BLISS
Inspired, Experienced, Authentic
“One of the best wedding planners in Toronto”
-TorontoLife.com 2013 ‘Wedding Guide: the best Toronto wedding planners
Winner of the prestigious Canadian Event Industry award for “Best Wedding” 2008, Tara O’Grady and her team of event professionals have been designing memorable wedding and events since 2003.
Editor’s Note: for this Best Wedding Planners in Toronto Spotlight, we had the pleasure of interviewing Toronto wedding planner Tara, from BLISS.
Where have you been featured?
In addition to being the “Wedding Expert” on CityLine with Marilyn Dennis, resident on-air Wedding Planner on Life Network’s popular reality series “Exchanging Vows” and the 2006 season of “Rich Bride, Poor Bride”, her expertise has been featured in a number of leading national publications and programs including: Toronto Life (quoted as one of Toronto’s busiest Wedding Planners), Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, CFRB Radio 1010, Global News, Style at Home, Globe & Mail, Toro Magazine, Calgary Herald, Playback Magazine, Readers Digest, Canadian Living Magazine & Television and Wedding Bells.
What types of weddings do you specialize in?
We specialize in every kind of wedding, but we mostly work in downtown Toronto, or we work a lot in Niagara on the Lake, and we also do a lot of more intimate home-based weddings. I think we specialize in couples who are in their early to mid-thirties, they are busy professionals, they are excited to collaborate on the creative process but also really heavily lean on our expertise because they have limited time.
Why do couples love working with you?
We have an amazing team here at Bliss and we genuinely care about the couples that come through our doors. The name of our company sort of indicates it all – we are very positive, we are very happy, we work in a collaborative office, there’s always people here to answer the phone, there’s always people here to bounce ideas off of, and we never say no. We do not believe that you have to have an absolutely outrageous budget in order to achieve the wedding of your dreams. We will do our best to come up with creative ideas to personalize a wedding even if the dollars aren’t there. We are committed to working with people to achieve their vision.
What do you love most about being a wedding planner?
I find it to be an extremely fulfilling job. It is the type of occupation that invites us into people’s personal lives; we are invited into people’s homes, we are invited to share one of the most important days in a family’s life. We’re not only invited to be there, but we assist with sculpting it and planning it. We develop these amazing relationships with our brides and our grooms and their families. And then we go on to work with siblings and we get to see similar groups of friends again. It’s a very privileged position to be in, to be invited into sharing people’s weddings.
How did you get started?
I founded the company eleven years ago this past March, and I started this company because I had seen one too many brides very stressed and anxious and not emotionally present on their wedding day. They just had too many things on their mind, they were worried if the DJ was going to show up, they were worried if the limo was going to show up, they were worried if everyone was going to have a good time. And I just thought to myself, when you put a year or more into planning your wedding, you should enjoy it! You should have someone working on your behalf to make sure that all of your plans are coming to life, and you don’t have to answer any questions, write any cheques, or have any last minute surprises. It should be a fun day, not a day that’s burdened with stress and anxiety.
What budget range do you cater to?
Mid-high
What typically happens at the beginning of the process when someone contacts you?
When someone contacts us, we send back an immediate reply where we let them know if we have availability on their dates, and we also supply with a description of our services and our fees so that people know right off the top if their budget will allow them to work with us.
Client Testimonial
Tara, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making Tricia & Adam’s wedding such a magical event. It was amazing to see their vision realized with such precision and beauty… our families and friends are still raving about “the best wedding ever”. I thought you should know that in their reviews of the wedding, praise for your professionalism, attention to detail and loveliness are always mentioned. Thanks again.. and may you make many more weddings as awesome and memorable as you did Tricia and Adam’s.
Client Testimonial
Jamie and I are in Paris and just enjoyed a lovely meal together, and truthfully we cannot stop talking about how perfect our wedding was, and how entirely attributable that is to YOU! Anyway…we both left the restaurant and simultaneously stated that we missed you. Just a thought on a lovely Parisian night! Say bonjour to toute la famille!!
Client Testimonial
I was amazed by the beauty of the reception and the chapel – it was everything that I wanted and you did an amazing job of realizing my vision for the wedding. I have gotten so much feedback about our wedding. The comments range from: ‘it was the best wedding we’ve been to…’; ‘It was very well organized and ran perfectly’; ‘The décor was stunning’; ‘Wow, a wedding planner is really worth it! Wish we had one at our wedding.’ It was my dream wedding, and you really helped make it come true.
