2012: A blog is born

I never wanted to be a wedding planner. I was on track to be a lawyer, working as a Law Clerk in Ottawa until I could afford to go to law school. A colleague of mine was engaged and asked for help designing her wedding. After realizing that there were no impartial, pretty and insightful resources or vendor guides online for Ottawa brides, I launched a local wedding blog with a highly curated vendor list along with contemporary design ideas. It was called “Satin & Snow”

2013: The blog takes off

Satin & Snow started receiving submissions from vendors across the world. It won multiple awards for Best Canadian Wedding Blog and was Canada’s first fine art wedding website. I learned basic coding skills, SEO strategies, researched the international wedding industry, and learned everything I could about a wedding day. It was a hands-on education into the wedding industry, and I started to realize that I wanted to do more than run a website: I wanted to run a full business.

2014: From blog to business

While I was still working at the law firm, I decided to offer wedding planning and event design services through Satin & Snow. I was immediately booked up for the entire year. I had brilliant couples, healthy budgets and was executing major design contracts right out of the gate. It was an exhilarating but intense time. I spent my days at the law firm, my evenings in client meetings and my nights doing admin, averaging 20+ hours a day working between the two jobs for the whole year.

2015: Sink or Swim

After a solid year of hustling and140+ hour work weeks, I knew it wasn’t sustainable. I brought on a team of amazing women to help me run the show, but I also knew it was time to leave the law firm permanently and start my adventure into self-employment. I’ve never looked back.

2016: Flowers in the Basement

Satin & Snow was born in my little 1bd apartment, but in 2016 I starting offering floral design services in addition to planning. It took off, and my apartment was covered in flowers day and night: in the bedroom, bathroom, on the balcony… it was crazy! I ended up renting a much larger house where I could finally have an office (the dining room), showroom (the living room), and a floral processing area (the basement).

2017: From Basement to Boutique

We outgrew the house in less than a year! We moved out of the house and I rented an adorable boutique in Wellington West in Ottawa that became our new floral production site, and we started selling retail wedding goods and giftware as well, making us the first wedding-specific shop in the entire region. We also won “Best Wedding Planner” at the Ottawa Wedding Awards: the highest honour we can achieve in Ottawa.

2018: Fresh Face, New Space (again)

We needed more room, yet again! It was also time to refresh our brand. Satin & Snow sounded too fluffy for our modern team. My last name is Swedish and the proper pronunciation is “freed” – a word that suits our style and attitude perfectly. I found a giant, beautiful warehouse in Kanata, so we moved in May and launched the new brand: Frid Events.

2019: We go International

We got our first international wedding in Santorini, Greece! After realizing that every year from November – May we don’t have any events, I decided that when I finished that wedding, I’d stay overseas and travel the world until May. I got an apartment in Bali, Indonesia and worked abroad for the winter months, something I plan to do every year moving forward. In the coming years, we’ll likely have a full Frid Events International team (shhhh, it’s still in the works).

2020: CoVid Strikes

The pandemic hit us hard, but we’re resilient! I came home from Bali and decided to close our studio in Kanata permanently to save costs, but our whole team is still operational. I’m excited to see where we end up in 2021!