It all began this morning when my wedding planner friend Zeeta D’Souza of Why Knot, shared an album of her work in the Women’s vertical of my Community business network group, Kanara Entrepreneurs. If anything, I am one self-proclaimed sappy romantic, so Zeeta’s portfolio showcasing her dreamy floral wedding arrangements and designs brought out my wistful longing. In every bit of breathy honesty possible on a WhatsApp group, my appreciation for her business included, “Makes me want to have a wedding myself!”
That’s it! That’s all I said! What followed, however, was not just an avalanche of comments from the members that, one by one, built on my wedding plan, but also a joyously, impromptu exposition of individual businesses and skills that were available in the group.
It started with Sharmila Martis, Founder Director of Gift of Time Foundation, India, offered to have my wedding organized and all I need to do was say when! Over the next few minutes, these women left no stone unturned by presenting their skills and businesses to help plan my wedding:
- Wedding Cake: Charmaine Saldanha of Charm’s Homemade Goodness
- Pork, Wine & Liability Honeymooner Insurance: Leena Lobo of Angelina Consultancy Services
- Make up by Juliet Miranda of Juliet Makeovers
- The venue at Yarash Farms from Irene James
- Wedding Hampers from Greta’s Essentials
- A yummy chocolate body polish to even prepare for some good honeymooning from bluOilz
- Wedding gown from Lovina Monteiro of Gene…Brides
- Vrinda Lewis offered an end-to-end image consultancy for me, the spellbound bride, right from Wardrobe evaluation to Wedding Day!
Oh, and while we have this entire team that have about 90% of my most special day all planned out with all the love and joy that a sisterhood can bring in, we know that the guest list will definitely include the larger KE members outside of the Women’s group and so will catering, social media and music because I know the community has gone some great folks doing that work too! Wait to see them in the comments once this article gets published!
I mean, well, what more could a girl ask for?!
Why is this story here on LinkedIn?* Not necessarily as a #FridayFunday post, but also to show, as a friend indicated when I told him about this, how these women were shamelessly generou! All this for one of their tribe who had simply expressed a nostalgic thought – who just loved weddings, a little romance here and there and had that WhatsApp chat group buzzing with business pitches. A B2C linehaul was all set and ready to move at one A-OK from, ahem, this bride-to-be! So now, here I am helping shine some light on their businesses in return!
Oh… there was, however, one important thing missing for the wedding and it was most heart-warming offer from Coreen D’souza Fareed of Goodwill Leathers who offered to do her very best to fix it. She agreed to play Matchmaker and find me an available groom! Yeah.. sorry, I failed to mention it earlier. I mean, yeah.. sorry, but it was an exercise on self promotion and a need-based community effort all at once! And it was so much fun! I actually felt like all that was left was to send out the invites… Sigh!
The other option that still seems most lucrative is to just go ahead and have my very own wedding party as is, groom-no groom notwithstanding! Right?
Either way, Zeeta is definitely hired for setting things in motion. Also, just saying, she is definitely my event planner of choice and would most likely be the first to know about any change in my status!
Go ahead folks, check their businesses out and yes, they are fab at what they do… not just putting it together on paper but to actually executing it!
Have a great Friday, folks! This potential bride-to-be is all smiles today!
*This blog was first published on LinkedIn on 27th May 2022.
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