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

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.