wedding dances the nairobi way

one tradition locally in most of our weddings is dances that involve everyone. We go in circles dancing to popular songs. The great thing about our local song choices is that they have no tribal barrier.  Anything or song that's currently trending and loved across all age groups is acceptable interesting enough, we might not know the words but just enjoy the beats that are usually easy and fun to dance to.

 Our dancing traditions usually begin in the same way and the time that the bridal team arrives at the reception from the wedding photo shoots. The Mc announces their arrival and everyone stands to meet them and we dance in circles. Some dances are slow but some are really vigorous. I  love the pace of luhyia dances. They are usually vigorous when its immediately followed  by a slow dance then its easy to survive the dance duration.

 One thing about dancing at wedding reception is that it's easy to learn. No shame in holding back if you dont know how to dance to the song of the moment. Usually someone or more people already know it hence you learn as you move around. In a few cases, the mc usually introduces a few routines to be danced to. It usually take below 15 minutes for the dance to be enjoyed in a wedding. Hence its a  nice way to stretch  in a wedding and most times it comes after guests have already had lunch. You can try it if you haven't but if you have, you know its contagious to shake a leg.

Grass is always greener.......

2 years ago, I wrote about garden weddings being a popular selection for wedding receptions. That fact still applies a lot in Kenya. The way things are going, its not a trend that will go away soon.


Today I remembered the famous words that
"grass is always greener on the other side."I picked this meaning from urban dictionary online "comes from the idea of looking at a neighbour's lawn and seeing it as better looking, healthier and overall greener than your own when in reality you are just ignoring anything negative about it and downplaying anything positive about your own.

Finding a garden for your outdoor wedding is not the challenge. There is a lot of gardens that can hold different number of guests. Whether small or large. The quality of the grass differs though in different seasons.

There are grounds that rely on rainfalls to water and give you good quality grass. Then there are those that are well taken care of and even during dry seasons, the grass is still green. Just like the saying, grass is always greener on the other side.....any ground for a garden wedding with lush gardens or not is suitable for any wedding or theme with just a little added creativity.

Wedding Reception timings

Months have passed so fast. 3 months already. This being since my last blog. I still have a second article to write after the last article, which hopefully I will get around it sometimes this month. When I wrote the last article, it was a cold season and it still is. That's how unpredictable the weather has become. More like Nairobi traffic on the weekends. It's a bit tricky to get the timings right when it comes to it.

Getting to today's article, it was usual for wedding receptions to begin between midday and 2pm in theory. With Nairobi traffic being factored in alongside with the distance from the ceremony to reception area, including where the bridal team had selected for photo shoot area, that usually meant that the far everything is from one another, the more it meant that guests would reach the reception really late and the bridal team made it as late as 4pm, that's an hour or two before the reception ended. A lot has changed though with time. That will be a discussion for another day on what's made this changes possible.


Receptions timings have greatly changed. What to consider when one sets the reception time? The distance from the ceremony and the reception still remains a major factor, the time of the month is also a contender. End months usually have crazy traffics in Nairobi. Its always like everyone drives their private cars. Considering whether the time selected will be possible for your guests to attend. If you have a wedding in the middle of the week, it becomes tricky for some guests to make certain times that you'd prefer. Cost and length of the reception. If you consider spending time with your guests and have ample time, then here is where the timing of your reception really comes in. A majority of the wedding receptions end either in good time or really late and the wedding couple along with a few guests gather at a different place for the evening dinner party. The stress of the days leading up to the wedding day itself might make all or some on the bridal team be too tired to enjoy themselves at this. This makes others settle for a late reception from 4pm afterwards to avoid an extra gathering and to spend as much time as possible with their guests.

Whatever works for the wedding couple, a consensus usually is that the timing selected helps them and their guests to have fun and enjoy themselves.

The all-inclusive wedding reception package......

Its already midmonth and the rains are here. What that usually means is traffic in nairobi-very crazy when it rains. Not to be forgotten is the fact that this translates into blackouts. we have more blackouts in rainy season than any other. Despite the fact that we have many wedding  planners who handle from low budget to high end budgets, a majority see this as unnecessary expense and always opt to working with wedding committee to plan for the wedding, raise cash and delegate wedding day responsibility to. Like I said at the beginning of the article, weather changes can affect traffic delays, making vendors unfortunately arrive later to a venue than originally intended. Due to this reason and the need to generate more revenues from a single event, more venues in Nairobi have come up with an all inclusive wedding reception package.

 The trend for many in Nairobi has always been and is still to do garden wedding reception irrespective of the weather. Many venues that own such grounds have over the years adjusted to being an all inclusive package providers for wedding receptions. This means they provide you with the food, flowers and decor, tents, chairs and the public address system. All you have to do is you and your guests show up. Your committee and yourself don't have to worry about chasing individual vendors to make sure what you need is provided and is there on time.

A complete wedding reception package can be stress free for most couples. With anything, there is always two sides to a coin. My next blog will be looking at the other side of the coin.

Dealing with the Millennial Bride

This past Sunday, Samantha Bridal Show on KTN TV had a segment where a Bride in her 50s was getting married for the 1st time. This doesn't surprise me as I knew 2 other brides who did so in 2010. Even though the number of those getting married at that age might still be there for a while, there is a different age set, capturing the highest percentage locally that is on the wedding scene today than any other. This is what is considered millennial.

Who exactly is a milennial? I have found varying age groups of whose being included in it. 2 years ago, when it was discussed in weddingmarket chat using the hash tag on twitter, they were seen as age group born between 1979-2000. That makes them between the ages of 14 and 35 years. They are famously referred to as Generation Y. Another person online defined the age group as being born between the years 1982 and 2000. Irrespective of which age set amongst the two best suits your definition of Generation Y, they both were in agreement of the characteristics that are generally representative of this group.

In a local market where a majority of brides are below 35 years, understanding them and their needs is very important.By our local government's definition, 35 years is the cut mark of what is considered youths for the sake of benefiting from youth fund and other privileges reserved for this age set. The millennials have changed a lot of how weddings are done and what they expect from vendors. One thing that many who speak about this group refer to them as as the internet generation. Going through twitter's hash tag Kenyans On Twitter (#KOT), confirmed that a majority of them (millennials) get the news they need from social media. Advertisements that are in the social media reach them faster than on printed pages. Being present in the social media is important for a wedding vendor. Through keeping regularly updated accounts makes it easy to reach them. A Facebook business page with pictures containing sample of the work done gives the millennial bride the feel of what a particular vendor does and the kind of clients you handle. Not also forgetting what pinterest and other options available can do to reach a wide range of millennial brides. Using a variety makes it possible to reach as many brides as possible.  The social media has also made it easier for the millennial bride to do comparison online shopping before settling on a vendor.

The thing about the internet is that it can easily build or destroy a reputation. A quality that ties with this is the fact that millennials are considered to express themselves online a lot, are more open-minded and receptive to new ideas. If you don't get them what they want, expect them to call you out on twitter. The internet makes it easy to find a replacement for a vendor online very fast. The fact that they don't rely on non-traditional ways of doing weddings. A dissatisfied bride might easily cost a vendor one or two future brides through negative online remarks and sometimes images, if not handled well and promptly.  An online presence means also that communication is expected at the same rate as face to face response in order to satisfy the millennial bride. Almost an impossible scenario also in real life but always trying to give a faster and personalized response keeps this kind of client around.

Millennials are also considered to be individuals who prefer flexible work schedules, more 'me time' on the job and nearly nonstop feedback and career advice from managers. With this quality it is understandable why they prefer their unique individuality to stand out on their weddings. This manifests itself in different ways:
One is through the many Do-It-Yourselves (DIY) brides that we see. I recently watched a Bridal reality TV show locally where she actually opted to go to the online shopping website OLX, to buy a brand new red carpet so that she could be the 1st one to use it. After her wedding, she immediately sold it along with a few customized items for her wedding that she had bought online. Its impossible to work with the millennial bride if a wedding vendor is against them being heavily involved and almost in a way micro-managing their big day. When it comes to the millennial brides, the motto should be to work for them and with them.

The other thing about millennial brides is that its important for them, that the wedding stand out from the rest by being as original as possible. A wedding to them is an experience that allows them to show their personal style making the experience meaningful to them and their guests. They want their families and friends to remember something about their big day as the opinion of both matters a lot to them. Millennial weddings are here for quite some years to come and so is the need to meet the unique demands that these couples bring to the table.

Dressing the bridesmaids 2

This month, I've been all about the bridesmaids. The type of the fabric for the dress matters a lot as we had seen. The maids need to look really good for the wedding. So you select the material and moving to the next step: the design of the dress. Why go on that direction?

A majority of Kenyan weddings, the bridesmaids dresses are custom made by local tailors, which is a great thing as its tailor made to fit individual bridesmaids. The number of weddings that buy from a shop locally or online for ready made dresses is still a small fraction compared to the custom made dresses. Sometimes after purchase, a little or no adjustment on the dresses might be required or not to make the dresses fit well.





Never the less, whether you buy or make dresses, the issue that comes to mind is who selects the length and design of the bridesmaids dresses? There are a number of instances that the bride might prefer to be strict on a uniform length and color and leave the designs to the maids. On the other hand the bride may want  everyone to wear the same dress in terms of length, color and design. Or as the emerging and constantly growing trend of a variety of colors that can either be 2 or more won by the bridesmaids.





Its the bride's day and her wishes rule the day. Even though its clear in her mind what she wants, it would be a great idea to sit down the maids for a chat about this. Locally, it is customarily expected that most bridesmaids will pay for their own wedding day outfit. By considering their opinion as much as the bride's rules the day, dignifies them in the role that they play on her big day. This conversation with the maids is beyond just the length, design and color of the dresses.

  Traditionally, If the wedding is pink, it would be assumed that the maids will wear the same color of dresses. This would be basically coordinate with the wedding day decor of both the reception and ceremony areas. With so much changes and weddings being customized to the tastes of the groom and bride, you need your bridesmaids to be on board with your final decision as far as they're concerned.

Not to be overlooked is the issue of money. The cost of bridesmaids dresses whether custom made or bought as ready to wear has to be discussed. There have been instances of a few dissatisfied maids complaining behind the bride's back on how expensive the designer she has chosen to make their dresses. Remember that they pay for their own hair, make-up, shoes and other accessories for your day as the brides. Usually, if there is a dinner party after the wedding; they're invited to it which in a lot of instances, they still have to pay for themselves. With all the money they end up spending......it might justify making their opinion count on the bridesmaids dresses.

Dressing the bridesmaids

The intervals I take to write blogs surprise me none the less, am glad to do so. One thing that am glad most brides no longer like for maids fabrics is the bridal satin. There was a time nearly almost all weddings in Nairobi was about bridesmaids wearing bridal satin. It was great when it lasted but many people can no longer stand it. The 1st thing many people say nowadays for maids dresses that they would do any fabric but bridal satin.

The goodnews is; not all satin is boring, there are great options to work with on satin for bridesmaids dresses such as valentino satin, charmeuse, duchess, slipper, stretch satin etc. What's important is for the design required to be identified. Then comes the decision on what type of fabric is preferred whether light, medium or heavy. 

Bridesmaids options aren't limited to satin fabrics. African prints are also good choices for bridesmaids dresses such as good quality materials from west african countries are ideal to use.

Another option that is old fashion with weddings locally are use of tafetta fabric, which is very rare to find on bridesmaids today. Does it end with that. Fortunately, NO. Alot of exiting options are available a few amongst them being: chiffon, linen, cotton and silk. Whatever the preffered option, you never go wrong with a good quality bridesmaids dresses' fabric.