Get To Know The Wedding Pro

Every week, we will be shining the spotlight on our Bride Club ME vendor club members, allowing our readers to learn more about some of the best wedding vendors in town. Here, we’ll bring you everything you need to know about the people behind the businesses we recommend hiring to make your wedding day perfect.

This week, we hear from Julie Ziani, founder of Julie & Romeo Weddings. Below, Julie provides us with an exclusive insight into the company, including their exciting collaboration with wedding concierge service Aghareed, and also tells us what she loves most about her job.

Above: Julie Ziani, founder of Julie & Romeo Weddings

How long has Julie & Romeo Weddings been established and what do you do?

Julie & Romeo Weddings was established in 2010 and is based Dubai, but we also operate in Paris as well. We are a bespoke design and organising company for weddings and provide tailor-made solutions for couples seeking the very best, personalised wedding experience. Our role sees us handling everything from stage design, backdrop concepts and 3D mapping, to flower setup and arrangement using our in-house master florist.

What do you love most about your work?

I have always had a passion for events and art, and my dream was to combine these two concepts. I decided to enter the wedding industry for two main reasons; firstly, because it gives me the opportunity to be truly creative and to theme concepts to build an overall immersive experience for an occasion that is likely to be the most important shared event in a couple’s life; and secondly, because the rewards are immense in terms of the pleasure that we are able to bring to a bride and groom, their family and their guests. This is something that is immeasurable and creates a huge sense of job satisfaction.

We hear that you have just teamed up with the wedding concierge service, Aghareed. Please tell us all about this new partnership…

Aghareed is the first wedding concierge service in the UAE and I am extremely excited to be working with them to help make dream weddings a reality. Julie & Romeo Weddings is partnering with Aghareed (Clare and Liesel of Aghareed, pictured below with Julie) to offer a one-stop solution for couples; from planning the proposal through to helping with activities on the honeymoon. Our shared concept is that it is so much easier and more efficient for the bride and groom-to-be to find everything under one roof, not to mention the advantage with savings on time. In short, Aghareed and Julie & Romeo strive to take the stress and strain away from the couple as they plan their big day.

Aside from this, do you have any other exciting projects planned for the future?

In terms of wedding décor, I am shortly going to be traveling to Paris as part of a 3D mapping project that I am working on, so I am feeling excited about this. In addition to my role with Julie & Romeo Weddings, I have another passion which is catering.  With this in mind I am aiming to create a new food concept and am working on a new coffee shop design. 

Why might a bride and groom make use of your services?

Together with Aghareed, Julie & Romeo offers a full wedding concierge service, making it easier for couples to plan their big day during their hectic schedules. We work with an established group of internal suppliers that cater specifically to the couples’ needs, making the process so much easier and more convenient for them. Our commitment to our customers sees us providing a sole point of contact, rather than obliging them to shop around and manage several different organisations themselves. Our packages are entirely flexible, so the couple can decide how much they want to be involved in the process. They can let us take care of every detail or they can use us just to provide on-the-day support. This latter aspect of our service is great if they want more control of the planning process but want to be able to relax and enjoy their wedding without the worries of managing the actual occasion.

What budgets do you cater for?

The budget will vary depending on what the client is looking for, so a significant part of our service includes meetings with the couple to find out their specific requirements. We then create a cost estimate which outlines all elements associated with the wedding, making it easier to prepare financially for the big day. From this point, we devise ‘mood boards’ and assist in the planning process from A–Z, being as involved and as supportive as the clients want us to be. We are very careful to adhere to our customers’ budget and ultimately aim to provide a service that offers ‘affordable luxury.’

Do you have a favourite wedding ceremony and/or reception location in the UAE?

I have a number of favourite locations for weddings in Dubai. They include the Al Qasr beach platform at Magnolia (Maglonia pictured below), Waldorf Astoria The Palm, Ritz Carlton JBR, Bab Al Shams, Etihad Tower and Saint Regis Abu Dhabi. They all provide a first-class service that is geared towards the hosting of ceremonies and receptions. My experience of weddings at these locations is that they have all gone flawlessly. They all provide an extensive range of facilities and offer great set-ups for both indoor and outdoor events.

You also plan weddings in Paris. How does this differ from planning in Dubai?

There is a greater use of outdoor locations in Dubai because of the lovely weather for the most part of the year. Weddings in Dubai are generally less expensive because of a greater range of choices in the emirate, which keeps event prices lower than when compared to Paris. This is still the case even with the current weak status of the Euro. Dubai also offers the advantage of having less forward planning required. Because of the authorities’ stipulations in Paris, planning there has to be undertaken at least one year ahead. In Dubai, we can have all the logistics in place just one month in advance.

Lastly, why did you choose to list with www.brideclubme.com?

Bride Club ME is the foremost online wedding portal for the UAE region and has a high number of visitors each month, which allows us great reach to our target audience. The site’s style represents what Julie & Romeo Weddings wants to achieve with its service, so we believe that we can complement each other perfectly. We also had a number of our clients saying that they found the site to be extremely useful to them and requested that we became a part of it. With all these factors considered, it was an obvious choice to list with the site. We are confident that together we will provide a synergy that offers couples in the region and beyond the very best wedding experiences.

Thanks Julie! To learn more about Julie & Romeo Weddings, click here, email [email protected], or visit their BCME vendor listing.