How to Plan an Amazing Wedding

with Crystal Adair-Benning of Distinct Occasions

Justin Jacques: Hey there, everyone. Justin Jacques here from the Wedding Insider Podcast. Today I have Crystal Adair-Benning from Distinct Occasions. She’s a wedding planner. She’s awesome. We worked together before, and I thought she would be a fantastic person to kind of give you a good idea of where to start your wedding planning and just some general fantastic tips on how to make your wedding awesome because she does an amazing job planning. So to get started, Crystal, how did you get started in wedding planning?

Crystal Adair-Benning: Oh gosh.

Justin Jacques: It’s such a weird thing to get started in, I think, and like most people have an interesting story, so let’s hear yours.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Wow! Well, I guess most people I know kind of started in wedding because they got married, and I’m kind of the opposite. I jokingly, but in all seriousness, fell into it because I needed money.

Justin Jacques: Nice.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Yeah. I was a university student at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and I very quickly found myself as you do when you’re a student, out of money very, very quickly, and I’m not very good at living on haggis. So I very quickly realized that there were people all around me in the university that were getting married and getting engaged, and one of my friends at the time said, “Hey, I know you plan events. Any chance you want to plan my wedding?”

Of course, I was like, “Oh my gosh, a way to get rid of haggis from my life. Yeah, okay, book me 00:01:38 .”

So my very first wedding was, by fluke, it was just I was working in events and somebody asked me and I really didn’t want to eat haggis anymore.

Justin Jacques: Cool.

Crystal Adair-Benning: I was like, “Absolutely. Well, I can afford French fries now. It would be awesome.”

Justin Jacques: Nice.

Crystal Adair-Benning: So that was how I fell into it, and then I moved back to Toronto, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, what do I do? I have this business in Scotland.” I ended up keeping both and opened our Toronto office about a year and a half after the Scottish office I guess technically started, and here we go, and then it just kind of seemed to snowball, so now we have three. So now, we’re in Scotland, Toronto and at Perth, Western Australia, so it keeps us…

Justin Jacques: Wow! Yeah, that’s super cool.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Yeah.

Justin Jacques: And how many weddings have you done?

Crystal Adair-Benning: Oh my gosh. I do about 30 weddings a year.

Justin Jacques: Wow!

Crystal Adair-Benning: When I first started, I did like 40 weddings a year, which was absolutely mad. It’s complete insanity, why anybody would want to do that, I have no idea. So now I really try and keep my numbers to about 20 to 25. That’s kind of the magic number for me. But I have a team of staff that also take on their wedding so all of us together we probably do about 50 weddings a year.

Justin Jacques: Nice. That’s super cool.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Yeah.

Justin Jacques: And we were talking just before we started this, and you’re doing weddings pretty much all over the world, right?

Crystal Adair-Benning: Yeah. I’ve been really, really blessed. Wedding planning has afforded me the opportunity to travel the world, so I’ve been to Bali.

Justin Jacques: Cool.

Crystal Adair-Benning: And I’ve gotten to Borneo and Thailand and Australia and New Zealand, and you name it and I’ve kind of tried to do it. I think the only place left is Africa really. I think I need to go there. So if anybody is getting married in Africa, totally I’m on it for you, no problem, but I think it’s all I’ve got left in terms of places I’ve undiscovered.

Justin Jacques: I see a safari wedding trend coming in the near future.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Lamping in the safari with lions and tigers and bears, oh my. You can ride in an elephant. I will make that happen.

Justin Jacques: You will. I know that you will.

Crystal Adair-Benning: I’ll make the giraffe…

Justin Jacques: I would not doubt it.

Crystal Adair-Benning: It will be great honestly. If somebody should do this totally, and I will plan it for you with no problem.

Justin Jacques: Okay. So let’s say, I know you have offices all over, and that you do weddings all over. But let’s say somebody is looking for a wedding planner right now, and for some reason, they can’t contact you.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Yeah.

Justin Jacques: Or they can’t work with you specifically, how do they find an awesome planner? Like what should somebody be looking for in an amazing wedding planner?

Crystal Adair-Benning: Well, I think it’s varies depending on the client. I think really, first and foremost, when you’re looking for a planner, you’re looking for somebody who’s personality matches with yours. My title, the credit that myself and my team have is that we are planners of once in a lifetime awesomeness, and our goal is always to give our client something random and creative, but they’ve never seen or experienced before at another wedding. That’s kind of how we built our business and our brand.

It’s who we are. If we’re not having fun with your wedding, chances are your guests aren’t so we really, really want to have fun with your wedding. So for us, the right client is always that client that they may want something traditional, but they want something with a little bit of edge. They want something a little fun, something different. That’s kind of our clientele and that’s who we attract.

But there are other planners out there that are very fashion focused or very focused in on do-it-yourself products. They’re focused in on being budget friendly or cost conscious. There are all kinds of planners out there.

Justin Jacques: Yeah.

Crystal Adair-Benning: There is literally for every single bride. So really what you want to do is start with their website and you can see what they’ve been doing. Take a look at it. Do you like their style? Because at the end of the day, everything you see has a little bit of us in it. Do you like our style? And then read. I know, it’s a hard thing to do. People like it spontaneous, but read their websites. Honestly, it will give you tons of insight into who we are.

I mean, I talk about the fact that I have a puppy and a hedgehog, and that we travel all the time. So if you’re somebody that’s like minded, you’re a dog person, you’ve been all over the world, we might be a really good fit. We might work well together, and really for a wedding planner, that’s what you’re looking for. You’re looking for somebody who’s an amazing planner, but also somebody that you’re going to like because of all of your wedding vendors, they’re the one you’re going to deal with in the entire planning process.

You need to know that you can get in touch with me, that you feel confident telling me things. Because at the end of the day, I see everything that goes on. I see the stress and the frustration you have with the bridesmaid. I see those happy tears over dad seeing you in your wedding dress for the first time. I get to see all the confusion over picking a menu and choosing wine. I see all of it, and if you’re not comfortable sharing that with us, it’s going to really impede the process and make it not nearly as much fun for you.

Justin Jacques: Yeah, that’s cool. I think it’s important with every vendor, but I think it’s especially important with a planner is to have that matching personality because it’s a really important day, and for a planner, you’re working very intimately with that person. If you don’t match personality wise, then it just isn’t going to work.

Crystal Adair-Benning: Yeah.

Justin Jacques: Where do you think people should start their search like I know you said? How d