and brides not following through on promises made in return for “votes”. In the end, we decided it was more important to trust our couples than to cloud our judgment with anonymous accusations. While many tried, few succeeded…. and we welcomed our Phase I finalists to Phase II.
Wedding day photography, cinema, and planning / coordination requires a strong personality fit between the bride and groom, and all the specific vendors involved. Beyond the pictures themselves, the video captured, or the itinerary created, personalities must accentuate one another and complement one another to seamlessly transition from the hectic planning beforehand, to the stressful moments on the Day Of — all to come together to create a perfect Ever After for the newlyweds. Phase II, Submitting, of the Threesome Contest was designed to get to know the couples behind the profiles. We wanted to see the who’s, what’s, where’s, when’s, and why’s, and get to know each wonderful pair the same way they had gotten to know us! Initially, the plan was to only have 3 couples advance to the third and final contest Phase… but after laughing, crying, and sharing our thoughts on what we’d read from our submissions wit one another, we knew that 6 couples needed to advance. With that, we welcomed some Terrific Two’s to the third and final phase of the Wedding Threesome contest.
Beyond getting to know our couples on paper, Phase III was designed to see personality, creativity, and dedication come pouring through in a Wedding Threesome Photoshoot. We joined efforts in creating some unique challenges and anxiously awaited the results our finalists submitted. Phase III, like the previous two stages of our contest, came with its ups and downs. In the end, we got together to review the photos that had been posted, compared them against what we expected and had hoped to see, and while initially, we hadn’t planned on explicitly stating whose photos won each category, in light of recent developments, we’ve decided to share our individual results:
People
Wedding Party Honeymoon Night
Wedding Day Family Photo at a famous landmark
Wedding Day Threesome
Places
A photo with another Bride and Groom at THEIR wedding
- First place went to Jen and Ned (and their fabulous wedding-crashing story!) — {photo unavailable}
Proposal Scene, in costume
Wedding Ceremony Role Reversal (a TIE!)
Things
Wedding night attire
A Do-It-Yourself Wedding Cake (also a TIE!)
- a tie for First place also went to Melinda and Mike (and their amazing wedding-cake creation) — {photo unavailable}
And last but not least….. a DIY engagement ring re-creation! (another TIE!)
- the tie for First place went to Jen and Ned (and their beautiful bright blue design! – {photo unavailable}
The Selection….
Phase III of the Wedding Threesome contest allowed us to see personality, creativity, enthusiasm, and commitment come shining through. All of our couples put in a tremendous amount of effort – which they all deserve an amazing amount of recognition for! We loved the work that we saw, but in the end, we had to choose one winner. Winning 7 out of 9 photo categories, Brenda and Kris were the Wedding Day Threesome contest winners!
Second Place….
A special Congratulations goes out to our Second Place Threesome prize winners, with 3 out of 9 photo categories, the awesome Jen and Ned!
Everyone’s a winner….
Rick, Jay, and Mary all recognize how hard each finalist couple worked to complete their Wedding Threesome Photoshoot. In an effort to reward everyone for their commitment to our contest, special consolation prizes will be sent out to each couple!
** all prize details will be sent out to each couple personally!
A personal note from Mary….
When Rick and Jay and I first decided to create the Wedding Threesome contest, we were excited to showcase a new idea and meet some amazing couples. We could never have expected the tremendous response that we received and we’re all so flattered that this endeavour has meant so much to each and every one of you!
As any pilot project has, our First Threesome contest came with wrinkles that needed to be ironed… details that needed to be sorted… and lessons that needed to be learned.
We are all real people: with real jobs, real commitments, and while we love what we do, we are still doing our best to balance it all with day-to-day responsibilities.
We wish to extend our sincere apologies should any aspect of this contest process have caused confusion, frustration, or impatience. We have had a great time together (despite the ups and downs) and we look forward to a bigger and better Threesome contest next year!
Phase I of our contest was a mad scramble to get 100 Facebook friends to Like | Add | Join all three of our Pages | Profiles | Groups.
Once the liking, adding, and joining was complete, Phase II required some pen-to-paper! — we wanted to get to know our couples’s Who’s, What’s, and Why’s via written contest submissions!
Originally, the plan was to have 3 couples advance to Phase III of our Threesome contest (notice the trend?!) — but we opted to include 6 — since we loved each and every single one of them!
Phase III of our contest likely took the cake for the most crazy|original|creative|ridiculous|exciting plans any of these couples have ever made together!
Our final 6 brave couples worked hard for 3 weeks to take 3 photos from 3 categories we gave them: People, Places, and Things!
People
1) We wanted to see what Honeymoon Night #1 would look like if the entire wedding party was in the room
2) We wanted to see a Wedding Day family photo at the couples’ nearest famous landmark
3) We wanted to see a photo of our couple with their Wedding Day Threesome!
Places
1) We told our couples to take a picture of themselves with a bride and groom at THEIR wedding (with proof of the date!)
2) We asked our couples to recreate their proposal scene, in costume
3) We wanted to see what our couples’ ceremony would look like if the bride was the groom and the groom was the bride!
Things
1) Our couples were instructed to take the dress the groom wore from the role reversal and alter it into something the bride would wear on her wedding night
2) We instructed the brides and groups to create a DIY wedding cake!
3) … and last but not least, we wanted to see a giant recreation of the engagement ring (submitted with a photo next to the actual ring).
… with the contest closed, we headed to our favourite local hang-out to review the entries…
We got some AMAZING contest submissions, but one couple really stood out:
Brenda and Kris were our Threesome winners, and we set out to pull off our Big Unveil surprise!
Come back and see us tomorrow when we highlight how the entire day unfolded, send out honourable mentions to our runners up, and announce the prizes for our Second Place winners and all the couples who competed!!
Wedding Threesome Contest | Phase III | instructions
Our final 6 brave couples have been working hard for the past 3 weeks to take 3 photos from 3 categories: People, Places, and Things!
People
1) We wanted to see what Honeymoon Night #1 would look like if the entire wedding party was in the room
2) We wanted to see a Wedding Day family photo at the couples’ nearest famous landmark
3) We wanted to see a photo of our couple with their Wedding Day Threesome!
Places
1) We told our couples to take a picture of themselves with a bride and groom at THEIR wedding (with proof of the date!)
2) We asked our couples to recreate their proposal scene, in costume
3) We wanted to see what our couples’ ceremony would look like if the bride was the groom and the groom was the bride!
Things
1) Our couples were instructed to take the dress the groom wore from the role reversal and alter it into something the bride would wear on her wedding night
2) We instructed the brides and groups to create a DIY wedding cake!
3) … and last but not least, we wanted to see a giant recreation of the engagement ring (submitted with a photo next to the actual ring).
The contest closes tonight! Stay tuned tomorrow for what these amazing couples have come up with!! We’ll have a winner soon!
