In the child's world of Angelique Sobschak, Ken and Barbie didn't just hang out at the beach or ride around in Barbie's pink Corvette – they met at the altar in a wedding ceremony meticulously planned and orchestrated by the little girl.
And while Ken and Barbie began their lives together in wedded bliss, the young Angelique had already moved on to sketching the wedding gowns of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah Ferguson, soon-to-be Duchess of York...
“I even hid in parking lots to watch weddings and I stole the little flowers off the cars,” says Angelique flashing a dazzling smile.
Weddings, it seemed, were to be her destiny.
The path to that future, however, had a few forks in the road that initially took her in a different direction.
Angelique, who makes her home in St. Catharines, is the owner of Angelique's Weddings and Events, and is one of the celebrity wedding planners on the Slice Network's Rich Bride, Poor Bride and its new series, Rich Groom, Poor Groom.
But before her involvement in this very successful enterprise, Angelique  ran her own modeling and talent agency.   
With an eye for all that glitters and a mind for business, Angelique ran the Real Models and Talent Agency from about 1995 to 2002.
“I loved art and drama, as a child I wanted to be an actress on TV,” says Angelique. “I wanted people to pay attention to me, I wanted to be the center of attention!”
Angelique was married at 18 and had her first child a year later. Just as she was settling into her role of wife and stay-at-home mom, her husband was laid off and she found herself headed back to school.
She studied fashion merchandising at Niagara College which prepared her for her work in the world of modeling as she chose the clothing, models and music for runway work. She produced some top Canadian talent and had models working the runways of Tokyo, Paris and Italy.
And of course, Angelique was ahead of the curve. Her models were real people, not just stick-thin girls.
“The industry wasn't ready to show realism,” she says philosophically. “I wanted to show that you could be a size 8 or a size 14 or walk with a cane or be in a wheelchair and still be gorgeous.”
In the years since Angelique's decision to close her modeling agency this concept has been more widely embraced by other such agencies and by big business.
“The world just wasn't ready then,” she said.
She had enjoyed the success of her first undertaking but a few bad experiences told her it was time to move on.
Of course, Angelique wasn't one to look back. She was already on to other projects. It was time to move forward with her life-long dream to become a wedding planner. She took the small business course at Niagara College in 2005 and, using $800 of her own money, had seven weddings booked and ready to go before she had even graduated.
In her new enterprise she used the skills she had honed in her previous business and became a master at networking. She requested to be put on referral lists from all those businesses she needed to put together a wedding – florists, photographers, reception halls, bakeries – and got it. She made a point of treating her vendors well, recommending them in return. She did a few weddings at no charge and word began to spread in an industry where your reputation  – and treating your contacts well – is everything.
Then in 2006 she received a call from a former contact in the modeling industry who just happened to be looking for a wedding planner for a new TV show. She submitted her head shot and resume, was called for an audition and soon stepped into an on-screen role that gave her the best of both worlds: her love for the glamour of weddings and her childhood dream of being in front of the camera.
Rich Bride, Poor Bride, has aired in 85 countries worldwide on networks such as Oxygen and HGTV and although the show wrapped up last April, she immediately stepped into the new TV show for the Slice Network, Rich Groom, Poor Groom.
Each episode takes about two months to film.
In this new show, it is the groom's job to make all the important decisions based on how well he knows his bride – even the choice of her gown.
“We dress her in what he chooses,” says Angelique. “We blindfold the bride, she can't see the dress and she can't touch it.”
And sometimes this doesn't go over well...
“One groom bought his bride a pantsuit because he had never seen her wear a dress. He didn't understand that on her wedding day she wanted to be a princess.
“She wouldn't come out, filming was late...” says Angelique.
In the world of a wedding planning, whether on the worldwide stage or here at home, there is little she hasn't seen.
She's had sick brides and stingy brides and brides who decided they didn't like their hairstyle and jumped into the shower at about the time they should have been walking down the aisle. She has even had brides who held Angelique responsible when it rained.
“People ask me why my contracts are so specific and detailed, it's usually because of something that has actually happened!”
Like the time she and her staff had to open hundreds of pudding cups because the couple decided to go ultra cheap and provide a meal in crockpots instead of paying a caterer. Never again, she says.
But the ceremonies themselves seem to hold the most interesting moments – and the moments where it pays to be alert and prepared. At least as well prepared as one can be.
Family feuds sometimes carry over even on what should be a sacred day. In one memorable case, the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride showed up wearing almost identical gowns – and that was just the beginning.
“The two families had been friends and the kids fell in love.”
Something happened that caused a rift between the two families and bad feelings were simmering. When the mother of the groom was heard chatting during the speeches, the mother of the bride decided to silence her – by stabbing her in the back of the hand with a fork, drawing blood.
Retaliation was instant, the offender was slapped in the face and all-out war erupted complete with screaming and recriminations, sending the bride running to the ladies' room crying out to the packed reception hall that her mother had ruined her wedding.
Angelique and company kicked into damage control and the reception eventually resumed – albeit with the mothers now sitting on opposite sides of the room.
And there was the time when an ambulance had to be called after a somewhat inebriated guest ate the centerpiece on a dare.
Eating a floral centerpiece would have been bad enough but this particular table topper was a Chinese fighting fish swimming in a delicate bowl complete with floating candle.
“This guy grabbed the mic and said that someone said he wouldn't do it so he “chugged the fish',” says Angelique. Turns out the fish was poisonous and she found herself on the phone with 911 explaining she was calling from a wedding reception because someone had eaten the fish but no, it wasn't on the menu.
“He was pretty grey by the time the ambulance got here.” Angelique presented paramedics with a live version of the one that had been swallowed and the wedding celebrations carried on.
Hers, of course is the face everyone looks to when something goes wrong.
“I'm the calm face, I need to make everyone believe nothing is wrong.”
And calm she remains, even when carrying a burning tablecloth outside and stomping on it to put it out!
“Always think ‘what is the worst that could happen?' and plan for it,” she says adding that a needle and thread and antacids are among the things she carries with her to take care of some of the more easily handled crises.
“Keep things smooth and keep things moving,” she says. “The best compliments I get are when the parents say ‘we don't know what we would have done without you'.”
Because when it comes to wedding planning, she knows her stuff.
“Couples need to know how much a wedding actually costs,” says Angelique. “The average Canadian wedding costs $40,000.”
And couples need to be practical. “Don't expect what you see in magazines,” she cautioned.
If couples were to get married in the off season, between November and April, and get married on a Tuesday for example instead of a Saturday, there are savings to be had.
As for Angelique, a beautiful ceremony and a happy couple still bring her to tears. She feels like someone's fairy godmother and loves the magic that ensues as couple take their vows.
“In one wedding the groom was confined to a wheelchair and he held his mom and then his bride on his lap as he spun them around the dance floor. It was so beautiful, I cried.”
And it is the tears perhaps, that keep her still loving the business.
“The minute I stop crying, it means I've stopped caring and it's time to get out.”

Angelique Sobschak can be reached at angelique@angeliquesweddings.com