Filosophi Event Planning and Design

We had Katie with the take over service. She was phenomenal from beginning to end. It is absolutely necessary to have a planner if you want to remain sane during this process and you should definitely hire Filosophi. She was on point on the day without skipping a beat, very attentive to detail and made everything flow flawlessly. We definitely attribute Katie to being a key figure in the huge success of the best day of our lives.

Where do we even begin, describing our appreciation and endless love for Shirley Glua - our wedding planner miracle worker with Filosophi. We hired Shirley for a day-of and takeover service - and what we got was so much more. We had a magical wedding, a vision that Shirley brought to life for us and turned out above and beyond our widest dreams (which trust us, were wild!).

Right from the start, we shared with Shirley our intention: a wedding that is intimate and inviting, all about embracing our families and the love and acceptance that we all share. We wanted our guests to feel relaxed and embraced. Ours was a same-sex, Chinese-Jewish wedding, and a first of such kind for all of our guests. We wanted to embrace the uniqueness of what makes us - us; and, we wanted to show them how it is all done: full of fun, sparkles, good food, and an open bar of course! We chose a beautiful but empty venue space that required a full build-out supporting 150 guests. All this a tall order - which Shirley made happen for us in every way.

The circumstances surrounding our wedding were less than ideal - scheduled for March 14th just days after a global pandemic was officially called. Planning a wedding in normal circumstances can feel like an emotional rollercoaster, planing a wedding in combination with these circumstances felt like scaling Mt Everest in the midst of a blizzard. Shirley was there three steps ahead of us at every turn: guiding us, calming us, loving us, supporting us. With constant and significant changes right up to the eve of the big day, working with a dwindling guest list, trying to put in place tweaks to our menu and catering protocols ensuring that each of our guests and vendors stayed and felt healthy and safe - brought to light all of Shirley’s experience, skill, professionalism, quick thinking and extensive connections with our many vendors (seriously, we don’t think there’s anyone in the industry that she doesn’t know). We really believe that if it weren’t for Shirley, we would’ve had to pull the plug and our special day would not have happened for us.

My husband (eek!) and I couldn’t be happier with Shirley and Filosphi, a consummate professional and above all - a true Mensch! For these reasons and beyond, Shirley has earned our highest recommendation as your wedding planner!

We had an amazing wedding this past weekend that we are still reminiscing on and can't stop talking about and probably won't for the rest of our lives and we have to thank Filosophi, specifically Margaux for all of her support in executing such a perfect day. From our very first meeting with Margaux we knew that we would be in good hands. She is professional, organized, warm and an all around amazing person and we couldn't have done our wedding without her. Margaux and her team's efforts to bring our vision to life for our wedding was a success and honestly brought us to tears (of joy). We would never hesitate to recommend them to everyone we know, for any event. We love you Margaux!!!! Robin + April

It was recommended to my mother and I that we hire a day of coordinator for our wedding, so I started researching and found all these great reviews of Filosophi. Ladies and gents, they do not disappoint! I booked the takeover package (as opposed to a full plan) and was quickly matched with Margaux, who was a dream to work with. Having her on call throughout the planning process was amazing. She offered great recommendations for trustworthy vendors and tricky planning conundrums, and her experienced advice made my mum feel comfortable, which was a huge deal for me. Margaux was super flexible when it was time to pass things off and from that point on made my experience as a bride a smooth ride, no matter what cropped up. Just one specific example is when she went out of her way to acquire a balloon for our flower girl to hold when we discovered at the last minute that our Plan A of bubbles wasn't allowed - happy four-year-old, happy bride!

Interesting side note: When our vendors would find out we were working with Filosophi/Margaux they all looked visibly relieved or absolutely glowed. They're a favourite for a reason.

Unfortunately I am unable to leave a glowing review. Our wedding was small, around 40 guests, and it felt like we were treated like an easy side project. Barely had any contact leading up to the event, and comments like 'you guys are my wedding that organises itself' and 'it's basically a bigger dinner party' did not make us feel particularly special.

We didn't really get to know each other and I never felt like our planner really listened. A good example how little she knew me was when she told me to make sure to speak up during the ceremony since I am soft spoken... I am probably the opposite of soft spoken.

It was definitely good to have somebody run things on the day. However when looking up to find Erica after the ceremony to cue us to walk out, she was not were she said she would be standing but off if the back having a chat. When I came into the dining area after photos to grab some food, the larger table cards were supposed to be propped up by little animal magnets. Instead they were lying on the table, some quite scattered. To be fair I could have been more specific on how to place them instead of assuming that they would be attached to the table cards so they would stand upright. So myself and the maid of honor scrambled to amend this as people started coming in for dinner.

At the end of the night she sat at the main table on her laptop. I assume she was working, maybe on another wedding. The groom was helping some guests try to figure out how to get a cab and he felt like he was inconveniencing her to help. Of course this is hear say, I was not present, but it's a shame he felt this way.

Quite a few people commented on her casual appearance, it did look like she was wearing leggings...

In the end our wedding day was still the most amazing and beautiful day ever. Everything went great and there were no hiccups, and I am grateful to Erica and assistant for running the day so well! It's just that there were those few above mentioned things that could have been better and after all of it I am not sure if it was worth the price tag.

My husband and I worked with Shirley Glua from Filosophi who assisted with takeover planning, as well as event design, for our recent wedding in my childhood backyard (Ceremony) and the Polygon Gallery (reception) in August. Shirley was an absolute superstar! From the get go, she had calls with us to clearly outline the takeover process and walk through what information we needed to have ready/booked for when she would takeover later in the summer. She also had the most phenomenal decor/design ideas of the wedding, which showcased a very clear understanding of our design inspiration from our pinterest board and conversations we had related to what we were looking for. As we neared our wedding day, Shirley was very communicative in responding to our many (sorry!) emails, and got on the phone with us as needed to discuss relevant details as we were planning our BC wedding from Toronto. She made us feel great about what we had planned and how ready we were and once the wedding day arrived everything went off without a hitch! We are so incredibly pleased with how everything flowed logistically and the ending decor design at both venues were perfect and exactly what we had envisioned. It was such a pleasure working with Shirley and her team - they are true experts in what they do, which is evidenced by how well everything went to make our day exactly how we had dreamed. Thank you SO much to Shirley and Filosophi for making our day so perfect!

Using Shirley as our Day of Coordinator was the best insurance for ensuring our event was managed without any surprises. From behind the scene, Shirley and the rest of the Filosophi team, allowed us to enjoy our daughter's wedding to the fullest. Shirley managed all the vendors as well provided us with great advice to ensure we had not missed anything. We definitely recommend using Shirley G and the Filosophi team!

I knew when I chose Filosophi that I was choosing to spend a little more money for what I perceived as the top choice for our wedding planners... and it was worth every penny. We had a 200 person wedding and by having Erin and her team there I was actually able to enjoy my every minute! I am very type A so I knew I needed someone who was more on the ball than I am, and they definitely were. I was so relaxed that everything was taken care of. During the ceremony I noticed that they had taken care of a few things that I had forgotten about in the excitement, and they did a much better job of everything than I ever could have. On top of it all, Erin is a very chill presence to have with you on the day!

Rebecca, our wedding planner did a perfect job making sure for our day went smoothly. She created the timetable for all our vendors to schedule their duties and decorate our venue exactly how we envisioned, and made sure that our would-be hectic wedding went as timely as possible.

Margaux at Filosophi was amazing. We met with her twice to discuss our wedding and vision. She was there for me to ask for recommendations of vendors. Her and her assistants were extremely helpful and professional. They made my vision a reality everything looked just the way i imagined! Best day ever!