If you walked into a wedding where everything is perfect — from the venue, lighting, music and center pieces to the kusha — and the theme is simple and elegant, you instantly know that the wedding designer and planner behind it is Ghadeer Ashour.

Her main aim in the wedding is to keep the bride and her mother focused on the event rather than on the small details and problems they might face during the wedding function. “I like my clients to worry less about the problems, I like for them to actually enjoy the wedding and the luxury that comes with it,” she said. “You can always find me walking around the venue with my team to make sure everything is perfect and I also hire a personal assistant to the bride who carries around an emergency kit when following the bride because you can never predict what happens,” she added.

Ashour’s career started after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Dar Al-Hekma College in Jeddah. “I never thought I would actually like this major. There were limited majors that focused on art and that’s the only reason I chose to be an interior designer,” she said. “After graduating, I stayed at home doing nothing for over a year until my friend asked for my assistance in her wedding in Cairo,” she added.

The first wedding Ashour worked on was located in an outdoor venue right next to the butterfly museum in the capital city of Egypt. “I didn’t know any suppliers or anything about wedding designing but I had to put all my study to use and quickly put things together for a wedding to remember,” she said. “It took us around two months to find the perfect flower suppliers, catering, venue and all. After all we were in a foreign country and we didn’t have enough contacts,” she added.

When Ashour decided to make event designing and wedding planning her business, she faced many obstacles in her home country, Saudi Arabia. “People are still not educated enough to know the difference between a flower shop and a wedding designer. I don’t blame them because flower shops in Saudi Arabia actually do some wedding decor,” she said. “It became impossible for me to find a local supplier because my job would compete with their business. I faced similar challenges in furniture design because I like my bride to have a unique seating area. This pushed me to find suppliers in Beirut who understand the business,” she added.

Wedding budgets are the most difficult aspect a wedding designer and planner must deal with. “Here in the Kingdom, a bride will never help you by providing her exact budget, she thinks she will save some money that way but what happens is it makes me do the whole budget and redo it a couple of times, which is a waste of time and energy,” she said. “I like it when a bride knows exactly what she wants when she tells me how much money she is willing to pay for the designs, the flowers, the photographer, the singer and more,” she added.

Ashour follows a simple process when working with a new client, which starts with an interview. “I have to spend a lot of time with the bride to learn more about her personality and style. After signing the contract I ask her to collect photos of random things she likes and place it in a sealed box for me to come up with the mood board for the wedding,” she said. “This tells me a lot about the bride and it helps with choosing the right colors, patterns, flowers and theme for her big day. Then we do the sketch for the venue and interior and start the designs right after her agreement to all,” she added.

The most important element in the wedding is the lighting, according to Ashour. “Positioning the light in the right places will make everything look beautiful. For example, if you have simple center pieces and have the right lighting, you will have the perfect dramatic atmosphere that will make everything look better,” she said. “Saudi weddings have catwalks exactly like those fashion shows and you have to have the perfect lights focused only on the bride and the groom during their catwalk and everything else should be dark,” she added.

The best wedding Ashour worked on took place in Istanbul where royalty was the theme. “It was perfect, especially because the bride booked us six months before the actual wedding so it gave me a lot of time to travel back and forth to find the perfect suppliers and come up with creative ideas to work with the venue, which was the Four Seasons Hotel Bosphorus. Her wedding was done in the outdoor area around the fountain in the month of June,” she said. “We chose white flowers from hydrangea and peony all over the stairways and the tables along with crystals and mirrors to give it a luxurious feel. The family loves horses so we designed sculptures of two white horses around a side fountain,” she added.

The photographers started filming the bride during the preparations and were familiar with the whole plan of the wedding. “I wanted to capture every moment of her getting her makeup done and talking to her friends and we filmed throughout the whole wedding so she can remember every part of it,” she said. “This is why I suggest that people invest in their photographers and choose good ones because the only thing that lasts from this night are the photos,” she added.

The wedding planner never does the same theme twice and she always comes up with different ideas and methods to make each client feel special. “I get my inspiration from the bride herself and from the box of photos she gives me. This is the easiest way for me to find the best ideas the represent her because my goal is that when the guests enter the wedding hall, they instantly relate it to the bride,” she said. “I always update myself with what’s new in the wedding world by attending international wedding exhibitions to find ideas and suppliers,” she added.

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