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.

Baby shower set up

In my mind, I had done this article a week ago but in reality it still has been pending. Blue is always an awesome color. When asked to work with it for a baby shower, my obvious guess without asking is that the parents are expecting boys. Working the function and having it as simple as possible and yet tasteful to the occasion was wonderful.

It is nice to have repeat clients more so when you've been there planning for them before the wedding, the wedding day and other functions that are related to their union. Such a lovely couple to work with and I'm sure they'll make great parents.

The one thing that I loved was how the cake was made and tasted really good.  The cake person did a lovely job. Working with the different shades of blue just brightened my day considering it was a sunny day.

          

I still have this article on weddwedding  favors  that i will be posting sometimes this week.For this function,  working with drapes, paper lanterns  and baloons helped me achieve the effect  i was going for.

Wedding Favors

Sometimes i go really quite on blogging. I love it, have ideas, but mental notes in my head dont help much when it comes to the actual thing. I find I've forgotten so much of what i had in mind to write. I have to figure out a way around this challenge.

Last week, i almost had an opportunity to do wedding favors for someone from a different country then send over to them but sadly, we just didnt agree on the pricing. That got me thinking about wedding favors.

Clipartpanda.com  image

They're an excellent opportunity to say thank you to your guests for honoring your invitation. How we say "thank you" differs from person to person. To some, a thank you for coming speech suffices, others opt to gift individuals as an expression of thanks.

When people make wedding cakes, some would have wrapped pre packs that are in smaller pieces with a tag attached with wedding color ribbon thanking them for coming. I loved an idea i saw on a bride years back. She had jars of delicious jams that thanked guests for "jamming with them". Some have done scented soaps and candles, sugar coated almonds, carved sculptures to name just afew. I'll be talking more on this topic during the course of this week.

Wedding Seasons

I miss doing flowers. I came across this picture of work in progress for a past event. In all aspects of wedding planning, my favorite is usually working with flowers. A second favorite is being on the machine to make seat covers, tie backs, table clothes and dresses: something I'm slowly but steadily expanding into.

August is usually a wedding season in Nairobi and due to a lot of factors its really a slow month this year and the cold weather isn't helping either. Its more like a gamble getting clients to book right now. When business is slow and uncertain, it always pays to have a plan B in place. But when all businesses are slow....what next.

It struck me as the best time to review my business goals for this year, to find out if they are headed in the right direction. Finding out what's going on in the wedding industry worldwide and trying to book clients for other months. So yes, its the wedding season: august is one of the peak months usually but so is December. When a month looks uncertain, there is sunshine in others. I'm looking at the glass as half full.

Real wedding: Saturday, 3rd June 2017

Its June already. Halfway into the year and a day. My bride was just awesome to work with. We met online through Facebook. Its awesome to work with someone who knows exactly what she wants and at the same time is very flexible. She hired me as her event day coordinator.

The schedule started well with all the vendors from Friday leading up to the event on Saturday. I must admit. Working with a fellow tent and decor person proved to be more than great. It was awesome working with Mark. Great things happen when competitors work together. Saturday morning something happened that left me a bit embarrassed. As the camera person had arrived to start shooting the bride, I led him upstairs to where the bride was, but for some reason went into the wrong house and even asked the owners where all the girls had gone to before I came to my senses and realized I had led them to the wrong house. The home owners were friendly though and understood my confusion. (Talk about a planner on pressure.)

My best parts of the day was hanging with the young bridal team. Those kids were awesome in everything and also at the end of the day, a happy bride means good job.

Nairobi wedding scene: A vendor's perspective.

This has been afew tough months for me in the wedding industry. I have had to look critically at how I run my business and make necessary changes. Nine years with quite a good turn and a few bad turns even some horrible situations to work with that now as I begin the 10th year soon, a radical change is necessary.

Before in my early years in the industry, I could predict with certainty what my clients would want. Now the tide has changed. You learn to keep an open mind and work with them. This is certainly good for a creative mind as keeping with the latest trends worldwide and out of the box thinking are the norms towards setup of such events. I must admit I miss the predictable bride once in awhile. The reality though is she has become as rare as hidden treasure.

With more wedding vendors getting into the market and pricing point becoming the competitive factor to many, its sad to see at the end of the day the number of frustrated bride at the end of their wedding. On the positive side, more competition means better pricing, vendors offering more than one service to keep the account books attractive. It also means that as a vendor, you only have one chance to pitch to the bride or the work goes to another vendor.

In the past, i would have feared a saturated market but now ive learnt not to do so anymore. When its clear the kind of client you want to attract and work with, the business standards you keep and what you can do well then whats left to consider is: Does my target market give me the business I need to have an attractive balance sheet? Well, my 10th year in this business just about to start, it might just prove to be a more realistic ride than ever before.