Diary Of A Wedding Planner

For those of you who have often wondered if I had always known I would be a wedding planner at some point in my life, the answer is NO!

I never thought I would become a wedding planner but things change, people change, passion changes and all these builds up to the person that you are today.

I ran an ushering agency that was doing okay but I wasn't feeling challenged enough. I felt that it was easy to get ladies to become ushers and everybody was kind of doing it. It became too easy for me and if there was anything I hated, it was doing 'easy'. Easy just wasn't my style. I always like a good challenge. 

This was the driving force that led my path to the wedding industry. From my days as an usher, I realised that I enjoyed making guests feel comfotable while attending to their needs at events we catered at. I loved seeing everything go smoothly. 

 

Although, I still wasn't thinking in the line of being a wedding planner then. After a while of providing professional ushers for events. I realised my passion for weddings in particular grew. And I decided to go after what I thought was a growing passion in me. 

I did not have the funds to go for professional trainings, so I decided to train myself and that was exactly what I did. I read everything and anything I saw on weddings, bought old wedding magazines. 

I remember when a friend of mine who was not in the country at the time, asked what I wanted, I had told him wedding magazines and he was amazed. He thought it was a strange request but he got them anyway. Thank you Dr Niyi.

I read for two hours every night. Since I couldn't afford a proper training. But today, I can boldly and gladly say that I am a self taught wedding planner. I learnt on the job. It hasn't been easy but I was determined to be the best at whatever I had wanted in life. That determination kept me going.

But it was a tough and long road, from getting clients and making grave mistakes. What I read was definitely different from what working at actual events taught me... And this is what I would be sharing in the next few episodes of my Wedding Planning Diary.

Love,

Olamide~ The Heiress

The Journey (Series 7)

Let me start by apologising for the long break, I have been so busy with weddings but I am back now. Thank you for all the mails, it has also encouraged me to create time to write.

So where were we? Ha ha! My gbese (debt). Over 200k in debt, I knew I had to start something and fast too. I was able to save up a little money from my previous job (an advert executive at one of the foremost fashion magazine, Wow! Magazine.

I have always saved money from coins to notes (thank you daddy for buying us piggy banks from or tender ages)

I had about N80,000 saved up and I paid part of the debt with N70,000 and kept N10,000 for other unforeseen circumstances that may come up.

I decided to come up with another method of advertising what I did. I talked and wrote about our services and why it was a necessity to have hostesses at events and people were beginning to buy the idea and then the big break came! 

This was in April 2015, please be reminded that the first audition was in July 2013. So this was almost two years after. 

So after the last free ushering job in April, 2015, I got another call from a wedding planning company. They wanted to use my hostesses! I was delighted! I charged a sum of 6k per hostess. It was a two day event, so I was paid for two days each for the hostesses. The agreed but I still didn't have the required outfits and colour. I bought each outfit for N1,500/outfit (for the white outfit), and also spent N1,800/outfit for the traditional attire. so I was left with N4,500 and N4,200 respectively.

I paid the hostesses N8,000 each for both days. Not much profit but it was something. 

After the job, I continued with the advertisment, letting people understand the importance of hostesses at events and somehow, more doors started opening. We had atleast 6 or 8 jobs from April till December. It was a relief. We also had about 5 weddings that we planned. 

In my next few posts, I will be talking about my wedding planning journey. 

In all, perseverance pays eventually. It may be hard at first, you may derail from the initial passion into other things, people may not believe in your dream (and honestly, they dont have to) as long as you believe. 

Keep at it. Persevere and be ready for all the hardwork, disappointments and delays that may come with trying something new.

And with God on your side, you will succeed eventually.

Love,

Olamide~ The Heiress