Back to the drawing board

I am alumnus of Daystar University. I pursued an undergraduate degree in communications, majoring in electronic media and minoring in marketing.

Before my graduation in August 2007, I interned at Royal Media Services then left for Vivid Features. It was an excellent training ground for production and I enjoyed its fast-pace working culture. I never imagined I would leave until I was invited to an interview at K24 which was starting at that time.

The interview went well, and in January 2007, I started work at K24 as a reporter. Reporting was safe because I liked being behind the camera. But over time, reporting turned into production. And production turned into anchoring. Anchoring was exciting, intense and tiring, but I liked it. What I didn’t like was that I had to give up my family and social life so I could have a successful and growing career in media.

GENTLE NUDGES

I married in 2009. My husband, Mark Mwongela, was keen on knowing what else I wanted to pursue outside of my career. I found my ‘what else’ at a wedding my friend was planning: I helped her straighten things on the grounds, and though I didn’t fully understand what she was doing, I liked it. That evening, I told my husband about planning weddings on the side and he gave me his nod.

I registered at Divine Schools Worldwide for a six-month course in events planning and management. And in no time, I was balancing my evening anchoring shift with early-morning classes.

As classwork progressed, I got more excited at the intricate details of wedding planning. By the time I was registering my business – Imagine This Events – in June 2010, I was ready to leave my career in media and focus on wedding planning.

The week I handed in my resignation letter was also the week of my final exam. The letter caused trouble – my employer wasn’t pleased. He asked me to reconsider my resignation, and even offered to double my salary. My parents were shocked, too. Neither could understand why I would leave a successful career to pursue this ‘thing’ they knew nothing about. But I wasn’t fulfilled with the work I was doing. My season with media had come to an end.

It wasn’t easy going into business and challenges came one after the other. Business is not for the faint-hearted and if it wasn’t for the passion, I would not have stuck it out.

STRAINED FINANCES

The first challenge I encountered was in building my name and experience. In this industry, referral is the best selling point. My first client paid for my services. But afterward, I planned two weddings without pay. Our finances were strained and not having a salary at the end of the month didn’t make it any easier.

Another challenge I encountered was in getting people to trust our work and to understand the concept of wedding planning. The market had been flooded with quacks so clients were wary of wedding planners. Brides asked to see some certification at least before giving me the job and luckily I had that.

Besides that, my clients challenged my fees. Explaining why I am charging for my time, and for the creative and intellectual work which goes into turning their idea into an event, was difficult. I continuously charged much less than what I was worth, and I had to keep returning to the drawing board to restructure the pricing.

BAD SEASONS

Bad seasons in the planning calendar was yet another challenge; not every month is a wedding month, so you have to find a way of balancing the peak seasons with the quieter wedding months.

The business broke even in its third year, in August 2013. Unfortunately, that was the time we lost our first child, Zoey. Our daughter’s death put a pause to the growth plans for the business. It has been a period of healing since.

I have used this downtime to rebrand the business, to restrategise and take a different angle to what we have been doing since we opened shop.

In the three years I’ve been in the industry, I have learnt that planning alone is not a viable business; you need to supplement it with other services in the wedding industry. That’s next on our agenda.

We also plan to get into corporate events and to continue giving our clients weddings that reflect who they are.