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“WHY I SET UP A BRIDAL HOUSE TO HELP BRIDES”- NDIDI OBIOHA

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Ndidi Obioha is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Enthyst Event Management. Five years in the business, her event management outfit has hosted countless events which include A-list fashion shows, corporate events, top celebrity weddings and birthdays. She is not just a planner, she conceptualizes, organizes, defines, packages, plans, manages and co-ordinates events. Before she ventured into event planning, she had a stint in the banking industry. And like a seasoned professional, she handles all requests for attention with saintly calm, dealing with each situation and tackling each request in an orderly manner. And one commendable thing about this industrious woman is the fact that she has been able to juggle between her different lines of businesses without batting an eyelash. She is the owner of a beauty salon, Haircraft Beauty Zone; CEO of Enthyst Event Management; a stylist; and fashion editor of TW magazine.
And recently, she shocked everyone as she floats a multi-million naira one-stop- bridal house, also called the Enthyst Bridal House that specializes in all bridal dresses and accessories from head to toe. The outfit which took her 4 months to turn into a reality with the help of her husband was launched in a classy way on January 23, 2011 at the store outfit located at Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. The event attracted a lot of her friends and clients, the likes of Ifeoma Williams, Kate Henshaw, Ifeoma Nwachukwu, Genevieve Nnaji, Adesuwa Onyenokwe, Ose Amusa- Eke, Susan Eyo-Honesty and a host of others. She also unveiled some of her latest collections ranging from the bride’s outfit, groom’s outfit, maids of honour outfit and red carpet outfits to thrill the guests, and the styles were indeed mind-blowing. City People Fashion Editor, BOLA AKINBOADE met with her and in this interview, she opens up on why she is floating a one-stop-bridal outfit.

What is Enthyst Bridal House all about? What does it entail?
It’s a one-stop- centre. What I have realized in the industry having planned a lot of weddings is that a lot of brides don’t put themselves together correctly. And for me, it’s a once in a lifetime thing. So one of the things we do here is to also offer consultation services, where we help you look right. So the idea here is that we have a one-stop-centre whereby everything you need, from top-to-bottom, you can get it as a bride, from the dresses which are stunning. We try not to pick the usual dresses, when we are picking our dresses, we are after quality of fabric and style; those are the determining factors for what we are looking for when we are picking our dresses. So the idea is pick up your dress, everything thing you need you can get from here, the Tiaras, the Veil, the hair accessories, the jewelries, the shoes, your guest register book, everything that you can imagine that you will need, you can get from here

So what let to the idea of you floating a bridal house since you are doing so well as an Event Planner?
For me, it was to help brides look right, it’s very important, because I have seen a lot of brides don’t look right on their wedding day, that is one thing that kind of inspired this. So it’s to help them get together and to create confidence, which is the whole idea of a one-stop-centre. Even for red carpet clothes, you can come here, pick up your red carpet outfit, go straight to the salon and have your hair done, and enter your car and go to your events, that’s the whole idea of what we tried to do.
I heard that it took you only 4 months to pull all these together. You are in money o, and its just a confirmation that you have been cleaning out big time as an Event Planner
(Laughs). It is God oh, but trust me, not a dime was borrowed. The truth is this, the idea came during one of my trips back to Nigeria, I traveled, and on the flight, because I’m always thinking, I’m always trying to do something new and all that. I’m a very restless person, and something said to me, open up a one-stop- bridal centre and I’m like, okay. So initially I was going to do it in my Yaba outfit. But I said to myself again, no, if you want to do this, do it well, have the location right. So I knew what I wanted, and then, just like that, it just kept happening. My husband totally designs all of this for me. So with his help and all that, I have approached an interior decorator and they gave me some scary bill, and I believe so much in what my husband does. He has this natural gift for been able to turn a place around. So I just told him to equally do this, and he came and did it and that is what we have today. So between the 2 of us, it took us four months to put our heads together. We got the place in September and started working in October, by December, the place was already near completion

What about the choice of color, you played with a lot of purple?
Purple is my favorite color, I have always been a purple person. It’s my brand color. And my birthstone is Amethyst which is purple. It’s brought me so much luck and I believe in the color. I’m a sucker for purple, any day anytime.

What I also find interesting about the whole thing is that, over the years, you didn’t really portray yourself as a wedding planner. You are more of a fashion show planner. How did you now infuse all these together?
Wedding has always been there but you know because I have done a lot of fashion shows, because, a lot of my colleagues were not into the fashion shows. We were like one of the few companies; everybody just automatically assumes that is what we are into. But we’ve done a lot of wedding. So for me, I also wanted to bring out that aspect of the company and that is one of the things that made me put this together. And I have realized that in this industry that when you talk about event planning, it was more my name than the company name. This to help put the company name, Enthyst out there. That is also one of the things that inspired this whole thing.

Talking about your collection, where do you get there from?
I travel out of the country to get all my collections. Like I mentioned earlier that I was particular about what I want, I didn’t just want anything. We went to Lebanon, Turkey; we went to the United States of America, so it’s from all over. We went to South Africa

So when you were shopping for those dresses, what was going through your mind?
I was after quality of fabric first; I see the kind of quality that people carry around. I was disturbed by quality of fabric, because, you know, it is for bride. There should be this angelic look about the bride and the fabric helps to bring that out. So it was first the fabric for me, then the style. Those were the things I was actually looking for and not about the 2010 or 2011 look. And also taking into consideration the way a Nigerian woman will like to portray, that also helps me in selecting the style.There are a lot of style I pick here that have to do with totally identifying the Nigerian woman’s look, I try to help enhance their curves and all that. I also help a lot of bride to have a double look, at some point during the reception; you will change to a stunning outfit. So we have that collection where you have outfit that you can change to.

What are your price ranges like?
The prices range from as low as $700 dollars to as much as $2000 dollars. It’s not a lot compared to the quality of what you are getting and that is the truth. Because these are the same dresses you will see for thrice abroad, but we are dealing with suppliers and manufacturers directly, that is why we have them at rock bottom prices.

What are the extra efforts you will be doing to push this new line into a household name, because it’s different from your event planning business?
We will do a lot of shows, but the truth is, each outfit will speak for itself. The moment you see one of our outfits, it’s enough to bring you here to come and see what we have, that is the whole idea.

So how do you want to juggle between your line of businesses, because your event planning outfit is already a hectic one with a busy schedule?
Everything is fun for me; I enjoy every single thing I do, so I never get tired, that is the truth. I have fun when I do what I do. So that is what is most important. I must enjoy what I do for me to do this, if I don’t enjoy, I will not touch it, because that is what will tire me and wear me out. So I’m not scared, because anything I tried to touch or get involve with, it’s because I have a passion for it. So passion totally drives me, and from the passion, I get a lot of fun for what I do. There is nothing else that I will rather be doing than what I’m doing.

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