Wedding Tent

Pic: The Nitty Gritty Ltd

As I continue to look forward to kenya weddings awards, my articles this month will be based on my favorite subcategories. Today, I'll borrow yet from one of the ones I highlighted last week. It was item number 4 on my list: Wedding Tent providers of the year.

For many years, garden weddings/ outdoor events has always meant hiring tents. It didn't matter to many how they looked like as long as they were pitched and used by their guests. Sometimes they were in deplorable conditions. In time, the white tents became what every client wanted. Since about 2006, many clients would ask for high peak tents. The previous types used for weddings now become what was used for funerals, and other social events.

High peak tents remained trendy for so long that when stretch tents came in, only a few weddings were interested in them. This was probably due to the high cost of hiring them.

Before stretch tents, the Dome tents already hit the market. Some looked at them as opportunities to hire a massive hall at affordable prices. It was more like bringing the outdoors, in. The good thing was that you could find a Dome tent that could handle all the way to 1,000 guests easily than could you find a venue indoors that could do the same.

With time, it has meant that any client is spoiled for choice. Whether they are interested in high peak, Dome, stretch,cheese or any other type of tent available in the kenyan market that I've not considered. Your budget and preference is only what can limit what you get.

Other factors can also come into play when selecting the right tent to hire for a wedding. The weather is something we really can't ignore as rains can dampen the outlook of a good outdoor wedding. That said, I can't wait to see who gets the award for the  Best Wedding Tent Providers of the year.

Kenya Weddings Awards

It's March already. The year is moving at a fast pace. I'm also glad to hear someone is organizing kenya weddings awards,  it will be a first I've seen and heard locally. Many categories are available to be nominated in. A few however, stood out for me:

1. Wedding vendor of the year.
2. Flower and Decor stylist of the year.
3. Wedding Planner of the year.
4. Wedding Tent providers of the year.
5. Best wedding Facebook page/group of the year.
6. Wedding of the year- A collective Award.

The first 5 caught my attention because they touched on services that I offer. That kind of recognition would in some cases bring more clients your way (a vendor's hope.) I would like to consider submitting for some of them (or all based on what's required.) The 6th one on my list however, got me thinking. It's not a category I'm disputing about. It's how it would be interpreted that mostly interests me. 

What would constitute a wedding of the year? Is it a famous person or family wedding? Could the creativity that goes into it make it a wedding of the year despite low or high budget used for the event? Last year, there was a couple in Nairobi who spend about way less than a ksh 1,000/= and caught the attention of event organisers who gave them a lavish ceremony that was valued at more than ksh. 3 million. Would it qualify as a wedding of the year? It might to some because the couple were focused on the marriage instead of their financial situation. To others, the fact that the wedding industry rallied behind them might qualify them too. I actually thought that one wedding would stand out to me as I started my wedding business 10 years ago, but how wrong I was in thinking that way has only been proved by the passage of time. Each wedding is unique in its own way. You get to work with different people with differing personalities. Some are easy going than others but there is always something to love or learn about doing an event for someone.

What would end up being a wedding of the year locally? I'll let the judges decide for themselves. Which reminds me, let me deviate abit from local weddings of the year and focus on the Royal wedding coming up in UK in May 2018. Meghan and Prince Harry's wedding are no doubt going to draw attention worldwide. A comparison to the Duke of Cambridge's wedding will also be inevitable. Sometimes, Royal weddings like that, end up setting standards of what's in for the wedding industry for the rest of the year.

For now, shall I safely say, that every bride married this year has the right to believe that she just had the wedding of the year? It's her day and she deserves to be over the moon.