A Winter Wonderland Wedding In Dubai | Exquisite Events
Written by on December 1, 2014.
Tagged under: DUBAI WEDDING, Emirati wedding, Exquisite Events, Local wedding, Snow, Snow In Dubai, Weddings in Dubai, Winter, Winter wonderland wedding, snow wedding dubai, white wedding
A Winter Wonderland Wedding In Dubai
Living in Dubai, we are used to the city forever keeping us on our toes with its latest grand announcements: a ski slope in the middle of a mall, no problem! Building the world’s tallest tower … sure! So, when a bride wants snow for her big day in the desert, it’s snow she gets.
Here, we speak to Jennifer McGarrigle and Noora Al Suwaidi, founders of Exquisite Events, a relatively new event planning company that has been making waves in the industry since its fabulous launch event at the Ritz Carlton JBR Dubai last December, which we had the pleasure of attending.
Jennifer and Nora both have years of experience in the events industry, working for royal and high-profile clientele. Having recently completed one of their most extravagant weddings yet – aptly named Winter Wonderland for a high profile local family, featuring snow, indoor blizzards and icicles – we speak to Jennifer, who talks us through planning this wonderfully over-the-top wedding and how it all came about.
Local Emirati weddings are very different from Western weddings – can you give us a brief overview of the main distinctions?
The main difference, of course, is that local weddings are all-female events; everybody from the guests to the servers and the DJ needs to be female. They are also normally far larger in terms of guest count, and can reach up to 3,000+ guests, so logistically they are more complex and time-consuming to plan.
What inspired the winter wonderland theme behind this spectacular wedding?
It was all Noora’s idea; I really can’t take any credit for this one. We started initially with the colour palette – pale pastels with a hint of ice blue. This then transitioned towards the winter wonderland theme. We decided to push the boundaries further and investigated if we could have falling snow, found an amazing supplier and just ran with it!
Where was the venue?
The wedding took place in Saeed Halls 1 and 2 in the World Trade Centre. It is essentially a large blank canvas, literally just the floor, ceilings and four walls. I personally love working this way; we were not restricted at all by the existing design like in some other venues. In terms of design, we could have done anything – it’s a great way to work!
How many people attended the wedding?
We had 1,200 guests at the wedding, so there were 150 tables of eight.
What were the giveaways?
The giveaways were beautiful handmade Japanese chocolates. We sourced them from a company in Galeries Lafayette called Royce. We also gave each of the guests a CD of the bride’s zaffeh (entrance song) as it was recorded by the groom as a special surprise for his bride.
Where did you source the authentic-looking icicles and snow?
A number of suppliers worked together to achieve the wedding set-up; we worked as a team, as the build-up was so large for this wedding. The production company handled the larger elements such as the frosted pillars, and the icicles and snow were sourced externally.
From start to finish, how long was the entire planning process?
We began planning the wedding in June and, at that point, nothing was confirmed other than the venue and we had everything ready to go for 23October. So a total of four and a half months to execute the entire event. Not a small task and we are very proud of what we achieved.
What was your favourite part of planning the Winter Wonderland wedding?
The family were the loveliest clients; they were open to our design suggestions and allowed us full creative licence – that doesn’t always happen so it was so nice to be able to design the wedding starting with the blank canvas that the hall was, and feel the satisfaction on completion. We joked that we would really miss them when the planning process finished and we did – in fact, I’m meeting the sister-of-the-groom tomorrow for a coffee!
If you want your very own winter wonderland wedding or simply need a quality planner to relieve you of the stress, you can visit Exquisite Events’ vendor club listing here (where you will find an exclusive reader offer) or visit their website for more information.
Looking for more wedding inspiration? Click here.
Leave a Reply