Honeymoon over? Time to turn to Event Diva

Apr 27 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

TWO sisters are helping to make brides' dreams of an extravagant wedding come true, but a on budget more suited to these recessionary times.

Mairi Kennedy and Anne Dodd have teamed up to stock used, one-off samples and vintage wedding items ranging from dresses to table decorations for sale or hire.

The sisters, from Stanley in County Durham, are now looking for new premises and extra staff for the Event Diva wedding emporium, which grew out of the chair-cover hire business they also run together.

Ms Kennedy, who worked for a decade in event management and wedding planning before going into business with her sister, said they were trying to give brides the wedding they wanted without the hefty price tag.

She said: “We already offer a couture chair-cover hire service, so come into contact with a lot of brides-to-be and the overwhelming feedback from them all has been that they want to cut costs without cutting on the wow factor.

“It seems such a shame when things that people have invested such a lot of time and money on are used for a couple of hours and then just put away in cupboards, under the bed or in the shed, so we decided to take them off people’s hands and see if they can help make someone else’s big day go with a bang.”