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.