Today we are speaking with Deonne Grant – a London based wedding planner who covers weddings not only in London, but all of the UK and overseas. Deonne is half of the Unique Dream Weddings duo. (Annemarie is her business partner and twin sister!) She shares with us a little about wedding planning and what benefit having a wedding planner can bring to your wedding day, especially if you are having a multicultural wedding.

Welcome Deonne, when was Unique Dream Weddings founded?

We were founded in 2008, but we planned various events for family and friends before.

Why did you decide to start your own wedding event company?

We always had a passion to organise the littlest of events, christenings, birthdays and weddings. At times we would just take over family events, because it was so unorganised!  So we used to sort everything… as you might say, it came very naturally to us!

Everybody would say how well we organised events, but we did not take the comments literally. It was not until we we were asked to help out at a friend’s wedding, about 8 years ago the passion for weddings came to us.

Tell me more about the services you offer, what makes Unique Dream Weddings stand out from the competition?

We offer full and partial wedding planning, as well as service and coordination of the day and our exclusive dress down service. A lot of weddings prior to this, only had their family helping out and preparing food. This meant that invited guests were working and not fully enjoying the day. Combining the co-ordination and dress down service, allows family and friends to throughly enjoy the day without the need to clean, pack away hired items, and sort things out at the end of reception. Basically the bride aand groom can just leave at the end of their wedding day, and go off to their honeymoon knowing that everything is taken care of.

Combining the co-ordination and dress down service, allows family and friends to throughly enjoy the day without the need to clean, pack away hired items, and sort things out at the end of reception.

We stand out as we specifically specialise in Black and multicultural weddings in the UK. Before this, there was no other wedding planning company that catered for the Afro Caribbean, black and multicultural weddings in their online presence. We wanted to reflect this in our website, by featuring our target audience – having lots of photos of black  and multi-ethnic brides and grooms to express that we do get married too! We are professional and always looking for new ways to improve our service and market to today’s black and modern bride.

We stand out as we specifically specialise in Black and multicultural weddings in the UK.

What has been your favourite project to date and why?

Pror to becoming specialised, we planned a Caucasian couple’s wedding, that really loved the Jamaican culture. They wanted something unique for the wedding, that had the wow factor. We managed to find a company that does a kind of tropical bar and we made an edible green banana and pineapple bouquet, which we made ourselves. We imported the dwarf green bananas and tropical flowers, the bride went absolutely crazy and loved every minute of her tropical themed wedding! (This green banana bouquet is exclusive to Unique Dream weddings!)  We go that extra mile to achieve the weddings that the couple want.

We managed to find a company that does a kind of tropical bar and we made an edible green banana and pineapple bouquet, which we made ourselves. We imported the dwarf green bananas and tropical flowers, the bride went absolutely crazy and loved every minute of her tropical themed wedding!

What are you working on at the moment?

We are currently working on weddings to held in Italy and Jamaica later on this year.

What have been the highlights of running your own business?

Networking, meeting a lot of people… when a couple truly enjoys their wedding day and it is stress free…. it really pleases us, because we know our company is needed.

What is the hardest part of running your own business?

There’s not really a hard part,  because we are twins, we equally share the work.

We were also awarded a Gold award for our website, because of its contents and services.

What has been your biggest triumph so far?

We were invited to attend The Wedding Merchants Business Academy in Las Vegas, which was a honour to attend. We came back with fresh ideas to implement in the business hence now why we have got video testimonials, and yet again we are the first wedding planning company to do this in England as far as we know.

We were also approached to help find suppliers for a well known Black celebrity, and although we had a wedding booked on this day, it was nice to have been recognised.

We were also awarded a Gold award for our website, because of its content and services.

What, or who, inspires and motivates you?

We inspire each other because we are twins, of course  God, and the dream to leave a legacy for our children. I call my daughter my wedding assistant, as she is always commenting or giving her advice when I do something!

What advice would you give to someone who is considering starting a wedding planning business?

Research, research research!

Where do you think the wedding industry will be in 5 years time?

Fast forward five years, where do you think your business and the wedding industry will be in 2016?

The first port of call for all black weddings in the UK, is that we want to be able to get black weddings featured regularly in mainstream wedding magazines and blogs. When was the last time you saw a black couple in one of these magazines on the shelves?

Deonne, in addition to your company website, is there any other info you’d like to share?

For bridal couples, there are a lot of cowboy event and wedding companies popping up. Get to really know your wedding planner. If they are charging too cheaply,  then the quality of service may not be there.

A big thank you to Deonne to talking to us today! Deonne and Annemarie of Unique Dream Weddings can be contacted on their website or join them on Twitter or Facebook.