As always, I’m going to start with a disclaimer. This post is strictly for the couple that wants their wedding to be an experience of a lifetime, for both the bride and the groom, not just the bride. The couple focused more on the fun factor than the doing-things-to-impress-others factor. The couple that wants their wedding day to be forever etched in their memory in the happiest way possible.

Gentlemen. Picture this. You both love soccer. You met her as you were both cheering on your favorite team. She’s essentially like a Carol Radull. Only a lot more beautiful in your opinion and a whole lot more attracted to you. You date for a while. You cannot possibly see yourself spending the rest of your life without her by your side. So one day you wake up and ask her to marry you. She says yes. Of course, she says yes. I mean, this is you we’re talking about.

So the two of you sit down and begin to plan the wedding. In your mind, you’ve heard that the wedding is a female-dominated affair. But you love her so you don’t want to leave her feeling overwhelmed from doing all the stuff by herself. Besides, being the woman that she is, she lets you know right off the bat that she values your opinion and your leadership and she wants a wedding that caters to both of you. A statement that reminds you of why you went ahead and proposed in the first place. You feel so lucky.

So, the two of you begin to plan. “What will be the theme of the wedding?” You both think out loud. What do you both love, she inquires? Soccer. It’s how you met.

Now you’re getting excited. You didn’t think it would be possible but you’re a grown man getting excited about a wedding. And you can see the glare in her eyes as she also envisions a soccer-themed wedding. The wedding cake could perhaps be a more grand version of the soccer-themed cake you both made to celebrate your one year relationship anniversary.

The two of you feel so in love and in sync with each other as you envision the concept, that planning breaks for about an hour as you both head into the bedroom to celebrate the success of the beginning of the planning process. Who said planning a wedding is no fun?

Over the course of the week, you begin to add details to the plan. What are you going to wear? That’s important to you. You like unique pieces. You’re never going to do that ivory jacket uniform everyone wears. It’s just not you. You want something you can wear on multiple special occasions long after the wedding. And you’ve never owned a suit in your life so those are absolutely out of the question. You’ve had your eyes on the following masterpiece for some time.

You show it to your fiancé one morning before you head out to work. She absolutely loves it. Her exact words are, “if there’s anything in this world that can make you look even more handsome than you already are then that has to be it.” My goodness, this woman is a dream come true you think to yourself. You guys almost have another ‘wedding planning fun’ session but work beckons.

As the month progresses, you realize that you’re both very busy and it makes more sense to hire a wedding planner. The two of you are after all paying for the wedding yourselves. Therefore it makes more sense to focus on making money and hand the details to a professional. So you need a wedding planner. But you can’t just have any wedding planner. You have a very unique dream as a couple and the last thing you want is someone who will struggle to bring that dream to life because they have never executed a wedding that unique. A lot of what they do is the boring everyday stuff everyone else does. One day as your scroll through Samantha’s Bridal Instagram feed, you come across this brand.

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Do you want to make a great impression but do not know how to? Surprise yourself and your loved one with a one of a kind date experience, featuring beautiful setup, delicious food, customized entertainment and Breathtaking venue all planned just for you and your loved one. All you need to do is just show up @yullitasuprise

A post shared by Samantha's Bridal (@samanthabridal) on Jul 20, 2020 at 12:58am PDT

A brand with years of experience specializing in unique events and couple experiences. You’re sold by her brand so you sit down for a meeting with her. The other wedding planners you sat down with left you exhausted with this planning process. They seemed very focused on the décor and the aesthetics at the expense of everything else. They didn’t seem to really understand what you were after.

Before you meet her, you’re not sure if she’ll be any different. The others did after all also have exceptional marketing materials and websites. However, any doubts you may have heard about her quickly disappear. Because the second you sit down with her, she tells you this.

“Let’s not get it twisted, this is not about looking different. If you only cared for how it looked you’d be seated with one of the cookie-cutter wedding planners. It’s about having an amazing experience at what is currently the most important day of your life. It’s about your wedding day being the best party you’ve ever attended. It’s about staying true to your personality as a couple and doing things your way as the masters of your own destiny. It’s about having a story to tell your kids during your 20 year anniversary as a couple.”

That’s it. Say no more you think to yourself. Best fiancé in the world and now quite possibly the most ideal wedding planner in the world for your unique creative wedding.

Life couldn’t possibly get any better than this.

Article by Peter Okatch. King Maker at King Sidney.

Let me start with a disclaimer. This post is written by a man. A man with a huge amount of experience in fashion, but a man nonetheless.

So I will not pretend to understand what it feels like to be a woman. I won’t try to act like the importance of the big day holds the same weight for men as it does for women. I’m told you ladies have been dreaming about your wedding day since you were teenagers. The only thing I was dreaming about as a teenager was losing my virginity. So we’re obviously different.

However, there are a few friendly suggestions I would like to make. The keyword here is friendly. Suggestions that I feel would improve the wedding experience for both you and everyone involved.

Now, if you agree with some of these suggestions, fantastic. Take them and improve your wedding. If you don’t, please go back to my first statement and re-read my disclaimer. I have to put a link to my website at the end of this post, and the last thing I need is a bunch of angry Godzilla brides hunting me down at my shop. We don’t do that here. Kenyans lost all flimsy reasons to hate each other after the handshake.

Let us proceed.

Please learn a little colour theory before picking your wedding colours.

Basic colour theory knowledge really helps. It helps you determine which colours will go together nicely. So what that does is, a group photo ends up looking very nice because of the way the colours rhyme. Let me show you with the aid of an example.

There are three neutral colours. Grey, white and black. Because they are neutral colours, every other colour matches well with those colours. Also, if you have a colour in mind, a good look more often than not is to simply to go with a different shade of the same colour for colour number 2.

Those picturesque looks have been created with very basic knowledge of colour theory. Very basic.

The problem is when y’all pick out your colours, you think, “What’s my favourite colour? Pink. What’s my second favourite colour? Green. Let’s go with pink and green!” Then you end up with the type of disasters I can’t showcase here for fear of being sued. And while we’re on the topic of colour.

Why so complicated?

Picture this. You come up with a fancy colour and let the committee and bridal party know. Ballet slipper pink with a hint of Shamrock green. Yes, those are real colours. I did not come up with any of them out of thin air. It sounded like I did though, right? I had you looking at your screen all puzzled for a few seconds there. Welcome to our world.

Anyway, some poor soul is tasked with shopping around for the colour scheme. She finds it. Then takes a picture and sends it on WhatsApp. It looks different. Of course, it does. There’s a reason why online selling of clothing has never taken off. Things look different in a picture than they do in real life. Ask the millions of men and women who have attempted dating through Tinder.

But we can’t go back and use your description to clarify the actual colour because, in an attempt to sound and look sophisticated, you ended up not being clear. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use complicated-sounding colours. All I’m saying is that you should try to keep it as simple as humanly possible. Chocolate brown is fancy-sounding yet still simple. We’ve all eaten chocolate and can therefore picture it. Tawny brown with a hint of cedar is just you looking for a fight somewhere down the road. And speaking of looking for a fight.

Why do that to them?

Your bridesmaids love you. They’re there for you. Your ride or die sisters. So why reciprocate that by forcing them to wear those cheap shiny things that they will throw away 5 seconds after the wedding? Again for fear of my safety I would never showcase examples here. But you all know exactly what I’m referring to. I get it. It’s the tradition. It’s the way things have always been done. However, this is 2020 for goodness sake. You can have them looking very good in dresses that they can wear long after the wedding. Get creative. It’s your wedding. Your personality. Why limit it to copying what everyone else is doing?

And by the way, a bunch of them are single. Please help them look stunning and beautiful for all the quality single men in attendance. We like it when they look hot and classy. You’re not helping their cause by covering their gorgeous bodies in a horrible cheap fabric and super common style simply because you saw some resembling picture online.

And lastly.

You’re the host, not the guest. Know the difference.

Picture this. It’s a Sunday. You and your man take the kids out to the amusement park as you sit down and whisper romantic things into each other’s ears. You pay for the kids to play with the swings and you keep a close eye on them from afar. What you do not do is force them to sit down with you and talk. Why? Because it’s very apparent that even though you are in charge, what’s important to you is not what is important to them. Even though you are all sharing the same experience, at the same time, within the same venue.

A wedding is exactly like that. It’s a party and you are the organizer and host. What’s important to us as the guests are the food, music and that we dance and have fun. So if you want people reliving that day in their minds, ensure you invest in quality catering, good music (DJ/band) and an MC who will guide us and help us have fun. I always find it funny when a bride skips the MC and overspends on the décor. We don’t remember the décor in that instance. We just sit around bored waiting for that wedding to end so that we can go home and watch Netflix.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t spend money on décor. Please always ensure the place looks as grand and as pretty as possible. The beauty of the event will put everyone in a positive state and help them enjoy themselves more. What I am saying is that you shouldn’t skimp on what’s important to your guests and expect positive reviews. I’ll reiterate. It’s a party. You’re the host. If you truly didn’t care about the enjoyment of your guests, you’d be getting married at the AG’s office.

Article by Peter Okatch. King Maker at King Sidney.

Let me tell you a not-so-well-kept secret. As a man, I wasn’t necessarily too excited about my wedding. At least not initially.

And I definitely didn’t have any fun whatsoever with the process of planning it. Planning it was very hectic. It let to fights in the relationship. Raising money for it was a nightmare. And I was extremely nervous towards the end as the day approached. Because despite all the planning in the world, you can’t really tell which supplier will actually show up and whether or not they will come with the quality of services they promised at their office. It’s a real hit and miss game with some of those suppliers.

I went through a range of emotions, excitement definitely wasn’t one of them.

At least not until I tried my wedding jacket on about 2 weeks prior to the big day. I can’t really describe the feeling, but I’ll go ahead and try.

“This must be what Tony stark feels like when he converts into Iron-man,” I thought to myself. There’s truly levels to this game because I felt a power I’ve never felt before. Like I could conquer anything. Any nerves that I had disappeared on the spot. I felt really, really strong. And the reason I think I felt that way is not because of how good I looked. Although I did look good. It led to some good times between the fiancé and I immediately she saw me in it if you know what I mean.

No that wasn’t it. It was because of how different I looked. In a good way, of course. I’ve always been a fan of unique, well-crafted items. I believe we all are to some extent. Which, I suppose, is why luxury exists.

We initially hate the price, but soon come to understand that it’s an investment in ourselves as we begin to admire the effort and craftsmanship that has been put into ensuring we feel like Kings the second we slip on the item. And make no mistake about it, I really did feel like a King. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a jolt of self-confidence in my entire life. Immediately I wore it, it transformed me into a new me and showed me all the potential I had not previously seen in myself. That jacket had me going to the gym the very next day.

I apologize. I got carried away as all those good memories came flooding back. The reason for this post was actually is to go ahead and highlight why a unique wedding jacket for the groom makes so much more sense, from a financial perspective.

Rather than get carried away again, I’ll wrap things up and quickly explain what the post was about in the first place with the aid of the following short video.

Article by Peter Okatch. King Maker at King Sidney.