Congrats Unshaven Mavens on a successful launch! (and this is just the beginning…)

The Unshaven Mavens made their 5K fundraising goal in support of breast cancer research at this weekend’s Oktoberfest. 

Check it: 

These bold and beautiful women grow their underarm hair for the entire month of October, all the while raising funds for Rethink Breast Cancer. The group zeros in on the armpit because early breast cancer symptoms can also be detected in the underarm area, not just the breast.

And guess what? The growing season begins today: their clean-shave day kickoff.

Will you be participating in #pitsfortits? 

Learn more. 

 

Eating local, eating green: Celebrate the harvest with the 2012 Eco Gala

Photo credit: Arden Twinkle, via Flickr

Siu Hong Yu is a scientist working at the National Research Council. Outside the lab, he tries to stay out of trouble with live music, food outings, photography, gallery visits, running, hiking, good reads and cinema.

What do delicious seasonal vegetables, a conversation about Ottawa’s sustainable economy, and a Belarusian violin/guitar duet have in common? They will all be featured at Ecology Ottawa’s 2012 Eco Gala, taking place this year on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the St. Elias Banquet Centre (750 Ridgewood Ave., near Mooney’s Bay).

Now in its sixth year, this annual dinner will celebrate local harvests and the vibrant environmental movement here in Ottawa. The four-course vegetarian menu will showcase some of Ottawa’s best produce and will be created in collaboration with Chef Murray Wilson of the Courtyard Restaurant.

Ecology Ottawa is a not-for-profit, grassroots, volunteer-driven organization working to make Ottawa the green capital of Canada. Their annual dinner sells out every year and we’re expecting the same for 2012. I started volunteering at Ecology Ottawa recently, becoming involved in the organization’s neighbourhood research project. While it’s unlikely I will ever become a full vegetarian, it’s been amazing learning so much about non-meat alternatives that are better for the environment. To me, it is all about balance and getting informed.

The MC for the October dinner will be CBC personality Adrian Harewood, and  the entertainment will feature a conversation with brothers Jeff and Jonathan Westeinde, from Windmill Developments, about how Ottawa can become a world-class environmental leader by transitioning to a more sustainable economy. Ecology Ottawa Chair Graham Saul will also give a keynote speech.

And, oh yeah, that music I mentioned? Duet Cantabile –  featuring Vlada Chametka on violin and Mikhail Rykov on guitar — will be performing arrangements of classical music and traditional Belarusian tunes.

We hope to see you — along with 400 other guests — at this exciting event, which helps fund important outreach and community-building projects. Together, we’ll celebrate the agricultural richness of our city and connect with others in the growing environmental movement.

Tickets are available online at or by calling (613) 860-5353. More information, including volunteer and sponsorship opportunities, is also available on the website.

Harvest Noir brings the spirit of Alice in Wonderland to Ottawa on September 30

Photo by byfield~pitman photography.

Greg Searle (@gregorysearle) is Executive Director of BioRegional North America (@BioRegional_US) where he runs @OnePlanetLiving and the ecoConcierge program, and is currently crowdfunding to support a book he is writing on sustainable behaviours and healthy urban living. He is the co-organizer of @HarvestNoir, loves working out of @HubOttawa, and once drove a Peugot with a trunk full of prosciutto ham from Parma, Italy to St. Petersburg, Russia. 

 There’s a reason discounted early bird tickets to Harvest Noir are selling out fast!  LTO called it “a smash success” last year, when 760 adventurous guests dressed in their finest black attire attended the first “chic picnic” in Ottawa’s history at a secret destination (revealed to be the Museum of Civilization).  Apartment613 readers voted it one of Ottawa’s “Sexiest Parties”, and I think I know why: Harvest Noir  combined the best of fashion, gourmet food, wine, dancing and a good social cause with a liberal dose of genteel public mischief.

As the organizers, we were awed by the kind of people who showed up at Harvest Noir, as much as the numbers.  There was enthusiastic audience participation in quirky happenings like the impromptu fashion show.

In the past when I’ve been lucky enough to live abroad in places like Rome and London and Boston, I could never avoid feeling upon my return to Ottawa that the people here had the volume turned down a couple notches. So it was especially touching  to see all these creative, daring, beautiful Ottawa souls letting their inner child loose in public, laughing and dining and dancing together… Harvest Noir was a hit because it gathered so many funky people in our city all under the same (architecturally stunning) roof! 

I can’t count the number of people who told me an event like Harvest Noir would never fly in Ottawa.

But when I saw my first European-inspired chic picnic in Montreal last August, I was certain that the concept was too cool to fail, even here! But something was still missing. What we needed was a real meaningful purpose, a REASON to throw the party of the year, and I found that in Ottawa’s burgeoning local food scene. Why not fuse a chic picnic with a traditional harvest ball? This really isn’t a new idea – a few generations back, people vigorously celebrated the harvest all across Europe in hundreds of culturally interesting ways all throughout the autumn.  In North America, Thanksgiving is the only significant surviving offspring of this lost tradition, but even Thanksgiving has lost its humble farm roots. 

Photo by Glenn Stowe.

>Harvest Noir asks its guests to step away, for just one day, from the usual ultra-convenient, cheap, industrially-farmed foreign produce found in every grocery store, and to eat something fresh and healthy from a farm you could actually visit without a jet. Prepare it themselves, and eat it with the biggest group of their friends they can assemble. If this sounds like some kind of hippie singalong tofu roast, just look at some of the photos from last year’s picnic - those are some well-dressed people eating some very fine food, and they are having a blast. 

 One guest told us that attending Harvest Noir last year was “like stepping into Alice in Wonderland”, and we seized upon her statement as the zeitgeist of planning the 2012 event.

We’ll let Local Tourist readers in on some of the ways we intend to make it bigger, bolder, and more downtown this year:

 

THE FARMER’S MARKET FLASHMOB.

• A few days before the event, Harvest Noir attendees will pull on their top hats and fancy fascinators and meet for a mass shopping flashmob at farmer’s markets to buy the ingredients for their picnic feasts. No one but our guests will know where and when this will happen.

 

THE SECRET LOCATION.

• On September 30, we’ll be partying in one of the busiest, most public places in downtown Ottawa. We are going to surprise a lot of unsuspecting passersby and tourists.

 

THE BICYCLE FLASHMOB.

• A large phalanx of guests in black tie finery will converge on a different secret location before the picnic, and then pedal  in stately procession together to a triumphant late arrival at the picnic grounds where the other guests will be unpacking and setting up. We think this will make quite an impression, and be seriously fun for everyone!

 

THE PICNIC.

• Elegantly-dressed dinner guests bring picnic baskets stuffed with delicious local food they’ve prepared and celebrate the harvest with friends old and new. Guests will enjoy the dining experience of the year, accompanied by bottles of wine, refined live music, prizes and surprises, and quirky performers.

 

THE PARADE.

• Starting with 1000+ fiery sparklers, and lead by a funky parade band, the guests will depart the picnic grounds and march in a fantastic Mad Hatter Parade through downtown Ottawa, leaving surprised tourists and jealous passers-by in their wake.

 

THE PARTY.

• This year’s DJ dance party will take place in one of the most important cultural venues in Ottawa, and have more music/dancing choices for guests of all ages.  A participatory fashion show by audience members is back by popular demand!

 

THE FUNDRAISER.

• 100 per cent of proceeds at Harvest Noir go towards helping BioRegional North America carry on its nonprofit mission to create model places where genuinely sustainable, healthy lifestyles that promote a 70 per cent+ reduction in carbon footprint are convenient for the ordinary people who live or work there. BioRegional has been pioneering these approaches in places like the UK, California, and Washington State and now has a new focus on bringing innovative lessons back to Ottawa, where the organization’s North American offices are based at Hub Ottawa. BioRegional recently was invited to help steer the formation of the Ottawa Centre EcoDistrict in the downtown core. You can pre-order “ONE PLANET LIFESTYLES: Creating sociable places where sustainable 21st century living is convenient” a new book that BioRegional is working on. A crowd-funding campaign is helping support the book’s extensive research and getting it published.

 

THE DRESS CODE.

• Guests must dress their best in black, head to toe. Avoid white if you can – it’s so anti-noir! Be creative, be bold, with a retro-elegant theme wherever possible. Quirky period hats encouraged! There are some fantastic vintage and thrift boutique shops in Ottawa where you can go to get creative without blowing the budget. I recommend fashionable ladies hats from Chapeaux Madeleine. 

 TICKETS ON SALE.

• A few discounted early bird tickets are still left on sale at harvestnoir.com – but they won’t last very long.

We can’t wait for this Greg! Thanks for the snapshot!

Ten Oaks Project and Ottawa’s Most Fabulous Bowl-A-Thon

Our friend Alex Hosselet likes to keep it real, and help out when he can. He’s recently gotten involved with a great charity and would like to tell you about it.

Ottawa is home to a lot of phenomenal organizations and groups striving to make a difference in our community and abroad. A good friend of mine, Little Jo Berry, recently introduced me to the Ten Oaks Project: a charitable and volunteer-driven organization that engages and connects children and youth from LGBTQ communities through play.

tenoaksproject.org

The organization has two flagship summer programs: Camp Ten Oaks and Project Acorn. Camp Ten Oaks is a summer camp for children and youth aged 8-17 from LGBTQ communities, families and allies. Project Acorn is a youth-led leadership retreat for LGBTQ youth and their allies aged 16-24. The retreat brings together youth participants, youth leaders, adult leaders, guest speakers and facilitators for a four-day mixture of workshops, speakers and typical camp activities. Ten Oaks has a unique and valuable offering to the Ottawa community, and works closely with a lot of other organizations to accomplish its objectives.

Ten Oaks’ main fundraising event is an annual Bowl-A-Thon, now in its eighth year. On Saturday, March 31, more than 200 bowlers and supporters will take over the McArthur Bowling Centre for the Ten Oaks Project Bowl-A-Thon, which aims to raise over $45,000 to continue funding the flagship programs.

There are several ways that you can get involved and help make a difference

1. You can put a team together and fundraise. Ten Oaks is completely inclusive, so don’t feel like you have to be LGTBQ to get involved! There are only a few lanes left for teams, so email bowl@tenoaksproject.org if you’d like to secure one of the last lanes.
2. You can make a donation – any size helps – by visiting the Ten Oaks donation site. You can even donate to your favourite bowler!
3. You can volunteer some of your time. A few hours with some extra helping hands can make this event amazing. Get involved by emailing hannah.mcgechie@tenoaksproject.org or calling 613-614-1537.

You can ask anyone that’s participated in a Ten Oaks program – this organization makes a huge difference in the lives of everyone it touches.

For more information and to keep up-to-date, you can visit the Ten Oaks website, the Bowl-A-Thon Facebook group, or the Ten Oaks Twitter feed (@TenOaksProject).

OILRC: “We may not be well-known around Ottawa, but we’re a big deal to the people we work with”

Sara Rose is a Carleton University student and the Fund Development and Event Coordinator for the Ottawa Independent Living Resource Centre. She’s been in living in Ottawa for the past 16 years. Her favourite part of the city is going to all the festivals, especially Bluesfest.

Recently, the United Way called Ottawa the most generous city in Canada. I’d like to add to that by saying we also have some of the greatest local charities. One such charity is the Ottawa Independent Living Resource Centre (OILRC). Its mission is to assist in the individual empowerment of all persons with any disability in the Ottawa area and to provide the tools they need to direct their lives and participate fully in the community.

I have been working for OILRC since July and already I’ve learned a lot about this community and the challenges they face; everything from getting around town to getting help from the government. It is so rewarding to be a part of an organization that makes a positive impact in the lives of those around me.

We may not be well-known around Ottawa, but we’re a big deal to the people we work with. I know all our hard work is worth it when I see how excited our clients are about the services we provide, like computer training, information sessions, or even just a facilitating a fun day at the beach.

Basically, the OILRC helps people with any disability to lead fulfilling, independent lives.

The OILRC has been operating in Ottawa since 1986 and currently serves thousands of members of our community. Its newest program is the Independent Living Employment Assistance Program (iLeap for short). The team has been helping people gain employment as well as gain the skills they need to become employable. It’s a great way to strengthen our labour force, helping our local economy as well as local individuals.

Because funding is limited and the OILRC is a non-profit organization, it runs various fundraisers throughout the year. They had some very successful candy sales and car washes to fund their annual summer getaway. This year, a group travelled to Niagara Falls and Marineland. They had so much fun that they’re already planning next year’s trip! The next big fundraiser will be a Mamma Mia movie sing-along on October 21^st. Guests will dress up like the characters, sing along to their favourite songs, and have a great time while raising money for an important local cause.

Thanks for your contribution Sara, and thanks to the OILRC for doing such important work. If you’re interested in finding out more about the work done by OILRC or would like to take part in the Mamma Mia fundraiser, check out www.OILRC.com. 

Q&A: Chantal shares her personal reason for starting Bumps on the Road- A 9K Walk for Pregnancy

Chantal Sarkisian is a fundraiser for the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health, a local and national charity that raises funds to support research in women’s sexual and reproductive health. She dropped by Local Tourist Ottawa to talk about a fun local event she’s driving forward. 

Ottawa has a lot of walking/running events: what makes yours different?

Pregnancy is a wonderful and positive experience, but most people don’t think of the challenges that come with it. Bumps on the Road -A 9K Walk for Pregnancy is the first time that everyone can come together and raise awareness and funds for research that addresses diseases or illness in pregnancy. Think of research topics like gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity in pregnancy.

It will be fun and visual: people will come walking in fake bellies or weighted backpacks to really put themselves in the shoes of pregnant women. If a pregnant woman can lug around more than 20 pounds for a few months, I think we can do it for 9K!

This type of walk has never been done before, and I am so glad to be part of it.

Chantal Sarkisian at the CFWH Healthy Women, Healthy Future Gala and Research Awards Ceremony in Vancouver.

What motivated you to start this fundraiser?

Not that I want to get caught up in my own personal life, but sometime you have to experience something for yourself to truly understand it. 

Six months ago, I announced to my closest friends, my family and my colleagues at work that I was pregnant. The next week it happened: I had a miscarriage. I found out that I was pregnant on the same day that I started this job.

As much as it motivated me to do my work, when I lost my baby the motivation was still there… it was just transformed.  Having gone through this made me see life in a different way. I have a better appreciation for the work I do and I am trying my best to stay positive. I’ve become a better person and more driven at work. I know I am not alone and many women have gone through this and it’s common. Everyone has their unique way of coping, and this is my way.

To my fellow women who know where I am coming from, I hope you have found yours.

So, out of nowhere, I decided to post this on my Facebook wall: “I’m organizing this walk for all the women who have gone through challenges throughout their pregnancy. I am participating because I was one.”

I have never revealed this much personal information about myself on Facebook. But after I hit enter… It was too late. I guess that’s what’s scary and beautiful about social media.

Bumps on the Road takes place on October 23, 2011

Thank you for sharing your story with us. What are you hoping will come from this event?

Well, this initiative is meant to launch the first volunteer-based event organized by the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health volunteers. My long term goal for this walk is to have national volunteer groups host this walk all over Canada, ever year. 

This is our first ever walk, so I have set myself some realistic goals this year. I want to get the community involved and get support from the small business in the Old Ottawa South area. I’d also like to raise 9K (thousand dollars) with 9K (km) for research and awareness. By doing so, I am hoping that more people will learn about the foundation and what we do for women’s health in Canada.

 So what do we all need to know to get involved?

It will be held in Ottawa (780 Echo Drive) on Sunday, October 23, 2011 (registration is at 7 a.m.). It’s a fun event, to highlight pregnant women and raise awareness about the fact that pregnancy can come with its challenges….or bumps on the road, if you will. Men, women and children are encouraged to join healthy pregnant women for this event and wear a fake belly for the walk. The registration fee is $60 per person and prizes will be available to those who raise the highest amount.

Good luck Chantal! To register for the event, visit www.cfwh.org or go directly to the online registration website.

Poetry and Philanthrophy: Bywords 7th annual Cornerstone fundraiser and spring launch

Spring edition of Bywords Quarterly Journal

Amanda Earl has published poetry chapbooks with above/ground press and Book Thug. Amanda is also the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the Bywords Quarterly Journal, the angel of AngelHousePress and the curator of Experiment-o.com, an annual journal that celebrates the art of risk. Today she is inviting you to Bywords.ca’s 7th Annual Cornerstone Fundraiser and Spring Launch next Saturday, May 28, at Elgin Street’s Manx Pub.

I’m very excited about our annual fundraiser for Cornerstone. It’s important and it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Here’s a wee bit of info from Cornerstone, which provides emergency shelter and housing for women. With your help, they will provide the following this year:

• About 500 women will be offered safe emergency shelter and the support to start a new life beyond homelessness;
• About 200 women will have help to find safe, affordable, permanent housing;
• About 8,000 meals will be served;
•  About 100 women will receive support to move beyond addictions to recovery;
•  About 20 women will receive training in computer and job preparation skills.

Rod Pederson will perform at the BQJ fundraiser (Photo by Pearl Pirie, via Flickr)

In previous years, Bywords has raised $300 to $400 in support of Cornerstone. With your help, we can help Cornerstone. Just think $90 feeds one woman for a month. $50 will provide bus tickets for 25 women to get to doctor and housing appointments. And you will receive a free copy of the spring issue of the Bywords Quarterly Journal with your donation. The spring issue of the BQJ marks its 9^th year of publication. 

As managing editor of Bywords, I am thrilled to introduce audiences to the work of emerging poets and to provide opportunities for new and established poets to read and publish their work.

In addition to fantastic music by Jesse Cole — listen here — the event’s poetry readings will give you a chance to hear out of town, emerging and established poets:

• Emily Falvey is a former Ottawa resident, art curator who worked at the Ottawa Art Gallery and is now an independent curator. Her poetry is very visual and collage like.  This is a rare reading in Ottawa for Emily.
• Christian McPherson has a new poetry collection out: The sun has forgotten where I live. His poems are humorous and full of everyday life’s conundrums.
• Rod Pederson is the host of the Tree Reading Series, one of Ottawa’s most beloved poetry reading series and the driving force behind the new annual poetry festival VerseFest. His love of poetry shows in his own writing.
• Dimitra Xidous is an enthusiast of the duende who writes cosmopolitan and sensual poetry.

The BQJ fundraiser for Cornerstone will be held at The Manx, at 370 Elgin (Photo by Roadtripp, via Flickr)

The Cornerstone Fundraiser is particularly dear to my heart. It is one of two of Bywords community outreach initiatives; the other being the Walk for Life in the fall, in which we raise money and awareness of AIDS/HIV. I believe our role as a long standing part of Ottawa’s community — the original Bywords ran from 1990-2001 via the University of Ottawa  with Seymour Mayne, Gwendolyn Guth and Heather Ferguson — is to be part of the community and support its activities and participate in its well-being.

I hope you will join us on Saturday, May 28 at 5 p.m. at the Manx (370 Elgin Street) for great music, great poetry, great beer and a great cause.

Thanks, Amanda! Looking for more information? You can reach Amanda at amanda@bywords.ca. Or check out the Cornerstone website.

Congratulations! High school student Bronwyn Lefebvfre raises more than $10,000 for Lupus Ontario

Bronwyn Lefebvre is a high school student who will be attending Carleton University in the fall. In February she organized an ambitious fashion show, fundraising for Lupus Ontario – a disease she has lived with for 13 years.

This is Bronwyn’s very touching thank you speech:

Seven months ago the planning began to create and showcase a dream. The result: a successful event that I am so proud to have organized.

Bronwyn Lefebvfre

I would like to thank all of my sponsors who made this show possible including: Answermen, Mistura, Tress Exquisite Salon, SurePrint, The Tanning Lounge, Susan Campbell RMT, Boston Pizza and Palm Beach Mega Tan.

Another big thank you to all who have donated generously to Lupus Ontario.

Mr. Deller, and the wonderful Ms. Bonenfant, who have bent over backwards for me and have helped me through so much! I very much appreciate it and will never forget your generosity.

The VOYAGE fashion show committee and models: although we had our ups and downs, you helped me realize how amazing people are and it is truly touching. Your countless hours of help, and sincerity and support has shaped me into a better person and I am so fortunate to have had all of you accompany me on creating this dream and allowing it to come true.

To my set designers, Opala and Alenka, who took a vision I had and created it on canvas-  you are truly amazing! My performers who have generously donated their time to showcase their talents. The tech team for allowing this night to be possible and setting up the stage, music, lights, everything! You guys are awesome and are extremely talented and I wish you nothing but success in the future. Thank you to Mr. Murphy and Mr. Mes for having my back and helping me whenever I was in need.

My beautiful friends who have helped me through this journey and given me their time and effort all to make this show a success. I will forever cherish your friendships and thank the world for allowing me to have such beautiful people in my life.

And lastly my family. Mummy, Daddy, Evan and Oscar. Without you, this show would not have been possible. The months you have spent in order to help me produce a dream you knew I had from the very beginning, I so thankful to call you my family and even through the stress, you are always here to help me up when I fall and I love you with all my heart. Mum and Dad, thank you for bringing me into this world and raising me to be the person that I am today.

We have been struggling with this disease for 13 years and you have done everything to make sure I lived a normal life and I am so appreciative to be apart of you.

Being diagnosed with Lupus has kept me from living a life full of freedom and a childhood full of happiness. I never really liked talking about what I suffer from and what I’ve been through but after organizing this event, I have realized that I am not the only one who is suffering and that there are others going through the exact same thing.

Anything is possible: whether you are disabled or have a disease.

I was told that I wouldn’t make it to 20, but I’m 18 and I’m still standing here. I have short term memory, but I have still made gold honour roll and been accepted to my dream program at Carleton University.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you, you are not capable of something. You are capable of anything and everything. Voyage Fashion Show has allowed me to grow and realize that Lupus is a part of me and I am the person that I am today because of it.

This is who I am. Almost losing my life to this disease three times has taught me to live each day as if it were my last and that is why I wanted to run this show because this is the one thing that I have always wanted.

My goal was to raise $4,000. But on March 31st, 2011, I had discovered that over $10,000 was raised and I thank everyone for their tremendous support!

Congratulations Bronwyn, you truly are an inspiration. And from LTO – thank you to the handful of Local Tourists who donated in support of Bronwyn’s cause.

Congratulations Ottawa Twestival 2011!

We just wanted to send a quick shout out to the organizers of Ottawa Twestival 2011, who together with all of the attendees, raised $12,321 for the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health.

There were a ton of Local Tourists that showed up in support of the event, including Jessey and Amy, Hilary Duff, Jane Porter, Lara Wellman, Karen, and Mel Gallant (who we heard was there but never tracked her down because the place was so wonderfully jam packed). We also all got a chance to sample delicious cupcakes from Little Cakes.

Sure, Ottawa Twestival 2011 was a great space to meet some of Ottawa’s top tweeps, but most importantly, the funds went to a very important local cause.

A huge congratulations (and thank you) to the event organizers for surpassing their goal, and for using their love of Twitter and digital communications to make a difference in our community.

Well done!

What goes into a UN-wedding show … Q&A with ROUGE

http://www.rougeottawa.ca

ROUGE champions itself as Ottawa’s “ultimate bachelorette party,” where brides-to-be can take the wedding show experience out of the conference centre and into the nightclub. In fact, ROUGE calls itself an un-wedding show! Featuring local-only vendors, ROUGE takes place on March 26 at Mansion Nightclub, with proceeds from the $10 tickets going to support the AIDS Committee of Ottawa. Amy Karlin, of Splendid Events, lets us know what goes into planning a sexy, sultry bridal bonanza.

Where’d the idea for ROUGE come from?

Last fall I was having coffee with local photographer Vanessa Dewson, and she mentioned she’d been wanting to get involved in a red-carpet event and wanted to know if I could lend a hand on the planning side. She wanted to give women a chance to get dolled up, have a great night out, and have some professional, high-fashion photos taken with their BFFs — an updated 2011 version of Glamour Shots, if you will!  We got talking with the ladies at Luxe Bridal who had been dreaming up something similar, they brought in the incredible team at Clould in the Sky Studios, and after a lot of coffee and brainstorming, Rouge was born.

Ottawa’s wedding show season sees a half-dozen bridal shows come through the city. Why do you think an ‘unwedding’ show is needed? And what is an unwedding show anyway?

An un-wedding show is an opportunity for brides to meet wedding pros outside the typical trade show environment.  Instead of going from booth to booth to meet vendor after vendor and collect business cards, they’ll actually get to see us at work as we throw an amazing celebration.  They’ll try delicious cupcakes, have incredible photos taken with their best friends, and see us flawlessly coordinate a great party, rather than just hear our sales pitches.  We’re letting our work speak for itself!

You’ve assembled a team of Ottawa-only vendors for the event. What type of wedding talent does the city offer? How do you think our local businesses vary from those in other cities?

The amount of top-notch wedding talent here in Ottawa never fails to amaze me.  In the past two to three years there’s been an explosion of small businesses — many owned by women — who truly focus on quality and client experience rather than quantity or sheer sales numbers.  Luxe Bridal, Auntie Loo’s Treats and Flowers Talk are a few of my personal favorites.

I think Ottawa’s local businesses are unique compared to those in other cities because we’re all so supportive of each other.  We all want to have a competitive edge but we’re also eager to help each other out, share our experiences and tackle challenges together.  That’s something I haven’t heard of in a lot of other cities, especially in the wedding industry.

We’ve all heard tales of, perhaps even experienced, a Bridezilla. Being an event planner yourself, how do you calm those nerves?

As a planner, I have to say that the best remedy for nerves is often good planning.  Knowing that a trained professional knows all the details of your wedding inside out and backwards goes a long way to maintaining piece of mind.  But everyone has a moment or two where they feel a bit overwhelmed.

To deal with those nerves, I always recommend that my client couples go out on a date a few weeks before the wedding where all wedding talk is strictly off-limits.  Sharing a few hours together with a great meal, a bottle of wine, and the love of your life is probably the best thing you can do to regain perspective and remember what’s really important: your relationship!

What’s been the most memorable wedding you, personally, have been involved with in Ottawa?

Great question!  The most memorable Ottawa wedding I’ve been involved in was last spring at the National Gallery of Canada.  The bride and groom were from two different backgrounds and created their wedding day in such a way that both sides of the family had a chance to learn a bit more about the other.  They wrote the entire wedding ceremony themselves, including only the traditions that were important to them as a couple: some from each side of the family and some new traditions they had started together.

The couple also relied 100 per cent on local businesses, from caterers and florists to artisan bakers and cheese makers. Since many of their invitees were from out of town and even from other countries, their guests really got to experience a made-in-Ottawa wedding. Basically, the couple’s personalities were evident in the entire day from start to finish, which made their wedding both meaningful and intimate.

ROUGE has partnered with the Aids Committee of Ottawa for this event. Tell us a bit about that charity.

From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to partner with an AIDS charity for ROUGE.  Even today, people suffering from AIDS often feel marginalized and stigmatized, so we were eager to work with a charity that provides hope and support to those same people.  We chose the AIDS Committee of Ottawa because they have such a long history here in Ottawa: Since 1985, the ACO has offered support, prevention and education services to the local community.

The ACO also operates The Living Room, a drop-in centre that provides free, confidential, practical and support services to people living with or closely affected by HIV/AIDS.

What will be the most special thing brides-to-be can expect from ROUGE?

I think the most special things brides can expect from ROUGE is that they get have a truly memorable night out with their best friends, meeting top-notch vendors and trying their products and services without feeling sold to. Plus they get to support a great cause, the ACO.  We like to add a little sass to the mix so there will definitely be a few sultry surprises that night — this is not your mamma’s bachelorette!

Are you planning to attend ROUGE on March 26? Send us a note!