Negin Kazemian, PhD
Negin is the Head of Editorial at RSVP'd and the founder and CEO of Okanagan Wedding Company, a wedding and events rental business she runs from Fort Langley, BC. She holds a PhD in microbiome research from UBC Okanagan, where she was named an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholar, and her work has been cited more than 780 times across 12 peer-reviewed papers. She also serves as Director of Research at PositionScale. Born in Tehran and raised in Kelowna, she writes about Persian traditions, the cross-cultural realities of modern weddings, and how to plan one without losing your mind or the meaning.
Based in Fort Langley, BC
13 pieces by Negin Kazemian, PhD
Dinner Party Planning with AI: A Host's Field Guide
A field guide to hosting a six to twelve person dinner party, with notes on which parts of the planning you can actually automate and which parts you can't.
How to Save Money on Your Wedding in 2026
A practical, culturally-aware guide to cutting $5,000 to $20,000 from a wedding without making it feel like you cut anything.
The First 90 Days After the Engagement
What to actually do in the first three months after getting engaged. Mostly it's conversations. Almost none of it is vendor bookings.
Coordinator, Planner, or Platform: Which Do You Actually Need?
Day-of coordinators, full planners, and planning platforms each solve different problems. A plain-language guide to which one your wedding actually calls for.
Setting Up a Sofreh Aghd: The Complete Shopping List
Every element of a traditional Persian sofreh aghd, where to source them, and what to skip. A working shopping list from someone who built her own.
Cultural Wedding Budgets: What Families Actually Spend
Real wedding budget ranges by culture, what drives the numbers, and the uncomfortable conversations about who actually pays for what.
How to Pick a Wedding Venue Without Regret
What couples miss on venue tours, the hidden costs nobody talks about, and the audit you should do before signing anything.
The Persian Wedding Guide: Sofreh Aghd, Aghd, and Aroosi
A Persian wedding, from khastegari to aroosi, explained by someone born in Tehran and married in Vancouver. With the meaning behind every element of the sofreh.
The 15-Month Wedding Timeline (And When It Falls Apart)
The ideal 15-month wedding timeline and the three moments it always cracks. How to absorb delays without compounding them into something worse.
Save the Dates: When to Send, What to Say, What to Skip
A practical guide to save the dates: timing, content, paper vs. digital, cultural variations, and the mistakes almost every couple makes.
How to Build a Guest List Without Starting a Family War
The honest politics of building a wedding guest list, with cultural context for families who want to invite 300 people before you've started.
The DIY Wedding: How to Plan Without a $3,000 Coordinator
A frank look at what a day-of coordinator actually does, what you can safely replace, and the three moments you really do need a professional.
The Wedding Planning Checklist: A Month-by-Month Roadmap
A 15-month wedding planning roadmap with the real deadlines that matter, written by someone who has coordinated five family weddings across three continents.