Almost One Year Later

I have been promising to post this wedding for close to nine months now. I figure it cannot be a feature Friday so I will post it today.

My SIL’s wedding was at Enashipai in Naivasha. The first wedding to be held there. We stayed at the hotel, it was beautiful but our bathroom flooded but really, that is not the point of this post.

Their wedding colours were pink, fuschia and green. I could also add white….

Her cake was done by Liz of Cake Art. Since she does not eat fruit cake, my SIL had vanilla flavoured cakes that were dyed pink and green. I do not think I need to sing Liz’s praises any more. Do I?

However, my SIL states for the record that the cakes were not arranged as they had discussed. Would she still use Liz? Yes.

Stationery was done by Juliet of Mahogany Jo Designs. She had WHITE cards y’all. She has nothing but good things to say about Juliet.

Food and tents, chairs and tables were provided by Enashipai as part of the package. As stated in an earlier post, I am a fan of those chairs. If you go with a hotel, part of the package is going with their food.

The flowers and decor were done by a lady with a shop in Naivasha called Chetna. I am not even sure I have spelt that right and we do not know if she has a company but my SIL was not happy with her flowers at all! She gave Chetna a C when I asked what grade she would give her!

Seriously a fan of the centerpieces I must say.

Her dress = AWESOME. And from none other than Next at Westlands. Sometimes I wonder where she keeps all these gems for SURE!

In conclusion – amazing, beautiful wedding. She changed into her second wedding gown for the evening party.

I have one question for those who have gone to Enashipai after the fact, has the service sped up? When we were there, it took ages to get breakfast due to minimal staff which I thought was so random because given the fact that the hotel was full, you would think they would hire extra help. So tell me, has it become better?

Tags: cake art, chetna, enashipai, flowers, fuschia and green wedding, juliet, kenya, liz, mahogany jo designs, Naivasha, next, wedding dress, westlands

Non Seriousness

I am a firm believer in having a wedding you can afford. By all means if you can spend and want to spend Kshs 12 million in a wedding, DO SO. If you CAN!

The other day, I was told a story about a couple that did not have money for a wedding and therefore requested the committee to donate money towards paying for a reception – upwards of Kshs 150,000. The bride’s wore a dress that costed more than let us say Kshs 30,000. [I am even annoyed as I type this]. THEN after people donated for the reception, the couple used the money instead to buy wedding rings.

The bride and groom went even further to ask people to donate towards their honeymoon.

Now, I am trying my best not to be judgemental but seriously… COME ON!!!

I have already stated previously that I am not a fan of asking people to help you pay for your wedding, having wedding committees with entrance fees, pre weddings …… and then on top of that you add the HONEYMOON? For real?

Kenyans, we need to do better.

Tags: chama, committee, donating money, kenya, prewedding

Feature Friday

For part 1 of this feature, please click here

• Transport

Bridal Car – Hired from John Wroe

Bridal Party – Donated by family and friends

• Church music

Vendor: Brian Sempele and friends

Grade: A+

Brian was quite accommodating and accepted to play all the songs we requested. He was happy to look for the music notation and he and the team were flawless on the day. They even accompanied my niece as she played her special piece for us during the unity ceremony.

• Tents, Tables and Chairs

Vendor: Chairmania Enterprises Ltd

Grade: A+

We used them for my two brothers’ weddings and they were quite reliable both times. Communication with Jedidah via email was fantastic. They were very patient with my never ending requests and even pulled through the organza drapes we wanted at the ceremony site.

They started setting up and dressing the tents three days before the wedding and they did a fantastic job.

Their tents were clean and white despite a really wet December month.

• Décor

Vendor 1: Chairmania Enterprises Ltd

Grade: A

They dressed the tents and also provided the tables and chairs and white table cloths and seat covers. We opted to go with a different vendor for the overlays and tiebacks. Unfortunately, some of the grey overlays we initially chose at Chairmania were stolen. Thankfully they communicated this as soon as they discovered this drama. They tried to look for alternatives but the shade of grey we preferred was quite tricky and difficult to find. Only thing we could fault them for was we heard they arrived a bit late on the wedding day to dress the chairs, tables and ceremony site although they were done by the time the guests and bridal party arrived so maybe that wasn’t too bad.

Vendor 2: Angela – Dress your Events

Grade A+

Overlays and tiebacks were done by Dress your events to perfection. Angela was very professional, punctual and a joy to work with. She comes well  recommended. 

• Flowers

Vendor: Lydia – Wedding and Design Centre.

Grade: A – (Minus)

Flowers provided were fresh, arranged well, plenty and looked very nice on the photos. On a negative note, she gave me roses everywhere. I have no idea what happened to the lilies and gerberas we picked for the church and the special vases we selected for the flowers on the tables at the reception. The bridal party bouquets were also not what we had agreed on……sometimes I wonder if she gave me floral arrangements that were meant for another wedding. She is lucky that roses are actually my favourite flowers otherwise I would have given her a much lower score if they weren’t. Either way I really wanted a wider variety on the day 

• Catering

Vendor: Omar Mohammed of Unique concepts.

Grade: A

The same caterer was used during the traditional events at my parents’ house. His menu had 3 salads, 5 starches, 2 stews (vege and meat), Grilled chicken tikka and slices of fruit. The food was fresh, tasty and people did not get sick. We understand that the mokimo got spoilt (hence the loss of point), but the caterer was wise enough not to serve it which was quite impressive. There is nothing as bad as serving off food at a wedding. He came up with a wonderful suggestion of getting his waiters to serve the fruits to the guests at their tables after the bridal party arrived and sat down to have their lunch.   This enabled us to feel like we were sharing a meal together. Omar provided an adequate number of waiters who even served the cake once it was plated.

• Videography

Vendor: Lee Kanyotu – Big City Productions

Grade:  A+

Lee has provided us with a sneak peek video of our day that is short enough to share online with our friends and family who were unable to attend the wedding….We absolutely love it. We have not received the main video yet but if the sneak peek is anything to go by, am sure we will not be disappointed. We really hope our DVD is as good as the samples we saw when we signed up with him. Communication was excellent, his personality is great, and both videographers were on time. I will keep you posted on the final product.

• Photography

Vendor: Mark Anthony Kathurima

Grade:  A

Mark actually works alone but was happy to accommodate our request of covering the bride’s and groom’s preparations at the start of the day. He also gave us a CD (a week after the wedding) with about 400pics which isn’t too bad for one photographer. He loses a point for missing a few crucial shots when we arrived at the reception (unfortunately, he ran into some car trouble on our way back from the photo session). He does a lot of free style shots which come out very natural and we’re really looking forward to his album design.

• Entertainment

Vendor:  Hot Rod Band

Grade: A – (Minus)

Guests said the band sang well and they were well entertained. Unfortunately, the bridal party didn’t hear them play as they packed up as soon as we arrived but they left their DJ behind. When questioned by my cousin as to why they were packing up so early, they claimed that they had a contract until 3pm. NB: Our contract with them was until 6pm. Unfortunately, we forgot to give a copy of all the contracts to our co-ordinator of the day. Other than that, their communication and punctuality was good.

• Cake

Vendor: Liz Irungu – Cake Art

Grade: A+

I have no idea why people would go elsewhere. The (long term) fruit cake we gave our parents was delicious. The chocolate cake for the guests was moist, fresh, and superbly baked. We opted not to get pre-cuts as Liz did not want the chocolate cake to dry out. Instead she delivered them as whole cakes and got her assistance to cut them into pieces at cake time and plated them for Omar’s waiters to serve. This lady never disappoints .

Any advice for brides planning their wedding from far away?

• Start early. Vendors are busy and get booked very quickly for weddings in high season. If you get in early, you have a wider variety and you can get the vendors you really want. It also eliminates the last minute rush hence one can relax towards the wedding day.
• Shop around – there is always a good deal someone else.
• Make sure you are happy with the vendor’s product. Do not rely on your families’ or friends’ opinions……approve everything. Trust me, if you’re not happy with something, you will fret about it all day.
• Challenge the vendor to get you what you what……or what you’ve always dreamt to have. The good ones will go out of their way to make your day special.

• Contracts, contracts, contracts – and remember to keep give a copy of them to someone on the day.
• If you don’t have a planner get someone to co-ordinate the day – Even though it is a family member like we did. Try and get someone organised, separate them from being an usher. Just someone to be an overseer of the vendors on the day and deal with the last minute communications prior to your big day.
• Do not pay the full amount up front. Nominate someone on the day to provide the final payments to the vendors. Make sure both parties have a ‘meet and greet’ before the wedding day like during the site visit.
• Smile, even when things go wrong. Most of the time, the guests have no clue when things didn’t go as you planned but if you’re frowning in your photos or videos you will have featured as a memory for life.
• Have fun…….ultimately you are getting married to the love of your life……and the wedding is just one day.

Final thoughts

• I have to thank my hubs for taking pics of the stuff I would need for this post….. LOL! [Branded pictures are from Mark Kathurima - official photographer]
• Do these posts make you feel like sending me your wedding pics? Please do.

Tags: brian sempele, cake art, chairmania, dress your event, hot rod band, kenya, limuru club, liz irungu, lydia kangethe, mark kathurima, omar, unique concepts, wedding, wedding and floral design centre

Did you..

……watch the Samantha Bridal wedding show yesterday?

What was up with all that drama????

Comments welcome. Thanks.

Tags: samantha bridal wedding show

Feature Friday

I was a bridesmaid at this wedding [my cousin's] last December.

Enjoy the wedding story below.

• How did you meet?

We had met a few times over the years but only started dating in 2007.

• How did he propose?

We were touring New Zealand and he proposed while on a scenic flight. Dinner at a lovely restaurant by the water followed.

• Wedding Details

Date: 16^th December 2011

Colour Scheme: Baby Yellow and Grey

Venue:  The beautiful grounds at Limuru Country Club. My desire was to get a place with well-maintained, spacious grounds and a beautiful Old English cottage in the background. The venue has two of these features: The grounds are well maintained with beautiful green grass, wonderful flower beds……absolutely beautiful and spacious. The ceremony was at the Bowling Green. The reception at the Golf Side.

Photo Session:  Done at Kentmere Club. The grounds were amazing. The photos taken here are stunning. The bitings provided were fresh and adequate although I didn’t get to eat too much.

Evening Party: Held at Friends Club and Diner, Upper Hill. The cost of the package was quite reasonable and it included the venue, their in-house DJ and food (goat platters and a variety of accompaniments e.g roast potatoes, kachumbari, ugali). We had a cash bar where drinks were sold at an affordable price.

Wedding vendors:

• Stationery

Vendor: Peninah   – Annex Imports and Press

Grade: A+

She gets a high score for her affordability, patience, fantastic quality, excellent communication, pleasantness….the list is endless.

• Clothing  & Accessories, Make-Up, Nails  and Hair

Bride:

• Dress – bought from Australia. I refused to pack it with checked in luggage in case the airline lost my bags. It was a task to travel with it (Dress was a bit heavy and we had multiple transit stops) but it survived the trip
• 

Shoes – I have a hard time getting Size 2 shoes with a heel so this was a challenge. I have no idea why people assume that only kids wear small shoe sizes……I mean. I had to get my shoes online from the UK….A good 4 inches. They were quite comfortable given the platform heel but I still opted to swap them for ballet flats before the reception to give my feet a break before the evening party.

• Jewellery – bought at bridal store in Oz

Bridesmaids:

• Dresses ordered and custom made in China – (Grade: A+). Goods shipped to Kenya after two weeks. Workmanship was excellent. We added an inch to the measurements sent just in case. Final alterations were done to perfection by Ezekiel at Njema Court, Westlands.  He is such a patient soul and very accommodating despite his busy schedule – (Grade: A+). Shoes bought at Angelos in Sarit Centre

• Hair accessories and grey floral rings were bought in Australia

• Jewellery made by Ann Kabue of Art fundi. This lady custom makes the jewellery based on the amount one is comfortable paying – (Grade: A+)

• Groom and his boys:

• Dressed by Delvis Exclusive at the mall – (Grade: B+). The suits quality was good but I wouldn’t go back to this shop. The owner went against her word on the prices quoted. Initially she lied about the balance owed on the suits but after showing her the initial receipt we received from her detailing our deal, she made an excuse that the dollar was up when she ordered the suits hence the reason for the hike. Please note that we paid our deposits in June when the dollar was way below Kshs 100 but she opted to order the suits in September and didn’t anticipate the dollar hike. All the suits did not fit right, even though the boys got measured by her staff. In the end the guys were forced to either go up a size bigger or get major alterations done. When we had to replace one of our groomsmen who couldn’t make it to the wedding she created a huge fuss before allowing us to swap his suit for one that fitted the new groomsman. She wanted us to pay for a new suit, yet it was easier for her to re-sell the old suit to someone else. Did I mention she hang up on me when I was trying to negotiate swapping the suits? Who does that to a paying customer??

• Groom’s waist coat and all ties were bought in Oz

Make-up, Nails and Hair

• Make-up – Bride, Mother of the Bride, junior maid and three bridesmaids done by Muthoni  Njoba of Make –up Lounge in Westlands – (Grade: A+).  Two bridesmaids and the little kids’ Matron were done by my cousin – (Grade: A +).
• Hair – The girls with permed hair were styled by Dennis of Anchor Salon in Chester House, Koinange Street – (Grade A+). The ones with natural hair were styled by Mary of Milele Hair Salon, South B – (Grade: A+)

• Nails – Bride’s French tips done by Shiro from Magic Touch – (Grade A+).

We get into the nitty gritty of the other vendors next week. Please check back then.

Couple of Things :

• Art Fundi is currently located at Titan Complex on Chaka Road. Make sure to ask for stoppers with your earrings, or make sure to have some [ since I lost my earring].
• Shiro also did my french tips for our wedding – I forgot to mention that – She is on Rose Avenue near the K-Rep Building.
• I honestly feel that Delvis should have gotten a B because that lady has no concept of customer service.
• In hindsight, I may have had Dennis do my hair for our wedding. This is not to say that he is better than Humphrey but I think he gets me and my personality [Disclaimer: I started going to Dennis after the wedding after Humphrey increased his prices - who pays Kshs 2,500 for a retouch with your own chemical??? Ridic]
• Pictures are from Mark Kathurima [those with his logo] who was the official photographer and my husband [the unbranded ones]. You will have to wait till next week to read about the photographer review. And the tents, decor and cake……. See you then.

Tags: anchor salon, Angelos, Annex imports, art fundi, delvis exclusive, limuru club wedding, mark kathurima, muthoni njoba, wedding hair kenya, wedding make up kenya, wedding nails kenya

From the Album Part 2

Most Many photographers who have the basic equipment have good pictures.
Few have excellent pictures. Pictures that SPEAK to you as a potential client.

This ladies and gentlemen, is my humble opinion. If you have a problem with this, please stop reading NOW.

Good pictures do not necessary mean that you will be looking at your wedding pictures 5 years from now and smiling. Not because the pictures are not good but because the photographer:

• Did not capture what you wanted
• Did not edit the pictures the way you would have wanted
• Did not give you all the pictures that he took because his package limited his shots to 250 pictures [how random is 250 pictures]

I still look at my wedding pictures and I love my wedding video because I chose my videographer and photographer not because of their packages but because of their STYLE of photography and videography.

ANYWHO…….. Yes, every photographer has their style and my dear readers, this is why I decided to blog about this. Many people I hear choose photographers because they give you a package with the videographer, or because they give you a good package. Not because their photography speaks to you. I understand the ease with which a photo/video combo means to planning a wedding, I personally did not go that route. I chose separate vendors. My choice because “Jack of all trades, master of none”. 

Before you choose your wedding photographer, make sure you understand and know YOUR photography style. What do I mean?  Well, you need to know what kind of pictures PLUS editing you will be looking at 5 years from now and still enjoy [this is one reason photography and videography was super important to us. It is the only piece of the wedding that still remains for time].

Something else when it comes to photographers is how you gel with them. I enjoyed having my pictures taken and since we had done engagement pictures with our photographer, I knew we would get along swimmingly. It was also easier to tell him what I needed him to capture for the wedding.

Editing Style? What do I mean?

One picture can have over [insert random number here] results after a photographer is done editing them. He could crop it, make it black and white, do that ridiculous thing where everything is black and white except for the flowers [I detest this one], etc. But in all seriousness, if you look at many wedding pictures online, you will see a photographer’s style emerge and then, if you know/understand your style, you will know who to choose.

Do you want to see who came for your wedding? Well, if you have more than let’s say 200 guests [guesstimation on my part], hiring a photographer who comes alone may not be enough to capture the guests plus what is going on with the bridal procession.

And ladies and gents, thanks for reading my opinion on photographers.

Choose an experience. Choose wisely

From the Album Part 1

Eric posted a link on FB that gave birth to these series of posts that I will be doing entitled “From the album”.  The inspiration is because I believe that everyone has their own style and they should embrace it and when it comes to the wedding, they should demand it.

So why call it “From the album”?

Well it is because of the tendency of vendors to be quick to show prospective clients their albums of past work they have done [which only ofcourse includes their best work].

Let us start with flowers.

When I went to see Lydia, she showed us albums of her past work and I already knew that I did not want to see any roses during our wedding. I made this quite clear. She also took down notes where I insisted on black and white ribbons for the aisle in church [although you all know what happened with that fiasco]. Her albums showed great work but what it did not show me, was whether the brides got what they wanted.

I will hopefully be posting my cousin’s wedding soon [in which I was a bridesmaid] and she used Lydia as well. She did not get what she wanted either.

So what am I saying? An album is not enough to give you insight on the quality of work of a flower vendor. As Flo said, insist on samples for everything  [I only got a sample of the centerpieces and the car flowers - since I did not want them overdone]. I should have insisted on a sample of EVERY single thing she was going to do.

I also have a pal who called previous brides to ask if they received good service and what they wanted for their wedding. You may call this overkill but I applaud her for insisting on getting her money’s worth.

Look out next week for Part 2: Photographers

Tags: album, blog, flowers, kenya, samples, wedding vendors

BAD NEWS

Ladies and gents [mostly ladies],

There shall be no “Feature Friday” this week.

Probably not even next week.

Someone needs to send a wedding feature soonest.

 

Thanks

 

Ciiku

So I Watched Wedding Show on Sunday

• Louis Vuitton Handbag cake anyone?
• The photographers were in jeans…… eeekkkk!
• Dear Nonny, There is a BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC difference between “Beyonce’s Ave Maria” and “Beyonce’s rendition of Ave Maria”. Please…. stop the madness.
• Someone needs to give her a script! That whole adlibing is just not working! “The bridesmaids must have searched high and low for those shoes, but the search was worth it”. OY! And that cake did not have an elaborate design.
• This is an elaborate designed wedding cake.
• And if in fact she is not ad libing and someone is writing for her….. EVEN WORSE!
• I love Purple!!

So, did you watch the show? Ideas? Thoughts??

Tags: citizen, kenya, nonny, wedding show

Feature Friday

This is the second instalment of Flo’s wedding from last week. If you are reading this for the first time, please find Part I here!

• Entertainment

TuTu band

Grade A– (minus)

– Juma, the lead singer played the saxophone when I walked down the aisle. He was Amazing!

The band performed during interludes at the reception and at the evening party – crowd pleasing songs, easy to work with, Quality Sound and they can sang (southern twang ). They managed to keep the crowd on their feet all night. Their DJ Allan also killed it. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Emmy Kosgei

Grade – B plus

-Emmy was a crowd pleaser; she performed in church and at the reception.  I Love her music so I was happy with her. She arrived on time too. Yay! Con – Emmy and her playbacks! – She doesn’t sing live (unlike the band), so there were many hiccups with her CD’s sigh!

• Tents

Chairmania

Grade – A (minus)

They simply outdid themselves! Very professional. They arrived in Kericho 3 days before the wedding to setup.

My only beef (which is major) with chairmania is they upped the transport costs due to fuel prices and they had already signed a contract with us!!! – Only in Kenya

• Décor

Chairmania

Grade A plus

They once again exceeded my expectations. Décor in the tent was breathtaking! I sent them samples of the pink & gold fabric and they went out looked for the exact color of linens and mass produced them for the wedding.

• Flower décor

Chairmania – they were our one stop shop.  We bought the flowers directly from Finlay and they arranged them.

• Church flowers- grade – A Plus – I sent sample pictures and they recreated them perfectly. I love love roses so this to me was just amazing.
• Reception flowers grade – A minus – There were probably 50 emails back and forth with chairmania on reception flowers, I did not like any of the samples they did for me but they definitely came through on the material day.
• Bridal party flowers – B- (minus) – They were ok. I expected better.
• Car décor – B-(minus) – They were ok. I expected better.

• Photography & Videography

Emmanuel Jambo – Easy going and fun. Very professional, (they were all dressed up for the wedding). I don’t have my pictures and video yet but I have a few samples from him and I can tell y’all his work is all that and more .

I will give a video review once we get it.

• Wedding Planner

Rosemary – Splendid Weddings

Website: – http://www.splendid-weddings.com/weddings.html

Phone number: -0720984926

Email: – info@splendid-weddings.com

Grade – A-

Rosemary was an amazing wedding planner. She is very Professional, knows her stuff and is very patient. She was willing to put in the extra work to make sure the bride (me) was happy.

1. How I met her – Recommended by a friend. She had done many of my schoolmates’ weddings.

2. Vendor Relationship – Rosemary has a very good relationship with the vendors she has worked with. She also knows which vendors are professional and which ones are unreliable and cannot be trusted.

3. How she helped – I basically told her what kind of wedding I wanted, what kind of tents I was looking for, entertainment, cars etc. She went out looked for the vendors, email me their quotations, samples of their work, negotiated the prices, and we would narrow them down to who we wanted to work with.  She made sure all the vendors we were working with signed contracts.

4. Pre – wedding coordination – she made sure I visited all the vendors the week before the wedding to meet (since all communication with the vendors had been by email), iron out all the details and make sure we were all on the same page.

5. Wedding day coordination –She basically made sure everyone was where they were supposed to be at the time they were supposed to be which all went on without a hitch except for a few wedding hiccups:-

• Wrong color for reception flowers arrangements–I was very picky about flowers .
• Flower girls walked into the church with no flowers! They were allegedly dead in the cars (seriously!) I was not happy.
• Page boy boutonnières were nowhere to be found.
• Grooms walked in with the wrong song
• They had tulle on the cars, not what we had planned.
• Photographers did not go to where the groomsmen were staying in the morning …… sigh!

Advice for brides working with a planner:-

• General rule I learnt, wedding planner cannot read your mind so don’t assume that they know what you want.
• Make sure as a bride you still approve every little thing.
• Research vendors well as planners usually like to work with who they know and those vendors might not work for you.

Dress – She had not planned to post her dress since she got it in Atlanta but it was too awesome so I asked her if she could send a picture for you all to see [ the things I do for you guys!]

And more pictures because Flo humoured me and this wedding was the BOMB DIGGITY!

Final word from the Bride:

Any advice for brides planning their wedding from far away?

• Research, research Research…… You will get what you really want if you look for it. Yes, even in Kenya.
• Approve everything; don’t leave it up to family, friends or even the planner.
• Ask for samples. If a vendor is willing to go out of their way to create good samples for you then they really want your business and that’s always a good thing [I AGREE].
• Make a point to meet ALL your vendors before the wedding day.

Couple of things from me:

1. I love that they bought the flowers and got Chairmania to arrange them. INGENIOUS!
2. That tent set up….. WHOA!
3. That dress… double WHOA!
4. It was pretty interesting to read a diasporan bride’s experience in planning her wedding. Hope this helps someone.
5. And FINALLY, I enjoyed reading about her experience with the wedding planner. Now, if you are reading this and you had an experience with a wedding planner… please email me about it. I really do try to help potential/future brides [for free by the way] planning weddings in Kenya. Let us all do this. So far, I have gotten ONE response [not counting this one... Thanks BeeEm] to my post from Monday. If I do not get more, I will just shelve the post.
6. PS: Congratulations and Enjoy your Marriage my dear!

Tags: chairmania, emmanuel jambo, Emmy Kosgey, finlay, kenya, kericho, pictures, rosemary, splendid weddings, tutu band, wedding, wedding planner