Wedding Flowers

When it comes to fresh flowers for weddings locally, we are not without varieties. From different types of roses, tulips, gerberas,lillies, gladiolis, varieties of ferns, snap dragons, carnations, and the list goes on and on.                  

The constant changing weather patterns of rains, sun and cold affect finding certain varieties of fresh flowers in particular season. One thing is sure though, irrespective of the changes, there is always fresh flowers available to use in weddings. Flowers play an important part in wedding décor and whether used little or much, flowers can still make a difference to your event. There is one habit that stands out amongst many local brides and that's to pay wedding vendors at the last minute. This can work against you if specific flowers are needed for your wedding. It helps to ask the florist early enough about the availability of your preferred flowers during your intended month of the wedding.A rule of the thumb is: its never too early to start planning your wedding flowers. What determines the appropriate flowers to use for your wedding would be the budget you are working with, the floral designs you want to achieve, your bouquets, centre pieces and basically the overall theme for the wedding. This article is a first series of 3 that I will be considering on wedding flowers.

Bridal shower

I was to do this article on monday but that was not to be. I was called up by a prospective client who turned out to be a con artist. Good thing i caught onto their scheme before its too late.  A future article will deal with fraudsters and how to handle them.

image from web

 Today i would like to consider bridal showers. Recently on a page i follow on Facebook there was the question of who should host it and an increasing demand on bridal shower planners in Nairobi has made me write this article.  Someone mention the sister of the bride, another the bestmaid while still someone else felt that its the mother of the bride. 
Irrespective  of who does it, its a wedding tradition  that many keep at it.

 Image from web

 A commom feature of the bridal showers in Nairobi is alot of advise being given to the bride on the life ahead of her and alot of gift showered on her. The ladies gathered also sometimes get to play games together.  The event can be themed and usually the bride isnt aware it's organised for her until the material day when she is surprised into it. There are brides whose shower is all inclusive of gifts for the whole  house while some also get to have a bridal kitchen party where they get all the appliances and kitchenware that they will need for their kitchen once married. Last year i remember  being invited into a bridal shower that the organiser split the ladies into groups. Every group had been assigned a different part of the house: living room, kitchen, bedroom  and bathroom.  I was assigned to the names under the kitchen list and we had to pick an item to buy and bring to the shower from the list as a gift to the bride. Her idea was to ensure that no one bought the same gifts also that we could only get what the bride needed for her house and not what she already had. I  didn't attend due to reasons beyond me but would have wished to see how the event turned out. Besides that list, she provided us with one that had food items we would consume for the ocassion. That way it would be less burdensome to the host.

Image from web

 Deciding who foots the bills, what is done and how to get the bride to the event all require forethought. The  success of the event irrespective  of the amount used or activities planned relies on how well its organized. Just as there are budget weddings  there are also bridal showers that run on a tight budget. The organiser has to be aware that most of the guests on the bridal shower locally are already either bridesmaids to the wedding, a family member or someone with a role to play come the wedding.  If they feel they already are spending so much on the wedding, the idea might not be so welcomed if they spend more than thet are willing to do so. Here  is the scenario : if this person was called up to raise cash for the wedding as a committee member, she also took  the bride home during the customary families meet up before the wedding, is a bridesmaid and has to spend on her outfit, makeup, shoes and accessories for the wedding then they might just be feeling that they are planning their big day and not helping a friend out. If thats the case make the burden less on them.



 During bridal showers the bride gets to spend time with ladies who are close to her or the groom it can be fun and affordable to everyone involved.

Chocolate Brown color themed wedding.

Today I'd like to look back and feature a wedding that I did in November two years ago. She was a lovely bride working with. In fact, her wedding was my first  encounter with choral pink. She was was calm from the months we started planning right up to the end. I met her and the groom in social media, Facebook to be precise (works wonders with certain clients.)

Looking for choral pink amongst suppliers wasn't a walk in the park then. The good thing that I had a sample from the bridesmaids dresses that could assist me in sourcing for the required color. By then few stocked it hence we had to change the decor color all together to burnt orange and chocolate brown. While the bridesmaids wore choral pink, the maid of honor stuck with chocolate brown.

I was skeptical meeting some of their wedding committee members. Nothing was wrong with them or I hadn't heard anything that would cause this but past experience with a few committee members who sat on different weddings has not always been a pleasant experience. More like walking to be interviewed by a panel a second time even after the bride and groom's approval. Sometimes, someone in the committee ends up changing what you have decided with the wedding couple as they are in a way "financing'' that particular wedding. On this particular wedding, that was not the case. Its the best wedding committee I have so far worked with from start to finish.

On the wedding day, the ceremony service was to start early and being a November, the rains too had their early start. This meant changing the original untented location for the ceremony as guests would have been rained on. The best part was that both ceremony and reception were on the same location. Interestingly enough, the rains ended half an hour to program start and we ended up with a sunny weather. The wedding team I worked with was excellent. The vendors all worked well and everything pulled together beautifully.

Frugal Bride

Ive been missing from my blog for 3 months. I considered it a necessary  break. i made time to look at my business from a different angle. My core business has always been wedding  planning and i have had many other support businesses on the side: catering, card business,  decor and sewing. Some are working out and some arent. i needed time to evaluate  what to keep and remove  from my list completely.  The former accountant side of me had to come in play. So within  the next 6 months, I'll have dropped some of my support  services and decided on a new business  strategy.

Now onto today's  article. I prefer to use the word frugal instead of budget bride. I still believe anyone can be on a budget. Even someone  with a million, five million or even five hundred thousand shillings  are all on  type of a budget irrespective of the amount  to spend. i had the opportunity to work with a frugal bride.  She was very economical in her spending and i must admit i can also refer to her as both a budget bride and DIY bride .

She had a budget like most would  but the goal was to lower it to almost  half the amount she had intended  to spend. She knew what she wanted and wouldn't  let last minute pressure change that. For a while the wedding dresses i have seen (not in terms of design), in quality of lace used to make hers was of really good one. She had taste but was very considered of how much she would spend while not compromising anything despite the pressure. Even when it came down to the food for her guests. she took time to select the best and had her caterer make and serve it.  She took the shortest time to plan a successful wedding. I work with all brides that are great and unique but this one left me with great lessons to learn from her.

What having a wedding budget means

Any successful wedding involves planning and having a budget to work with. Even when money is not an objection, clearly there are costs that the wedding couple are comfortable stretching to meet. Whether your budget in Kenya shillings is below 200,000/- or above 1.5 million, that usually means there is an amount you're willing to work with. Even those who call a wedding committee to raise cash for their wedding, most usually have drawn out what they need for their wedding, that is the cost for each item, deposits they have paid or is to be paid to the vendors and what they hopefully require to be raised by the committee.

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When a wedding planner or vendor asks what your budget is, I've met a lot of assumptions locally that responding to it means you'll not get a good bargain or that prices might be inflated to meet the stated amount. That could not be any further from the truth. Instead, you save yourself a lot of time spend visiting too many vendors to compare prices when its clear to you what you want to spend.

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When you are aware that your wedding budget on venue doesn't allow you to do an indoor venue in a hotel, you can still negotiate with your preferred hotel to see if they're willing to adjust to your budget. If it doesn't fall through, have in mind a plan B venue that might be a garden reception that can comfortably fit into your budget

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A good wedding budget is flexible enough to the point that a surplus from one vendor can mean a reduction in what is to be spend on another vendor as one of the available scenarios. The other flexibility that can be offered by a good budget is an emergency fund that can be used should you need to exceed the planned budget. With whats considered, work out a budget and spend it right for your wedding because no two wedding budgets are the same.

Nairobi poolside receptions

I have thought of writing this article since May. It came into my mind during the rainy and flood season of Nairobi. I have seen it rain a lot over the years but not as destructive as was seen then. It did remind me though that as the year progresses, we expect or hopefully the sunshine days are ahead. Weddings aren't planned overnight neither are venue selection hence the idea of having a poolside reception takes careful thought into it.

When its sunny, a lot of people prefer garden weddings and very few swimming pools in Nairobi are in enclosed places. Whether a poolside reception occurs in a rental venue, an individual's home or at a hotel, a lot of factors can be considered when selecting the  venue.

The size of the venue in relation to the guest list. Some of the spaces are too small for a large crowd. A consideration of that factor will be important. Are you looking for complete privacy for your reception? If its a hotel, will they allow their regular guests access the area? Not having this information in advance can surprise you during the day of your wedding. I once did this poolside event on a weekday that the manager mentioned to me they would not deny their paid members use of the pool if they needed to. This might not be what the bride and groom would like to see on their wedding photos.

 When it comes to the decor of the venue during the event, its only important to know what's allowed into the pool. There are lovely flowers, balloons or other decorative elements that can look great in the pool to tie it in with the venue or wedding theme. If its allowed by the venue or not is another thing all together.

There are great ways to work around swimming pool venues to make them a great venue for an intimate wedding. The rules of the place can only provide for more out of the box thinking as far as set up is concerned but they don't make it any less fun for a wedding reception.

Working with coral pink

Today is one year anniversary to a very unique bride. Every bride is different and once in a while I forget that as I deal with different ones. This was no exception. For some reason I wasn't ever keen with coral pink until I had to work with it last year. Neither was I so keen on rose pink. So working with baby pink and coral pink was great. Interesting enough as I went through fabric shops looking for it most of my suppliers weren't aware of its existence but fortunately, one supplier was and he had a number of rolls in store.

This was the 1st wedding I had combined two colors of pink and loved the way that they worked together. I also used baby pink lace table runners for the guest tables. Only challenge was because the white round table clothes were satin they almost made the lace invisible.

As coral pink became a common color more fabric shops have imported them and they are readily available. I almost gave the wrong shade of pink to my bride (rose pink instead of baby pink), I guess having samples or even finding them on certain shades and reviewing them with clients is something I never take for granted again. I wish her the best as she celebrates her 1st anniversary today.

Final article on shades of purple

Last week I did 2 articles that reminded me of how I have in the past worked with different shades of purple. I'll finalize today's article with 2 different past weddings. What they share in common is royal purple. One of my very favorite past brides had royal purple, burnt orange and aqua blue as her colors. Her 2 maids wore the colors well on their dresses and she chose burnt orange clutch bags instead of floral bouquets for the maids. Only the bride carried her floral bouquet.

Even with the reception, her three colors combined just fine. The thing about both brides on my article today, they knew what they wanted right from the start and were flexible enough to adjust and do away with what didn't.

I've mentioned 2 brides and only described one so far. The latter did royal purple and cream or off white. They were both easy to deal with brides and unique in their own ways. Not to drift much, I'll get back to bride number 2. Her colors blended easily. For her wedding flowers, lilac roses carried the day and working with a vintage car for the bride was my highlight. It was well kept. This being the second time I'm dealing with vintage cars for a bridal carriage.

I loved working with both of them as out of trust, they let us handle a lot for their big day. Its good that I can reflect back to both of them and be grateful to have worked with them.

Shades of purple.......2

Flashback to 2 years ago in 2013. A childhood friend gets in touch. She wants me to work on her wedding. She has never been shy about colors. I loved how unique she wanted to make everything for her wedding including her dress. While the dress idea had to be reverted to traditional one due to unforeseen and avoidable circumstances, her concepts didn't change. She wanted to play with color.

She loved gold, purple and green and we were to incorporate the shades of this colors into her wedding. I was scared at first but thrilled to work on a vision that would slowly make sense to me along the way. From the bridesmaids to the best maid to the flower girls, she chose different shades of colors that she was comfortable with.


Pictures courtesy of Tony Wainaina Photography

Its surprised a few people who expected 2 or less colors and not a splash of colors. One thing that I really loved about her is she wanted to be different. The original concept might have changed but the idea remained the same. I was grateful to have found green roses and shades of purple for her flowers. Even with the drapes and fabrics, the concept was maintained and she was a happy bride at the end of the day.

Shades of purple

Its been very fast 8 days for me. I thought I would do this sooner but scheduling time doesn't come easy. I read lots of tweets last week on a local bloggers award that was going on: it reminded me that I'm partially one and need to get back on track. If there is one thing to be said about wedding industry, the local market keeps changing so much.

There was a time I could predict right what the local trend was but not anymore. I will however endeavor this week and next to look into the different combination of purple color themes I've worked with.

Today, I would like to look at eggplant and lilac. The time I worked with the 2 color combination 2 years ago, I wasn't skeptical at all at the beginning, but I loved how they combined.

It brought to my attention something interesting though. The deep purple flowers that most vendors refer to is very different shades from what you get in fabrics. I sometimes  have a hard time convincing certain brides that some colors have different shades based on the fabric type we use locally, and also on flowers. Its never an easy discussion with some.

 I loved working on this 2 colors, and I wouldn't mind a twist to it with another bride.

Green wedding

Its been a while since I got to blogging on this page. More than a month. I've had loads of paperwork and organization work to adjust to. Now that the balance is achieved I thought why not write something about green weddings today.

Irrespective of why one chooses a green wedding, its a beauty to work with. A green wedding can appeal due to various reasons. Some brides are
attracted to lush green gardens, for outdoor weddings. It makes them select the venue. Most of my floral arrangement have some greenery in them. Whether the foliage or lime green flowers due the arrangement involved.

Then there is the different shades of green that a bride can settle for as her color theme. This she can choose to work with on the bridesmaids dresses and the fabric drape of the wedding. One other way to have a green wedding, is by using materials that are eco-friendly to the environment in different aspects of the wedding.

Photos: Tony Wainaina Photography

I'm glad to have worked with all aspects of a green wedding. Its interesting to see how you can easily translate it on a wedding. I once worked with a bride who wanted lime green as one of the many colors she was working with and wanted me to stay as far as possible from white flowers. I found that quite odd but I was open to the idea and I loves the outcome.

So,on today's blog I thought I could share some green weddings whether in color of flowers or weddings theme or drapes of brides I have worked with in the past. The ones I have selected  I did their weddings between one to four years ago.

With myself slowly warming up to green and how versatile it is, I cant wait to see if i get a different opportunity to work with a completely different green or just the same  greens but in a different way. Either way, working with different shades of green has been interesting.

Polka dot themed wedding.

This is the second of my twelve articles on real weddings I plan to blog about. Time flies so fast. This particular wedding happened a year ago precisely in February. The planning though started way in advance. I must say, sometimes there are couples we start planning together but its usually just that: planning without committing deposits to anything.

 They were different in a lot of levels.  They wanted something unique that represented them. During the planning process, it was easy to tell that polka dots wasn't just an idea that came up but she wore a lot of outfits that in whole or in parts kept to this theme. Having this pattern combined with aqua blue was a perfect fit.

 Cake was done by valentine cake house

Interesting bit about this wedding, the theme stuck out throughout. The wedding cake, the drapes used on the tents, the signing table, bridal car and the list continues. All in all, every aspect of the wedding tied in together.

It was initially a challenge finding polka drapes for the wedding but the fact that they committed early enough, it gave me enough time to look for all the rolls of materials that we would use for tie backs. Finding 2 different textures of polka dots for the tie backs and tent drapes. It all worked out: I'm glad. In the end, everything worked out just fine. I liked the fact that she chose a different color all together for the wedding invitations. That meant just a handful of guests wore polka dots and aqua blue. Those who weren't aware of the wedding colors but got it right with their outfit selection.

In the end of it, I loved working with this couple. They were organized, they knew what they wanted and starting early enough was good not just for me but also them.

African Themed Wedding : Flashback

This year, I've decided to do something different in my blogging. In addition to my usual articles, I thought it would be nice to talk about 12 different themed weddings I have done overtime and why they stood out for me and probably if there is anything I could do different.

My first article would be on an African themed wedding that I did 2 years ago in the month of February. I guess this was one wedding that had to confirm whether I was really up to the challenge of something really different and gratefully, I was.

Right from the start, I knew I was dealing with a different kind of bride who knew exactly what she wanted. From the usual fresh flower arrangements on the cars to using dried flowers for the arrangement. The commonly called "uteo" in African language, was a great option to use in bringing the arrangement together on the bridal car.

The bridal bouquet and her maids too were dried floral arrangement instead of fresh flowers. The use of pots and animal prints fabrics added more to the overall African themed wedding. I guess at the end of the day, I loved the way all the pieces came together and the earthy colors connected the theme. Wouldn't change anything about it if I was to do it all over again.

2014 in review.

Time does fly very fast. Sometime this year, it will be the start of my 8th year in my wedding planning business.  As far as being in the wedding industry, its already been more than a decade: 11 years to be precise. I have learnt a lot and grown in this business in ways I never expected. I've learned how to handle the planning pressure better (yes, planners do have pressure to meet the wedding deadline and make sure everything runs smoothly and as per clients expectations.)

Last year was a great year for my business but along with success, it brought a number of challenges and changes that I very much need to make. Like I said, my blog today will focus on my lessons of 2014 despite the fact that there is much I have learned in all these years.

1: Its important to have a contract with clients right from the start especially when they are your friends. When respect is maintained in doing business with friends, then it saves a lot of headaches later when misunderstanding arises and in most often than not ,they DO arise.

2: Many brides have in mind to start planning their wedding early but this is usually done verbally. To everyone else concerned, their plans are great and the wedding is well in progress but the sad bit is they identify their vendors early, negotiate everything and fear taking the step to pay a deposit or sometimes hesitate due to financial constraints. I've learned to be weary of them and I've learned that 2 free appointments with such is  enough before I opt out or patiently wait as I commit to others as they make up their minds whether to work with me or not.

3: I love to think out of the box when it comes to planning so do afew clients that I met last year but not everyone is willing to pay the price to be different. When one talks of being on a tight budget but has grandiose ideas and want out of the box ideas, I'm weary of such brides.

4: Brides are different one after the other and not well communicated ideas can prove to be a costly idea. I've learned to communicate even the smallest changes. It caused me a financial setback to assume on myself changes that I considered really minor. Fortunately, social media has made it really easy to request adjustments. I'm so grateful for Whattsapp. I can have my text request send to the bride and have instant response.

5: Even an easy going bride can have a personality change when pressure sets in. This is why I handle the pressure and constant change when necessary. Something can always go wrong so its  important to be ready for any eventuality.

6: While its important to have a client timeline, mine too is important with all my staff. Knowing what's expected at every stage is important. As they say, time is money.

 7: I've always allowed my clients to make changes at the last minute or even drag on a decision until the last minute. Experience with that hasn't been the best teacher. Unnecessary changes have led to compromises on my work. I will tread carefully on this in 2015.

8: Not all brides who I talk to will work with me or even afford my services. I'm at peace with that finally. Good work lead to referrals or even brides who are just price shopping. Well you win some and loose some