Sunday is the day to find out everything you need to know if you’re getting hitched.
Hitched Wedding and Events Affair 2020 is a Black Press Media event at the Comox Community Centre Sunday.
It featured nearly 40 exhibitors with booths set up to offer information on everything from planning the event to wedding gowns to flowers to food and other reception plans. There were even ideas on what you can do on the honeymoon. Plus, there was lots of information for people planning any kind of event. The businesses on hand can help people with all aspects of an event.
Hitched is aimed at communities across North and Central Vancouver Island, and the volunteers working at the door had a large stack of visitor response forms filled out to show the hundreds who attended throughout the day.
Planning for the big day
Eight-year-old Ethan Taylor is visiting Hitched with his mom Misty to help her get ready for the big event in July.
“He is our wedding planner,” she says.
Ethan’s biggest priority is to make sure everything is right with the wedding cake. So far, he has been pretty excited about what’s tasted, seen and heard.
“I think it’s amazing, especially the singers,” he says.
He was also pretty stoked by some of the cupcakes he had.
For his mom, Hitched, who’s from Comox, is a new experience.
“I’ve never been to one of these before,” she says. “I just thought it was very well laid-out. Everyone is very helpful.”
Couple Debbie Findlay and Carson Depourcq are planning to tie the knot in the fall this year. They are still in the early stages of a relatively small event for friends and family. She’s from Ontario but lives in Victoria right now; he’s from the Comox Valley. At Hitched, they just wanted to explore ideas and look at potential venues for the event.
They’re even considering a wedding planner to handle the details and some of the stress. Maybe they should chat with Ethan.
A wedding indoors or out
Crown Isle Resort & Golf Community is a special community in the Comox Valley that can provide that special setting for couples getting married, whether you want an indoor or outdoor ceremony. It is set up to provide catered weddings for up to 160 guests.
“At Crown Isle here today, we’re offering custom wedding packages,” says Daniel O’Donnell, food and beverage manager at the resort.
O’Donnell says they have a clubhouse, with a venue that can hold up to 160 people. There’s also a smaller venue on site designed for 75 people. In addition, there’s the 18-hole championship golf course.
“We have 88 rooms attached to our resort,” he says, including the bridal suite.
There is top-notch catering available for a wedding or other event, and all of this can happen in a stunning setting.
“The pictures you can get a Crown Isle are very picturesque,” he says.
A little further down Vancouver Island, in Qualicum Beach, is the Crown Mansion Boutique Hotel and Villas. This offers a beautiful English garden in a historic forest setting, and like Crown Isle, there are custom wedding packages available.
“The Crown Mansion is more of an intimate setting,” says O’Donnell.
For more information, see www.crownisle.com or www.crownmansion.com.
Great taste at your fingertips
Muriel McKay and the Pickled Carrot were set up inside the Comox Community Centre with trays of tasty samples of what they can serve for weddings and events.
“We are promoting our full line of catering services,” she says. “We are offering some finger foods and appies for people to try out.”
These include sweet treats like chocolate espresso cheesecake shots, lemon cheesecake shots and sticky toffee pudding shots,
“They look amazing, they’re great to complement the wedding cake,” she says.
Pickled Carrot also had samples of some savoury items like antipasto skewers, spinach artichoke bruschetta and cranberry brie crostinis.
“The response has been amazing,” McKay says. “We’ve been able to talk to a lot of brides, grooms as well as a lot of mothers, and really inform them about what their choices are and the ways we can help them.”
She can be reached at muriel@thepickledcarrot.ca
Helping you plan in unexpected ways
Thrifty Foods is an institution on Vancouver Island, best known as a grocery store, but it also has lots of services that can help people planning for the ‘Big Day.’
“We like to tell people we have many offerings at Thrifty Foods,” says Kim Wright, floral manager.
Thrifty’s has floral designers from both Comox Valley locations on hand at Hitched. “We have cakes, cupcakes and, of course, all your beautiful wedding flowers.”
Thrifty’s can hold private consultations with clients and work within a wide budget range.
“The great thing about having 29 stores, is we have a big buying power, so it makes it affordable for our brides,” she says. “We’d be happy to meet everybody.”
Wright says when people come into the stores, some are surprised to find out Thrifty’s can help out with events like weddings.
“Lots of people, their first thing is, ‘Oh, we didn’t know you did flowers,’ but we have qualified designers in all our Thrifty Foods stores,” she says. “We’re your flower people.”
For more information, see www.thriftyfoods.com.
