REPORTAGE
YEWANDE RWANG-DUNG C.E.O SARAO EVENTS
Yewande’s SARAO is an events solutions company with an accumulated knowledge and passion for events. They place great emphasis on service and have a carefully selected team of knowledgeable, trustworthy, motivated people committed to good service. Their knowledgeable events specialists are there from the initiation stage right through to the end, to ensure that your desired event is strategically streamlined, technically executed and spectacularly breathtaking. Even within tight budgets and deadlines, they are known to always deliver, and deliver exceptionally. What is the distinction between event planning and event designing? Event designing is the look and feel of your venue and your event whereas event planning is starting from the beginning, deciding which caterer to use, which vendor to use and putting the whole event together. I don’t put the whole event together. I just make the place look beautiful. How was your expertise applied for the Jeff Leatham experience? What we did basically was design the whole place. I’m very blessed to have an amazing team. From the get-go, we were just in sync with the vision for the décor. Essentially it was just a group of us coming together, producing something really spectacular. People usually say that when there’s more than 2 women working in a space it could be somewhat chaotic, with so much estrogen charge in the air. Can you honestly say that has been the case with all of you women pulling your energy together to make this event a success? I am not going to lie. It hasn’t been a walk in the park. I think what really helped was that we all had the same focus, we were determined to make it a success and
...Producing something really spectacular we just all pulled in and made it work. And I think that’s the key thing .you are going to clash, have disagreements here and there ,but what’s the focus, stay on the ball , focus on what you are trying to do and just deliver! What needs to be done must be done. On a final note, do you have any advice for young event designers starting out in the business? What would you say is the most important piece of advice you can give them. For me when I started out, my focus wasn’t making money, my focus was building a brand and I would take on jobs often times spending the entire allocation, my profits included just to create something really good and it worked for me. It helped me build my reputation and my brand so I would say if you love designing, just design forget about money and eventually it would start paying off.
How did you come about such a unique name as Aralia By Nature? Aralia is the name of a plant. It’s a plant that has large leaves and I just loved the form of the plant. So I added “by nature” to it and that’s how I came about the name. As a florist yourself, what was it like working alongside Jeff on this project? Working alongside Jeff on this project was an eye opening, humbling, empowering and amazing experience. I could go on. I found working alongside him almost like a dream. Once I got over that, I watched and learnt so much from his technique. Apart from just working with flowers, Jeff, as a person, also made me realize one thing that I have always stood for: he made me know for sure that I am on the right path which is humility. Jeff is like the number one florist in the world right now and he just embraced me and my team. What I realized is that no matter how successful you are, you just have to have your feet on the ground. He is an established man, no doubt, and he has no airs about him at all. For me, that’s one of the most important things I’m going to take away from meeting him. Can you give us a little insight as to the kind of support ABN brought to the table? The support that ABN brought to the table at this event was, basically, supplying every single flower that Jeff used for his Masterclass and assisting with putting small, medium and large floral arrangements wherever they were needed like for interviews, coffee tables and the main dinner to honour Jeff. We brought in all the flowers for the event and we actually did the arrangement of all the tables at the venue that night.
...Happy to teach and give advice
OGHOGHO ASEMOTA C.E.O., ARALIA BY NATURE
Aralia By Nature is a floral studio based in Lagos, Nigeria, founded by Oghogho on the principle of celebrating the beauty of nature. Her process is based on emotion, focusing on telling the story of the beauty, mystery and rejuvenating qualities of nature. Since its birth in 2009, Aralia By Nature has become the maven of the Nigerian floral industry; the highly creative floral designer, Oghogho, has amassed an evocative portfolio of floral décor, tablescaping and landscaping projects. Her style could be described as rustic, fashion forward and professional.
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/ March 27, 2016
If you could add anything to the roaring success of this experience, what would it be? What I would like to add to the roaring success of this event is very simple: we need to support each other more in the industry, especially women. Most times, we are our own worst enemies. I also feel that we should stop being so scared of supporting other successful people. The market is big; it’s huge and massive. It’s big enough for everybody. One person’s success doesn’t mean that the next person is less successful. If we all come together, we would be able to build beautiful and amazing to-die-for events. More collaboration is really necessary. We should be able to work together and not be afraid of each other. That’s why when people walk through my door talking to me about all things florist, I’m happy to teach and give them advice. Jeff has also made me realize that apart from being a florist, I would love to teach people more about floral arrangements. CREATIVE DIRECTION: LATASHA NGWUBE PHOTOGRAPHY: JIDE ALAKIJA Cover Outfits (for all except Jeff) - CAMILLA courtesy of Designers Club Lagos LOCATION - Angelika’s Home Store STYLING: Latasha Ngwube/Chiso Ebi MAKE-UP: Modupe Onanuga for Makeup by Mogizzie Makeup by Ekene Jewellery- Kareema Mak CREATIVE ASSISTANT/INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION - ANNE OKWUZI