As an event and wedding planner for 28 years, Jane Dayus-Hinch stopped counting the weddings she had a hand in planning when she reached 1,000.
But the host of Wedding SOS still gets goosebumps at the magical moment right before the ceremony — when the bride and her father are poised to walk down the aisle and everyone stands.
“You can almost hear the heart beats,” she said tapping her chest.
“And you look at the bride groom at the end. And she walks down the aisle. That’s it for me,” said Dayus-Hinch who shared her wisdom with brides-to-be at With this Ring Bridal Gala at the Westerner on the weekend.
She was first captivated by weddings when she was four-years old.
“We lived opposite a beautiful little church, literally across the road. On the Saturday, the bells rang. My mother said put your princess dress on. We went across. The princess came out and it was the bride. I was hooked.”
Wedding SOS ran for five seasons on Slice television.
“One of the reasons Dayus-Hinch said yes to the show was because she thought it was to be filmed in England. But she was destined to be the wedding fairy godmother for Canada.
“They gave me 10 days to move to Toronto. I thought I was only coming for six months. I had 11 weddings of my own and 13 weddings here. So I had to fly back 11 times in six months.
“I’ve done over 68 flights now in five years with Transat who have now given me my own wings,” she said while smoothing out her lapel with a smile.
She found out Canada’s cultural diversity can sometimes make it trickier to pull together a wedding compared to the U.K.
“There’s far more interest for me because you’ve got far more fusion. There’s far more duel nationalities, duel culture, duel faith, food. There’s a lot more challenges that way.
“You can’t tell whose going to fall in love with each other.”
Compromise is the key to making the big day a success, she said.
Dayus-Hinch has now set up shop in Oakville, Ont. with her company JDH Weddings & Events.
She is launching an eight-week Wedding Academy for wedding planners and has filmed a pilot for a new wedding show currently under consideration by networks.
She ran a Plan Your Wedding in a Day workshop at the Red Deer bridal show.
Dayus-Hinch said the struggling economy has put a damper wedding festivities.
“For the last three years it’s been tough. The one thing killing the wedding industry here is destination weddings.”
She said women are shocked when she tells them to forget about a destination wedding where they could end up waiting in a long lineup of couples, receive a single flower instead of a bouquet, and a ceremony officiant speaking a language they don’t understand.
“It’s an absolute conveyor belt. It’s dreadful. And what I don’t get is why would you take 20, 30 people on your honeymoon?
“Why would you do that?
“You’ve got to put up with those people for a week.”
Her number one piece of advice for brides and bridegrooms is to have a backup plan. Have a silk arrangement of flowers handy, a groom’s cake in the kitchen in case of a pastry mishap, an alternate plan if weather interferes, and wedding insurance.
“Always have a plan A and have a plan B,” Dayus-Hinch warned.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com