Today, I am letting you into a secret. I never have been and never will be a “fashionista”. I’m really not one to follow the latest fashion crazes. I don’t swoon over Vogue magazine; you can often find me wearing Nike flip-flops, leggings and a long T-shirt; and I rarely don a pair of killer heels. My hair is either tied up in a scruffy bun, or worn down if I can be bothered to have a blow-dry.

However, when I attend events, important meetings or special occasions, I do make an effort and spend a good amount of time choosing my attire (albeit begrudgingly) and I will slip on a pair of heels. My friends often tell me they admire my style when I get glammed up, but I am 100 per cent not a fashionista. I dress according to how I feel.

Recently, I booked a session with Enchanté Studios to finally have my business portraits done. I am always telling my clients to have professional images taken for their portfolios, yet to date, I’ve relied on old photos of myself. It was time to practise what I preach.

With several projects on the go, I wanted some images that not only reflected my personality, but also the industry I work in. I was pretty excited about the whole shoot, until it came to sourcing outfits. I started to panic and it all felt a little overwhelming.

So, I called upon the advice of my good friend and fashion stylist Christina Karachaliou, founder of O’ My Glamour!, who suggested I contact Michelle Belau to book a personal shopping session. I have shopped at Michelle Belau before, and bought the most gorgeous emerald green fattan for my recent honeymoon, so I knew they had some pretty pieces there. With collections designed by Lucia Cavero Belaunde, Michelle Belau was founded with the objective of fascinating customers and fashion enthusiasts alike through its versatile and unique designs, styles and trends.

After coordinating with some of the Michelle Belau team at the stylish City Walk boutique, I was welcomed by Daniella, one of the stylists, with a cold glass of sparkling date juice and tasty macaroons. The first thing that struck me was how immaculately dressed Daniella was. Her attire was perfectly coordinated and she was strikingly beautiful too. Yup, I was in good hands.

We sat down and I told Daniella what the shoot was for, and what look I wanted to achieve (business attire, with a casual edge). Daniella had pre-selected some outfits for me, and we also had a browse around for additional items that we both liked.

Before trying on the outfits, Daniella did a colour test and body type assessment on me. The colour test involves using material swatches (usually scarfs) to establish which colours are best suited to your skin tone, eye and hair colouring. It’s divided into two categories: warm and cold. With my olive skin and dark features, I suited warm colours the most, especially shades of red and burnt orange. However, a few cooler tones worked well too.

I then got on with trying on the outfits. Enchanté Studios had recommended that I bring several outfits, so I needed a few options. Daniella encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone – first up, I tried on a black and white, tweed, patterned (waist-length) jacket, along with some smart, black, fitted trousers and patent black heels. I tend to be wary of patterns, but coupled with a thin black belt the outfit really worked, pulled in my waist and was smart but savvy. Look one, done!

Next up, I tried on a gorgeous emerald-green wrap-around shirt with large collars – one of my favourites. It felt luscious, fit like a glove and the colour worked really well. I’m not slim by any means, and finding a pair of trousers or a skirt that fit me well was a bit of a task, so I decided to wear my own dark denim jeans with the shirt. Look two, done!

Finally, I tried on some loose-fitting, off-the-shoulder jumpers and a fresh white cotton shirt for the more casual portraits and some stunning beige patent heels with the prettiest bows. Daniella recommended that I couple the jumper with a chunky statement necklace for the shoot; in addition to this, I chose a pair of striking black and gold kitten heels to wear with my own little black dress.

Having selected a number of items that I could mix and match with my own clothes, the session was complete. For any ladies out there who have a special event coming up, or simply need to upgrade their working wardrobes, I highly recommend hiring a personal stylist or booking a personal shopping session, such as the one I had at Michelle Belau. It really helped and showed me that some styles I thought might not work with my shape and figure actually do. While Daniella has now relocated back to her beloved home country, Peru, Michelle Belau has a number of exclusive personal shoppers who can assist you with your session.

I haven’t received the final images yet from Enchanté Studios, but when I do, I will post some for you all to see. I can’t wait to see them myself.

To book your own personal shopping session with Michelle Belau at City Walk, call: +971 4 344 9989 or email: info@michellebelau.ae

Back soon, ciao for now.

Today’s post is a little different, it’s all about a baby shower! But just not any baby shower…. One of my best buddies ‘Darine’, the founder of Mother Baby & Child Magazine, is about to give birth to her second child and did not have a baby shower for her first born, so three of her closest friends and her beloved sister ‘Hana’ took the reins and made it our mission to ensure she would have a baby shower to remember.

Above: The co-organisers/fairy bride mothers & the yummy mummy to-be

The sneak peek ‘detail’ images below, were shot by the talented Shyrell over at Enchanté Studios and is followed by my small blurb on the day. While this post is about a baby shower, I’m pretty certain some of you lovely brides to-be, may find a little inspiration for your weddings.

I took great pleasure in co-organising this special day along with the other girlies, Hana, Camilla and Lujain. Being the Founder of www.brideclubme.com, I have some creative contacts in the wedding events industry and knew straight away who I wanted to use to add a special touch to the shower.

Lujain, Hana, Camilla and I, first set about asking Darine if she had any specific theme in mind for her shower. Darine, loved the vintage/garden vibe I had on my wedding day and wanted something similar, so we agreed upon a “High Tea” garden party shower, with a vintage twist.

Baby showers sometimes  go overboard with the “baby” touches, but I felt this was unnecessary, this is a day for the mother to be showered with love and baby gifts, a day for her to mingle with her best girlfriends; gaining advice and support for a life changing event.

Whilst we did of course incorporate some cute baby elements, we kept the event simple, elegant and in keeping with the ‘High tea/garden party’ vibe.

We had a meeting and delegated out responsibilities and worked as a team to create an awesome baby shower for our Darine. The event looked gorgeous and we all sat back feeling very proud of ourselves, having created a beautiful baby shower on a tight budget for one of our dearest friends.

The high tea food and beverages supplied by the Address Montgomerie went down a treat and Darine arrived with the biggest smile on her face, we are so glad she enjoyed her special day, and cannot wait to meet her little one.

I’m excited to announce that the full baby shower will feature in Mother, Baby & Child Magazine and Iamcaptivated.com soon. But for now, I hope you enjoyed the sneak peeks!

Suppliers

Detail Photographer: Enchante Studios / Venue: The Academy Terrace, at The Address Montgomerie / Flowers & Table scape styling: Joelle at Lovely Styling / Baby Shower Invite: Love Notes UAE / Yummy Mummy Chair Sign: Nifty Little Things / Flower Crowns: Angel Baby UAE / Tassel Garland: ReMADE DXB / Card box: Made by me / Baby shower games: Made & arranged by Camilla / Photo booth and entrance sign: Maha Ibrahim / Photo booth ‘Team Mum/Baby Props’: Ritu at Creative Box / Photo booth bottle and dummy props: Made by Lujain

Today I will be talking about my goal to get organised, decluttered and my home office make-over mission!

I pretty much run my company alone and it can be overwhelming, so being organised in every aspect of my life is fundamental, this includes having an organised laptop, home office and home life! Easier said than done when you run a small business, have two crazy feral cats and a messy husband! I don’t have children yet, so goodness knows how all you entrepreneurial mummies manage it!

First off, I am on a mission to completely make-over my home office. I work from home 50% of the time, so it’s important I have a comfortable, organised space in which to be productive, write and conduct my daily work routine. We have converted one of our spare rooms into my home office and I am slowly but surely working my way through it.

First off I have started with the painting – Like most rental apartments in Dubai, our apartment has walls with the standard off white, yellowish painted walls, ergh! I can’t stand them and so, whilst it’s not really allowed, I took the bull by the horns and painted my home office. I chose a bright white for the majority of the wall surface and decided to have a feature wall painted in a cool grey/silver hue.

On this wall, will feature my picture collage, made up of frames purchased from various stores and markets. Below is a sneak peek of me sorting my frames out (yes, I did my hair & make-up just for you, lol). I will be posting my full home office make-over later on in the year when I launch my new website (soon to be revealed).

Image by Maria Sundin

Getting organised with Decluttr Me

Next up, I called upon the services of Shelina, founder and M/D over at www.decluttreme.com. Shelina comes from a background working as an in-house Solicitor for large corporations in London and Dubai, including Emirates and Bertelsmann. Her focus was predominately on Compliance, Company Secretarial, Intellectual Property and general corporate law, which allowed Shelina to use her skills in organisation, negotiation and presenting, attention to detail being key.

Over the years Shelina developed a passion for organising and decluttering in the home and office, and soon had friends and family calling upon her skills to help them to get organised too.

Above left: Shelina, Founder and Managing Director of Decluttre ME

Not long after, Shelina set up her Dubai based company Decluttr Me, who specialise in cooperate and personal decluttering services. I often heard Shelina’s name crop up in conversations and decided to give her a call to help me sort out my hell hole of a storage room out and potentially my office paper work too.

After an initial telephone conversation/consultation, I sent Shelina some images of my storage room as per her request, in order to give her an idea of what she would be working with. Soon after, we set a date and time (4 hours) for my storage room decluttering session.

Shelina arrived promptly at the time agreed, with her staple products in tow (zip locker bags, bin liners and her trusty label printing machine). After assessing my nightmare of a storage room, Shelina and I got to work removing everything and placing them into piles (throw, charity and keep).

Shelina often works with the person who has hired her, as it is both therapeutic for the person, but also vital that they are there during the process in order to understand the systems that Shelina puts into place when she declutters. She also advises on clever contraptions, bits & bobs that can make your life easier at home, such as the broom hook below.

Let’s just say that when Shelina left my apartment I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. My storage room was organised, tidy and it’s so much easier to now locate things, such as my Bride Club ME prop box, along with a handy sticker provided by Shelina (below).

I have not written my full experience with Decluttr Me here today, as I am saving it for my new website launching soon, along with all the before and after images.

If you are interested in hiring  Decluttr Me to help you get organised, complete the form here and Shelina will be in touch within 24 hours.

Back soon with some behind the scenes updated from Bride Club ME.

Ciao for now

It’s been a while! I have just returned from 11 days in Africa (Tanzania and Zanzibar) for our long awaited honeymoon. It was amazing, full of adventure, wonderful views, food, hospitality, incredible wildlife, culture and finally a little RnR.

I’ll be writing and publishing a full feature on www.brideclubme.com in a few weeks, along with images and a video, but for now, here are some sneak peek shots taken on my iphone…

I’d highly recommend a honeymoon in Africa for those contemplating the idea, we booked our itinerary through Planet Africa Safari’s and were not disappointed. The last day was a tad challenging, but all will be explained in my full feature.

Any how, I’ll be back shortly with some details on selling my wedding gown, that’s right, I’ve made the decision to sell. I’ve kept my legal wedding dress, but my traditional white gown I’ve chosen to sell. I’m not overly sentimental, but I’ve kept my shoes, jewelery and church dress for the memories and of course the memories of the day itself will live on forever.

Ciao for now

Today marks exactly ONE year of being legally married to my darling! It was a special day just for us, followed by our wedding blessing with friends and family six months later at the Desert Palm Retreat in Dubai. We have decided to celebrate both days, and on this occasion, marked our first year of legal marriage by heading over to the recently opened Waldorf Astoria in Ras al-Khaimah.

You can read my full review here on Bride Club ME.

Below are some grainy pictures from our stay at the Waldorf taken on my iphone, which reminds me…Adam (my hubby) surprised me with a very belated birthday pressie..I finally have a professional camera, yay! I will be using my camera to take clear photo’s for my personal blog here and for reviews and behind the scenes activities with www.brideclubme.com. I have wanted one for sooooo long, as I really cannot stand seeing grainy images on blogs, including my own!! I highly recommend other bloggers to the same.

Any how, I hope you enjoy my full review of our anniversary stay at the ‘Waldorf Astoria, RAK’ and do feel free to let me know your thoughts on the hotel in the comment box below or one Bride Club ME.

Ciao for now

I hope you are all well?

I’m really excited to announce, that along with my friend and founder of www.thefashset.com, Shikkha Gupta, we are launching a quarterly event for UAE based wedding industry entrepreneurs ‘The Engage Academy’.

After receiving quite a few emails from UAE based wedding industry professionals entering the market, asking me questions and seeking advice, I thought this would be a good idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to personally respond to every query I receive, as www.brideclubme.com, and helping brides keeps me very busy, at the same time, I really do want to help start up businesses where I can.

I’ve learnt so much over these past few years, so along with some experts in their respective fields, we will be offering informative advice, covering everything from using social media effectively in the wedding sphere, creating a brand identity, the importance of blogging, what brides and grooms really look for in vendors,  and so much more….

Our first event is FREE and will take place on the 4^th June 2014. Seats are on a first come, first served basis and almost half have been taken already. The event will be a half day seminar/workshop and is open to wedding start-ups and established vendors looking to develop their marketing strategies. If you would like to receive more information about the first ‘Engage Academy’ event and reserve your seat, please email me at rhiannon@brideclubme.com.

Wish me luck too, this is a new venture for me, so I am a little nervous, but I am really glad to be able to give something back to all you talented vendors out there! There are so many of you and I can’t wait to see new and familiar faces next month.

Ciao for now….

Very quick post from me today and again I am sorry for my lack of postings recently…! I will make up for it soon, I promise.

I’m currently at the BRIDE show, Dubai promoting www.brideclubme.com. We are an official media partner, and I am also talking on stage twice a day offering wedding planning ‘Tips N Tricks’ to those in attendance.

I would love to see some of you there, so if you are a Bride Club ME or Expat Bride fan, come pop by my stand and say hello We can talk weddings and I’ll be happy to offer you some one to one consultation.

Have a fabulous weekend and I’ll be back next week with some juicy updates…

Ciao for now..

Here goes a ‘rant’ post.

So, I have been thinking about this for a while! I’ve worked in media/publishing for over 13 years now and I’ve managed and sold advertising for various magazines and websites covering many topics and areas of interest, from construction, travel, business, sustainability to lifestyle and weddings with my own business Bride Club ME.

In the past, I’ve been pushed to hit targets with no care for who or what the advertiser does, as long as I was billing top dollar, that’s all that mattered….Whilst working for one company back in the UK, I handed my notice in because I was not prepared to support a certain advertising campaign.

I’ve always been a rebel, and I’ve always had strong opinions.

Now that I am running my own business, while I am no saint myself, I do feel that I have a certain responsibility to my readers…I’m not prepared to endorse skin whitening products, fad weightloss pills and companies who kill animals for palm oil, etc.! I’m just NOT doing it, I don’t care how much money they offer me, or what lame excuse they come up with, it isn’t happening! I was recently approached by a skin whitening company who wanted to target Arabic and Indian brides by advertising on www.brideclubme.com, I had to decline. I’m sorry ladies, but I’m not in the business of encouraging you to change your ethnicity,

Ok, if you want to get rid of dark spots, fine…but women have enough pressure as it is in today’s society, without being made to feel that they are inferior because of their skin tone…I know that in certain cultures, the fairer you are, the more likely it is you will find a husband and the more likely you will be treated like a high up member of society…but in my humble opinion, this is total CODS WOLLOP!

I myself am mixed race, English and Sri Lankan, my skin tone is that of strong tea…ha-ha! I wouldn’t change it for the world! I love and embrace my skin color, my mixed heritage and everything that comes along with it and I want to encourage my readers to do the same! Beauty comes in all shapes, colors and forms! If we were all size zero with snow white complexions, what a boring world it would be!

Seriously, ladies, make a stand…don’t buy into this cr*p! All you are doing is encouraging the industry and other insecure women to fall for the lies!

So there it is, I’m saying it now…don’t approach me if you want to advertise your skin whitening products, fad weight loss pills and products that destroy the rain forest and kill wildlife…the answer will always be NO!

Ciao for now

This post is for all my clients, startup wedding industry entrepreneurs and new businesses entering the wedding market in the UAE. As founder of Bride Club ME and wedding blogger over here on my little blog expatbride, I don’t only receive enquiries from brides, I also receive emails from starts ups, freelancers and people looking to break into the wedding industry.

They ask me lots of questions, as they see I am connected in the industry over here, however, I don’t always have time to personally respond in detail to all who email me. I feel bad about it, sooooo,  I thought I would put together this feature to offer some advice and to answer some common questions I often receive.

Let me clarify, I am no ‘expert’ as such, but I have been there as a start-up and I am still learning, I learn every day from those around me too. Below are some tips that I put together to help you along the way.

At Bride Club ME we do not list or advertise businesses who do not have experience yet in the UAE wedding scene, we require that our vendor club members have worked on at least 3 weddings/events and have testimonials to back this up, so, in order to get those wedding clients and that experience, what do you do?

• Collaborate – That’s right, contact other wedding vendors, blogs, magazines and offer your services for collaboration. This is particularly good for aspiring wedding photographers and could include working on a styled wedding photo-shoot for example, in order to create some beautiful images for your portfolio and help get your name out there. It’s also a great way to get your work featured in some of the region’s best wedding magazines, blogs and website.

• Be prepared to offer special promotions at the start – I’m being honest here, at the start, you need to build up your portfolio, you need clients, you need to showcase your work, so offering special deals, discounts and incentives will help. I had to do the same when I launched www.brideclubme.com. Once you are established, you can ease up on the promotions and work out your ‘official’ rates. Competitions are always a great idea too and can go viral on social media quickly. Allow me to clarify, I am NOT saying offer ridiculous rates, your talent will speak for itself, however, if you have nothing in your portfolio in terms of ‘weddings’ to showcase, then brides may choose ‘established’ vendors, with lots of weddings under their belt, over you. Offering a ‘special deal’ or some added value never hurts at the start..!

• Connect with the right people – Get out there and network, meet people in the industry, and attend wedding expos, business events and so on. Dubai in particular is such an entrepreneurial city and I have personally found that people are very happy to collab, meet and brainstorm.

• Invest into a well-developed brand and a professional website and/or blog – I cannot emphasise this enough.  I spent months looking for a website developer and designer to create www.brideclubme.com, and I invested good money into it too.  It paid off.  My site is easy to navigate and our branding is easy to recognise. I avoided opting for cheap-shot developers/designers, and instead chose females who have international reputations to develop my female targeted business.

A company I would personally recommend, based here in the UAE, for all of your web design and branding needs is ‘Mustard Seed Creative’ founded by brand stylist and graphic designer, Natalie Brooke, whom herself is a passionate wedding industry entrepreneur.  She has worked on many of my client’s websites and is becoming a force to reckon with in female-oriented and creative businesses.

I will admit, my blog, expatbride.com, is pretty rubbish in terms of design and structure, but this is because all my time and energy has been focused on www.brideclubme.com. I will hopefully be working with Natalie soon on the re-development and design of this blog….watch this space!

Natalie recently published a very helpful e-workbook entitled Intentional Branding, in which she writes: “Your brand is a lot more than its tangible elements, as in your logo and color palette.  It is about how others perceive you, consumers’ expectations of dealing with you, and it’s the promise you make to your customers. By developing a brand identity intentionally, you control the perception consumers have of you and not the other way around.” She also wrote, “A good brand identity is three easy things:  remarkable, memorable and easily identifiable.  It also increases your credibility, stability and makes you look more established than you really are.”

Natalie also emphasises the importance of a good website and reminded me that statistics show that website visitors leave a website in less than 10 seconds, if they do not like what they see.  Ten seconds is all you have to make a good first impression!  In the time that it took you to read this paragraph, you could have just lost a new client, which probably would have paid for the investment of proper branding and web design.

When is the wedding season in the UAE?

A common question I often receive is, when is the wedding season in the UAE? The wedding season in the UAE falls over the cooler months. Some couples do still get married during the summer period, but often inside hotels and banquet halls. It’s far too hot during the summer months for outdoor weddings in the UAE, so peak wedding season time falls between the months of November – April.

Above: A beautiful wedding in Dubai. Photography Credit: Katarina borszik photography

How much do couples spend on their wedding day in the UAE?

This question is very varied, as spend on weddings varies dramatically according to nationality. Indian and Arabic brides tend to have large, grander weddings (150-1000 guests), whereas western expat brides often have smaller weddings of 50-150 people (I had 60 guests). The western expats Brides that I have personally spoken too, and I also include myself in this, tend to budget 100,000AED – 150,000AED for their weddings.

Indian and Arab couples couples often have help from their families and larger budgets set, and can spend upwards of 150,000AED – 1millionAED on their weddings…but there are of course exceptions, I have met brides of all nationalities on very tight budgets before and those with a limitless ones.

I rely on word of mouth only, why should I advertise?

Word of mouth, is without doubt one of the best forms of organic advertising! I agree, many of my readers and clients have been ‘referred’ to my site, however, I have had to (like any other business), invest into my marketing strategy, and I have advertised too.

Pick and choose who you do advertise with wisely. See how long their website, blog, magazine has been established, look at how active they are in the market, and seek testimonials from other businesses or freelancers who may have worked with them. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, are they driven by what they do, do they market themselves well? For example, here you can see a list of testimonials I am collecting from both my advertisers and readers. Remember that an advert alone is not enough, any good blog or magazine, will work with you to create interesting content in in order to showcase your work in a more personable and non-invasive way.

What about press releases, why are my press releases not getting published and noticed?

In short, bloggers, magazine editors and writers ,receive a tone of generic press releases EVERY DAY and many go straight into the ‘trash can’. A tip to get your press release noticed, is to make it personal and RELEVANT!! I receive so many press releases that are totally irrelevant to the industry I write about and it drives me mad! Also, make the subject line catchy, relevant (note that I keep mentioning relevance) and to the point!  An example of an email that I would prefer to receive is below:

“Hello xxxxx. I have been reading your magazine, blog, website for some time, and think it’s truly awesome. I have a new product/service launching soon, that I feel would be PERFECT for your readership… **Insert a paragraph about the product/service and why it is relevant**.. I would love to speak with you about contributing an editorial piece on your website tailored specifically for your readers. I really feel that xxxx could be of interest to brides in the region and would be delighted if xxxx would consider including an article in your editorial calendar. Attached is a press release with more information”

Instead of…

“Please see attached the above press release, would appreciate if you could publish in your esteemed publication”

Don’t worry too much about competition!

Competition is healthy! It shows that there is a demand for what you do. No one is re-inventing the wheel, be you a photographer, wedding planner or dress designer. The important thing is creating a quality business that offers great service and/or product and knowing what your USP (Unique selling point) is . If you get too wrapped up in what your competition is doing, you lose sight of your own business personality.

Howard Schultz, the Chairman of Starbucks said: “We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.”

I launched  www.brideclubme.com  and expat bride nearly two years ago, there was one website I knew to exist in the market at the time, now there are more wedding websites and blogs hitting the UAE scene and that is fine by me. BCME was one of the first to launch and we know what our USP is.

Collaboration with some of your ‘competition’ is never a bad thing either, for example, if you are a DJ or wedding photographer, there may be work you cannot take on, join forces with someone else you respect in the market and pass work each others way. I’m personally working in a project with a few wedding bloggers in the region who I respect, so watch this space!

Don’t ignore social media:

I do cringe when I see a new company who has no social media pages or presence at all. We are living in the age of technology! People (especially brides) are connected on line all the time, be that a good or bad thing. Don’t be that company who gets left beind.

For the wedding industry in particular, I recommend Facebook, Instagram, twitter and Pinterest. YES, managing these pages can be quite a task, but trust me it’s worth it in the end, and you will find that you receive more clients and enquiries as a result. Oh and people, PLEASE don’t use a personal Facebook page as your business page!! Set up a ‘business’ Facebook FAN page…!

Blog:

Setting up a blog within your business website, will really help with your SEO. It’s also a great way for your fans, clients and followers to see what you are up to behind the scenes. Some of the most successful businesses I have seen in this industry are those who blog about the industry they are in. Don’t just talk about your business, talk about the industry too, talk about things that will have people visiting your website again and again.

Ahhh, I could go on forever, but I’ll stop now….I really, really hope the above has helped some of you. I’m extremely encouraging of entrepreneurship, especially with women, I’m truly inspired every day by the female entrepreneurs I meet on a daily basis through my field of work, and have personally seen start-ups grow and flourish into successful businesses .

I’ll leave you with a little quote from the classically beautiful Audrey Hepburn.

Ciao for now….

I’m back again, and this time I am blogging about a small event I organised last month. I’m starting to launch event initiatives under the Bride Club ME umbrella, in order to bring something refreshing and new to the wedding industry and for brides. Expo’s will always have their place here in the market, but to be honest, as a bride in this region, I craved something different…so this is what I am trying to achieve.

I was also delighted to see that one of the hotels listed on Bride Club ME, the Montgomerie Hotel, Dubai, hosted a refreshingly different and pretty wedding exhibition, helped along by my friend and wedding stylist Joelle over at My Lovely Wedding. I’m gutted I missed it, as I had just had my tooth op on the same day and was pretty out of it after.

The event looked awesome, with many BCME vendors exhibiting, including Creative Box, Contessa Dubai, Mylist.ae, The Events Factory, Canvas and Wood, Goldfish Photography, Gul Photography, Fabulous Day Weddings and Events, Phioro, Moirai Style and more. Brides need more then just wedding gowns and jewelry, they need the whole shebang, and the event seemed to cater for every need. I’m looking forward to the next one! I don’t think the official pictures from the event are out yet, so watch this space!

Back to my little event, last month, I met some of my readers at our second Bride Club ME ‘Bride-To-Be’ ladies night (Mix N Mingle).  This followed on from the annual wedding workshop, at the Fairmont the Palm, of which I was invited to present as a guest speaker, offering ‘Tips N Tricks‘ to newly engaged brides in Dubai (below are some pictures from the workshop).

After the workshop, I hosted our ‘Bride Club ME, Ladies Night’ event. The concept behind the event is to keep it small, intimate, personal, and to offer brides in the region a chance to meet each other, talk about their wedding plans, offer referrals, advice and to meet with the BCME team and some of our hand picked vendors. The brides are treated to canapés, drinks, goody bags and surprises during the evening. Last month, we had SUGAR Urban Nails providing the ladies with gorgeous polish changes and shoulder massages.

Each bride took home a goody bag filled with some trinkets and vouchers, including a pair of heel stoppers from ‘Clean Heels, Heel Stoppers’, a wedding garter from ‘The Bridal Showroom’ and a gift voucher from Mylist.ae.

I did not go mad with promotions or advertising for this event, as it was by invitation only and you have to be subscribed to our BCME newsletters to receive invites. If you are not already signed up, click here to do so.

It was a fun evening and was so lovely to meet some of my readers In the flesh. Mums, grooms and bridesmaids came along too, which was wonderful. I shall be organising more of these events, as well as others throughout the year (within my means). I have a lot on, but will try my best to put on a few more, perhaps after the summer period…I’m already having brides asking for the next date! lol.

I will also be organising an industry event just for wedding vendors, as often, a lot of my clients conduct business amongst each other, and we at Bride Club ME are delighted to help facilitate that.

If you are a company, hotel or service provider and would like to partner with or host sponsor our next event, email me at Rhiannon@brideclubme.com for more details.

I’LL BE BACK soon with an update on moving into our new martial home, with some helpful tips and contacts for other married couples doing the same.

Oh and before I forget, I’m posting this from ‘The Perfect Wedding Show’ at the Sharjah exhibition centre. Bride Club ME are online media partners. The event is more suitable for the Arabic bride, and is on for the next two days, so, if you are an Arabic bride, pop by  and say hello! Click here for the exhibition details.

Ciao for now