We are an award-winning, full-service event planning company located in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. We provide the inspiration, the experience, and the integrity necessary to make any event perfectly unique.
Since your dreams and desires are particular to you as an individual, we believe that catering to your individuality is the key to an extraordinary wedding.
Getting to know you as a person, and helping to express your distinctive style as creatively and luxuriously as possible, is our most important goal. This philosophy underlies everything we do, from meeting you the first time to preparing you to walk down the aisle.
Alicia Keats Weddings + Events has been named ‘One of the top planners in the world’ – Vogue Magazine.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced while planning an event and how did you overcome it?
So many come to mind, part of planning an event seems to be overcoming challenges and thinking quickly and creatively to find the perfect solution. Last year we were told 48 hours before one of our weddings that the venue was going to be going on strike and that we needed to find a new venue for the wedding. It was an intense few hours but with the support of our incredible industry we found a new venue and it came together perfectly, so much so that we felt once it was over that the wedding should have always been at that venue in the first place.
Personally, I feel that the biggest challenges are always the personal ones. The ones with something happening behind the scenes for our couples, such as family politics, etc. I find those to be the hardest and most heartbreaking challenges.
What are 2 trends in the event planning industry that you’re excited about?
We are seeing couples embracing the intimate wedding, due to COVID-19. Lots of attention paid to spoiling guests, a beautiful setting, and very personal elements. We are loving these celebrations and feel so lucky to be a part of them.
If you had unlimited resources, what would your dream client and event look like?
We love multi-day events that focus on the guest experience. We love building excitement for the wedding leading up to the wedding and then spoiling guests through every part of the wedding weekend. We love it when we are able to be a part of the rehearsal dinner, welcome dinner, wedding, and after-wedding brunch. We really get to know our couples and their family and friends this way and it is so much fun to celebrate our couples in different ways.
Our dream clients love being organized, good communicators, trust us, and want to share in the planning process.
How important are your relationships with vendors and what are some ways that you successfully cultivate and ensure good rapport?
I believe that I am nothing without my team of creatives behind me. I love creating a vendor team that believes we are all on the same team, working together with the same unified goal in mind, making our couples happy and their dreams come true. I want everyone I work with to feel supported, heard, and that their needs are being met as when all of those things are happening at the same time, true magic happens.
What inspired you to launch your own company in the event industry? How long did it take from initially having the idea to setting up and starting to attract a client base?
We felt that there was an opportunity in our local market for a company that was truly focused on the client experience. That would take a limited number of weddings and devote themselves to each couple so they could have a planning experience that was designed just for them. By doing this, the client would feel like they were the only client we were working with during their planning experience.
We have stayed small and mighty since we started, ten years ago, holding true to this singular goal.
What’s the first event you can ever remember planning and how did it go?
I remember my very first wedding in clear detail as it was the wedding that solidified that this was what I was meant to do. It had some bumps (the best man lost the wedding rings for a few minutes) but I loved every second.
What’s the most surprising or unusual request you have ever received from a client and were you able to fulfill it?
There have been many! One that comes to mind was needing to find Vegas-style servers for an after-party.
