Volume 65 December 2026-January 2026 : Business

 

For a long time 30-year old Bianca Hule had waited with great anticipation for the first ever wedding fair to be held in Botswana.  Through her company, Alpha Events, which is involved in events planning, Hule had looked forward to taking part in the inaugural wedding fair.  The idea was to showcase and market her company’s services and products at the well attended wedding fair. “Trust me there are many more of us who aren’t here today. Roughly I would say four times the people you see here,” she shared with Kutlwano in an interview.

 The one factor that Bianca has observed in Botswana is that weddings here are quite seasonal. She says there are months her company, comprising her and two others, has a lot to deal with.  This is particularly so on occasions when the company has clinched two or more jobs on the same date. The boom period, she says, normally takes place between the months of

August and December. And then there is what she terms “dry spells” when there is very little or no activity regarding weddings, particularly the first months of the year and during the winter season. 

The business woman says the key to staying on top of her game and shake off competition is by being unique all the time.  She does that by bringing the latest trends in the business, she says. However, it is clear from the presentation at the stalls that the wedding industry is a cutthroat business as no one is prepared to be outdone.  The occasion was indeed a sight for sore eyes.

Sparkles, crystals, beads, flowers, lights, camera and the entire action one could possibly imagine all in one place. To expose her business and give it mileage she has a website. Hule has brochures and does email and social media advertising. The wedding industry is new to Botswana, and it does not come cheap as some people may think.  The idea, therefore, according to Hule, is to take the stress of wedding planning off the bride’s shoulders.

Imagine the hassle and expenses of running around looking for music, booking cars, decor, catering, tents, venue searching and all that is associated with a wedding, a lot of money is involved, details Hule. In her own opinion “with a wedding planner everything is organised by one person since they know where and how to get all of these services.” 

According to Hule, a wedding is one of the most memorable experiences in one’s life. On a wedding day everything has to be perfect, particularly the venue.  Therefore, it is important that the right people are engaged to arrange for such a day.

Further, with planning comes advising. For instance, a client who is working on a tight budget but prefers an expensive centrepiece may be advised to opt for something equally nice but less costly. However, she says any budget is workable. The trick is to have something to begin with. As it turns out, a lot of brides do not normally have a budget and then they get stressed when the costs keep on rising.

The most expensive wedding Bianca says she ever planned came to a whooping P400 000! But she is quick to explain that even a budget as small as P50 000 is doable. “I can come up with a very nice decor for around P5000,” she assures. Time, according to Hule, is of essence in the wedding industry. “In fact, it is a very special commodity,” she says.

A wedding planner, it turns out, needs at least a good six months to execute successfully, although there are exceptions to the rule. Bianca says she has had to plan a wedding in just a month, something she would not advise anyone to do.

Latest trends in the industry, she says, include sparkles, glamour, crystals and tiffany chairs. “Colours such a lemon/ lime that people would not have ordinarily liked in the past are surfacing, and so is the use of different shades of the same colour such as your purples and pinks put together,” she reveals. 

Employing extra-ordinary ideas such as the use of rusty metal as centrepieces is also a very trending theme at the moment, says Hule. Hule advises those interested in joining the industry to be passionate and creative about it. “They must be willing to try new things,” she says.  While it appears the industry is already crowded, there is still room for more players, she feels. Make-up artist, Jennifer Osei-Mensah, concurs that brides have not yet learnt to appreciate the use of bridal services such as hers.

Oesi-Mensah’s business offers make- up to a variety of clients especially for bridal parties. She warns that one of the biggest mistakes a bride can make is to compromise their looks on their wedding day. Having been a make-up artist for more than five years, Jennifer says she understands the importance of investing in one’s make-up, particularly on the wedding day.

“Brides prefer to commit all their money and energy on decor and spend very little or nothing on their looks and pictures. Decor will be there temporarily but a bride’s pictures and image will remain forever so they should avoid a situation where they will regret not engaging a professional make-up artist,” Jennifer shares in an interview with Kutlwano.

She too agrees that there are seasons of plentiful business and seasons of very little weddings which makes her business very shaky and unpredictable. That might explain why she is not full time yet. “I intend to do this full time by the end of this year,” she quips.  On a busy month she can get up to two or three bookings in one weekend. Summer time and public holidays present a lot of business for her, while January and winter periods are the worst.  

Jennifer is of the view that the wedding industry is growing in leaps and bounds in all its different aspects.  However, her feeling is that there is room for more even though the market is an issue as it is still very small. “Also there are issues of awareness and appreciation. Some people still haven’t the slightest idea of what we do exactly and the importance of engaging our services for their weddings,” she laments. Another wedding entrepreneur is Dudu Flinders, who is a cake maker and  the owner of a one-stop -wedding shop in Maruapula in Gaborone, called All Occasions Spot.Dudu loves and is inspired by colour. 

In fact, one of her wedding cakes that were being showcased at the wedding fair was black! She describes herself as very artistic. She acknowledges that competition is very tight nowadays asthere are many of them who deal in cakes and cake making. “These people that are here are just a tiny fraction of how many we are.

Re bantsi tota. Ba bangwe ba dira ko malapeng. Just take a look at the advertiser for two consecutive weeks and see how many people advertise these services.” It can, therefore, be concluded that it calls for her to dig deeper into her artistic and creative self  to stay relevant and attract customers.

The advantage of a wedding planner is that people do not have to travel outside the country to places such as Johannesburg, South Africa to get stuff as these are now readily available, she observes, at the same time cautioning that regarding cakes the market is very much saturated. 

“There is no room for more players as the ones that are there are already fighting for a small market,” she says, adding “that is why some of us are not even doing this full time.” Like others, the periods between March and April, September and December are good in terms of the frequency of weddings providing Dudu with some business opportunities. On a very busy month she makes up to 20 cakes.

But she reveals it is hard to say that is profitable because the other months can be really bad.  Some of the challenges, she says, include inadequate suppliers as all of them rely solely on one supplier for their equipment. As such at times they are forced to travel to South Africa to get their material.

“It limits our creativity because we can’t always travel every time there is one or two items missing,” she says adding that “with more at my disposal I can do a lot more than what you see.” One of the most fulfilling joys about this business is the priceless look on a bride’s face when you have delivered to their satisfaction, opines Dudu.

People still complain about prices which are around P5000 for wedding cakes but Dudu explains that cake making is highly labour intensive and very expensive equipment is used. She says she can spend days just on one wedding cake. The most common misconception she has observed about wedding cakes is that Batswana do not normally eat their cake on the wedding day even though they should. They keep it for years before another big ceremony just for cutting and eating up the cake.

Dudu reveals that even though a wedding cake is commonly made of a fruit flavour which lasts longer, the idea is “to be fruitful and multiply!” and not to keep it for five years in the fridge. She advises couples to only keep a wedding fruit cake for one and a half years at the most unless it is kept frozen always.

 

 

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