SADE AWE
CEO Bridal Circle & Curator of the Jeff Leatham Floral Experience Lagos Spurred on by a mission to create a seamless partnership with clients and to provide superior and insightful service, Sade has revolutionized the luxury wedding industry. Her desire to provide only the most exquisite products from the most celebrated designers and artists within the luxury community has sent her to the far ends of the earth on a quest for the ultimate in wedding glamour. As a result, brides have only to search within the parameters of The Bridal Circle itself to encounter the best the world has to offer. With the creation of The Bridal Circle, Sade makes herself available to brides across the globe as a personal concierge, ensuring that the weddings of their dreams materialize before their very eyes. When she’s not networking with her elite wedding partners, blogging, poring over sumptuous photos, attending fashion shows or assisting brides with their opulent wedding plans, Sade loves to travel. Gorgeous hotels and resorts, couture boutiques, golfing and treatments in some of the world’s most luxuriant spas, are some of Sade’s greatest loves.
Your resume is impressively vast. How long has it taken you to get to this point where you are? Less than 5 years actually. My background is I.T and I was a consultant for over 15 years. I started out inspired by my younger sister who was getting married. She wanted to get married in Brussel and I couldn’t find a lot of things I was looking for so I started talking to people asking them what was missing in the online luxury brands, what would they like to see etc. I basically put on my analytical thinking cap and started talking to different luxury vendors to find the missing gaps in the market. In terms of how fast, I think it’s all about who you meet. I’m able to connect with people really well and I’m a woman of my word so integrity and reputation opens the door and people begin to trust you. If you do one thing right then people start to believe you are solid. What inspired the idea of this event? Jeff Leatham is a well renowned floral designer and
he’s brilliant so it was very easy. A lot of people had remarked on how amazing it would be to have Jeff in Nigeria. I thought to myself that Jeff would be the perfect fit for Nigeria because he is the type of person that is full of love and life and passion and it was very important to me that whoever I brought to Nigeria would embrace the culture. I did not want to bring someone who would have a high handed approach .I knew Jeff would be down to earth. What’s been your biggest surprise as regards the luxury market here in Nigeria? The unflinching support I had with my partners was amazing. Funmi, Ata, Yewande, Moji, Sarah, Oghogho… they just said what can we do, we want to be there. For me it’s important when I’m picking my partners that I work with people who see beyond my vision because it opens so many more doors. Unfortunately I also got to experience the not-so-sweet side of things as I found there people really almost
ATA ASHIRU
rooting for me to fail and it was really sad. If you were to change one perception or preconceived notion of potential Nigerian clients as regards luxury weddings what would that it be? In Nigeria there tends to be a lot of outside factors that is too many hands in the wedding planning process. So I would say if you are going to hire someone to plan a really luxurious wedding trust that the person you hired has your best interest at heart to do a good job and that they are truly professional at what they do! Can we look forward to you bringing more Master craftsmen of International repute back here to Nigeria soon? I hope so. I cannot say too much right now but watch this space!
friends and family, and people became interested in my designs and began to make requests. Then a few years ago for my thirtieth birthday, I created my invitations and people started calling to ask where I got them from and I told them how I designed and executed the whole thing myself. From that point, it took on a life of its own. I started designing and charging for it because I’ve always been creative.
C.E.O INKHEARTS STUDIO Ata Ashiru is the Creative Director of Inkhearts Studio, a full service design studio that caters to the discerning client looking to own custom stationery. They cater to the social/wedding industry as well as corporate clients who want more than cookie cutter designs. Their custom stationery creations are designed personally and uniquely for the client and sets the tone for their one of a kind events. Inspired by unique designs, fashion and a discovered love for specialty paper, Inkhearts was formally launched in January 2009. As cliche as it may sound, it really just started with creating unique designs for family and friends who wanted much more than the premanufactured invitations found at paperie stores. Armed with a Bachelors in International Business and a Masters’ degree in Business Administration, coupled with several years of working with an industry leader in risk management services and one of the Big 4 professional services firm, Ata is bringing her business skills to Inkhearts; creating the perfect marriage of creativity, good business
...Networking with elite wedding planners
From inception till now, have you had any form of formal training in calligraphy or graphic design? No formal training at all. I just pretty much knew what I wanted to do, had a focus, got myself on Google and learnt how to use all the necessary applications to design. In creating invitations and stationary for the Jeff Leatham experience, were you working with a particular theme or were you given free rein? I was given free rein but I also had to keep in mind that I was doing something for Jeff. I wanted to do something that he would appreciate. He worked with a lot of black acrylic vases in the Masterclass, the dinner menus were made of acrylic which were all inspired by Jeff. I also wanted to create something that was wow and that set the tone for the whole experience.
...inspired by unique design acumen and professionalism. She is happily married and a proud mother of 3. How did you start Inkhearts? I started out creating stationary and paper goods for
Where do you see your business going in the next 5 years? We have a full design studio in Ikoyi, where people can come and look at invitations and be inspired by my designs. In the next five years, I plan on incorporating, something like a “ready to order” line because we already have custom designs but something of good quality which would not as expensive as custom because that creates volume in sales at the end of the day. March 27, 2016 /
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