There is no doubt that a wedding is a beautiful experience, but while the final result can be glamorous and stunning, behind the scenes this is not always the case. Many people find preparing for a wedding draining and tiring and nowhere near as enjoyable as the wedding day itself.
The bride can feel overwhelmed by the need to go through an apparently endless to-do list, starting from decorations and including food, music, dress, photography, flowers, hairdressers and so on and so forth.
In the past, the existence of wedding planners made the job easier for the bride, as they could help her in the wedding preparation process. Today, two initiatives specially tailored to make the business of organising weddings less stressful have come onto the Egyptian market.
The first is called Farahy (my wedding) and is a wedding consultancy company aiming to help the bride in every detail of her wedding from the proposal to the honeymoon. It provides a one-stop shop that can deal with every detail of a wedding and can also help to make arrangements based upon a specific budget.
Nadine Farrag, the founder of Farahy, said that it has always been her dream to help brides arrange their weddings.
“I came up with the idea some seven years ago when my best friend was getting married. It was then that I discovered that the preparation for a wedding can be difficult and even overwhelming,” Farrag said.
“I love weddings and enjoy them so much. But behind the scenes they can be an extraordinary hassle because of all the organisation. I worked on my idea as a result and started to work on the Farahy website that offers every detail a bride needs for her wedding.”
It took four years to launch the company, Farrag said, adding that the design of the website was the most time-consuming part. This helps brides with all the details of a wedding and also allows them to book wedding venues.
“Supposing I am looking for a venue in 6 October City to hold a wedding with a budget of LE150,000. I can search on the Farahy website and find suggestions. The site also allows me to look at suppliers, check reviews for wedding venues, and look at availability as well as bookings,” Farrag said.
The website now also has an online marketplace that allows suppliers to post offers for products that a bride could need, like decorations, presents for bridesmaids, flowers, and service providers like photographers, hairdressers, and makeup artists.
“After that we launched the media coverage service, which is about documenting the wedding day and posting it on social media,” Farrag said.
“Today, we are a one-stop shop for all wedding supplies, including venue booking, catering, wedding dresses, spa bookings, make-up artists, honeymoon planning, photographers, hairdressers, DJs and music.”
Another service Farahy offers is the “genie,” a customer service agent that the bride can call and delegate all the wedding preparation to, starting from booking the wedding venue to organising the honeymoon and taking care of schedules and payments.
“Our website is up to date and reflects the market prices of wedding items and venues. We have a particular target audience, and we operate based on the budget of the bride and the audience,” Farrag concluded.
Another new service for weddings is Yaay, which has the more particular aim of providing a friendly corner for children at weddings where they are able to enjoy their time. Bella, the founder of Yaay, said that she started her business two years ago when a friend was getting married and the problem was how to keep the children of guests occupied.
“I thought about producing a booklet with various activities for different age groups, like colouring, brain-teasers, puzzles, spotting the difference, and so on. The cover of the booklet would reflect the theme of the wedding with a cartoon picture of the bride and the groom. Now we distribute these booklets at weddings and also arrange kid’s corners as well,” she said.
“Children can get out of control at weddings, which is why it is important to keep them busy and provide enjoyable activities for them. I don’t think it is a good idea to leave the children at home when there is a wedding, which is why I established my project.”
The feedback has been positive, Bella said, and children are calmer when they sit and do activities they love. This stops them running around and making noise during the wedding celebrations.
“Another activity is a game for the friends of the bride and groom. It is a kind of card game called ‘our friends at our wedding’ designed to find out how well those present really know the bride and groom. It is a lot of fun and makes the wedding even more joyful,” Bella concluded.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 May, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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