Hello, hello everyone!
So today I wanted to talk to you about my experience and involvement in ‘My big first Omani wedding’. You know, just like the Greek one, but Omani and more fabulous!
Now, it wasn't only my first big wedding to be involved with but also the company's first Omani wedding to be held in the Middle East! Plus we had not one but two events to conceptualize and plan! So we knew this was a massive opportunity for us!
I am coming to you, from my kitchen counter eating my new obsession, which is peanut butter on toast! Hope you are all ok, staying safe and looking after each other.
Thank goodness we have seen the return of the sun this week whilst we all are doing our bit, however big or small, to flatten and control this naughty virus!
Whether you're working on the frontline, donating to the various NHS charities or simply but very importantly staying at home to abide by the social distancing rules, we are all very thankful, so let’s all keep it up and hopefully, we will get some positive news in the government's update on Sunday 🙂
When I joined the company officially, back in October 2019, I hit the ground running which is exactly how I work best and delved deep into the planning and creation surrounding this wedding alongside one of my best friends and colleagues….I don’t know if you know him, he’s called Matthew, I think he’s a director of the company or something!? Haha
I want to take you through this in a sort of step by step basis and give a fairly broad picture of the process from start to finish, so here goes!
The Planning
Photography by 37 Frames
As you can imagine, joining a new company, I had a lot of questions about, well, everything! However I wanted to keep my focus on one thing at a time and I knew this wedding was going to keep me busy, so I was very excited to be on board with such a huge opportunity and felt very humbled that the MO team put their trust in me from the get go!
First off, I wanted to get familiar with the couple and look at all the planning and correspondence that had happened so far, so I could get a bit of background knowledge on them. For me and the company, this is so important and something that we feel is crucial to the success of a great and honest working and personal relationship with the couple.
So I started working on emails and Matthew shared all the relevant information and documents with me so I could get to work on some tasks! After all, we had 6 months until the two events so we needed to have a really well thought out plan in place to keep things ticking along nicely.
In terms of the occasions, one was a traditional Women's Only Event and the other a more western style wedding, so two very different events to create. We were, at this stage, narrowing down suppliers and wanted to try and utilise, where we could, the suppliers for both events.
Working with the couple, we managed to select the suppliers after having face to face and virtual meetings with both the bride (Juman) and groom (Maan) that best suited their requirements. These are always tough decisions!
The Recce
Photography by 37 Frames
In November 2019, Matthew and I were fortunate enough to be able to go out to Oman to do a recce on both the two venues (which were The Al Bustan Palace & The Shangri La Hotel) and also to meet up with potential local suppliers for the events. This is always a vital part of the planning process and what helps to form the design concept and logistics for a wedding or event, so considering how big these occasions were going to be, it was essential we used our time as best we could to get the most out of our visit.
I had only been to Dubai, in terms of visiting the Middle East, so this was really exciting for me, especially so early on in my time with the company! Now I love Dubai but for very different reasons to Muscat, Oman. Oman was definitely more of how I pictured places within the Middle East to be. Mixing deserts and mountains with traditional but grand buildings and palaces - the views, honestly at points, took my breath away!
Photography by 37 Frames
In the 5 days we had, we managed to see and speak with a handful of suppliers, do a full tour and meet and greet with representatives from each hotel, meet up with our groom (as he was permanently based out here) and even had a small amount of time to see a snippet of the country!
We now had all the tools and insight needed to get cracking with the design!
The Creative
Photography by 37 Frames
While the planning and admin was going on in the background, Matthew and I started work on the creative, which is always the super exciting part!
Like with all of our weddings, Matthew and I created a design deck, which basically pulls together a visual representation of what we want to achieve and then we pitch it to our couples. We will include everything from venue imagery, to colour schemes and furniture in this deck, which we believe fits with the overall theme and compliments the surroundings the event is taking place in.
Once we were happy with the design, we talked it over with the couple to make sure they were happy before forwarding it on to a couple of production companies in Oman.
We are very used to working with suppliers in the UK and around Europe, however outside of these places was still a little new to us, so we knew there was going to be a bit of a question mark when it came to working with local suppliers within Oman.
After much discussion and 3D work, we decided along with the couple, to work with Prestige Weddings. We knew these guys were going to not only be super professional but we were all very impressed with their previous work and so the production process continued...
That's all for now and if you'd like to see how this all turned out then come back on Monday for more!
Stay safe,
Danny x
