DESTINATION weddings are cropping up everywhere in the wedding land and so they are getting more popular all the time.
Many brides and grooms are turning to weddings away from home, to lessen on the guest list, enjoy what other towns have to offer, affordable, fun, and memorable.
You are likely to introduce something new to the destination venue when you hold a wedding there.
Every town, district and province in Zambia is a wedding destination that can bring sweet memories.
To learn more about your dream destination wedding and to enjoy reading what you are holding in your hands, continue buying the Sunday Times of Zambia.
Brides, grooms, family members, friends and invited guests love to attend a wedding in a town which is  breathtaking, enchanting, unique, gracious, friendly, sophisticated and where the organizers will look at your tummy and not your face.
Welcome to Monze, a wedding destination where all these are met.
Monze is found in Southern Province of Zambia. There is something very interesting about this town.
It has Fort Monze which is located west of Monze, it was one of the earliest colonial police posts established in the country and it has a cemetery which contains graves of policemen who established the fort in about 1898.
The town is more popularly known for a famous night club situated along the main road, it is in everyone’s view, but we will not stop here let’s continue with our journey and learn more about the Monze wedding industry. Come with me, won’t you?
The wedding industry has a lot of interesting, educative stories to write about although it’s still growing.
In the rainy season the weddings are not as popular as the cold and dry season. The wedding receptions venues are less than 10, varying from schools to lodgers are available to suit your budget and wow your guests. One of the schools they charge less than K1, 000 inclusive of all necessary kitchen utensils.
These venues are not only affordable, they are flexible, allow caterers and decorators from outside, and unlike some towns were this has become a requirement that only the in-house decorators and caterers must do the job.
Monze has less than 10 caterers that are providing the service to wedding receptions they charge K2, 000 negotiable. In the wedding industry almost everything is negotiable.
Southern province is well known for cattle, so too much beef. The abundance of beef calls for men to braai, people of Monze love to braai, so do I!
At weddings, braai luncheon are preferential to buffet or is it the Zambian wedding menu which includes boiled potatoes, rice, chicken, beef stew, cabbages or potato salads, macaroni. They are trying to move away from this common menu and it’s working well from too much starch.
The tricky part is what time to braai, is it before, during or after the wedding reception. Before it becomes too cold, during the function, mmm! If you have braai lovers like me, all the attention will be outside counting down to the braai pack, just the sweet aroma will cause the invited guests to miss out on the important speeches by the guest of honor, parents and the dance steps by the bridal party.
If the braai will be before the reception it’s better to start early, before the function starts but keeping in mind that the packs should be warm and given to guests as they come in. The other option is when the function is about to finish you can start your braai. Start the program in good time so that there is enough room for the braai and fellowship. The bride and groom can leave early for their memorable honeymoon.
This type of arrangement is good for interaction and for sharing ideas. Ideas are limited to no particular field of human thought and they are born in a man’s mind. These ideas are often goals toward which a man moves or acts sometimes tentatively and slowly. Not only will you celebrate with the newlywed but you will celebrate that someone understands and supports your goal and you will learn a lot. A well- trained mind is a critically needed national resource.
When people are braying, they bring about valuable issues, discus the best ways to improve the time management when attending functions, keep an eye on time management and will talk about it again later. They will talk about marriage in general and share insights.
In Monze a theme that works well for such a place is a happy, fresh and classic wedding and the venue for a reception is an outdoor wedding. Putting up an outdoor wedding is not an easy task, just make sure you have a backup plan and pitch a tent well, so that it feels like a room in your house. Mother Nature does not operate with you in mind.
Be sure the space can handle your guest count and enough space for the braai stands and for people to braai and mingle freely. Many people have met their spouses while having braai at a wedding. Gone are the days when braai parties were for drunkards, the sober mind enjoys braai packs also.
The wedding theme colours popular in Monze are orange, green, cream, lavender and yellow. No matter the season, these colours are a timeless classic, with just the right amount of glam coupled with endless sophistication.
The wedding decorators charge K1, 500 even less negotiable. Monze has approximately 5 decorators and a few wedding planners, who believe in themselves and are making a difference in the Zambian wedding industry. They are doing this just out of interest, passion and seizing the opportunity. They have spotted a gap in the market which has offered an opportunity. When opportunity knocks, the trick is to answer the door swiftly and invite it into the parlor.
When conducting trainings l always tell the up- coming decorators to use their creative skills, turn the bride and grooms vision or ideas into life and not to be discouraged. Many decorators think what they do is how everyone else should decorate and that’s how it should be done.
The guest houses and schools can be used for those lovely and memorable photo shot. One of the decorators shared with the author how she has turned her sitting room and the surrounding for wedding photo shots. She has decorated her home in such a way that the photos taken are beautiful and elegant at a fee of K500, regardless of the number of photos.
Earlier l told you to keep an eye on time management. In Zambia time management is very poor by the bridal party and invited guests, so in order to improve on this, the Monze wedding decorators immediately, it is the time they had agreed upon that the function has to end, whether the program has finished or not, decorators remove their center pieces, draping materials, runners and everything else.
If they want to celebrate up to midnight, they can continue in a room without decorations. This system in working well in favor of good time management, the bridal party and guests are improving.
Monze has no bridal salon they buy their wedding accessories in Lusaka and the neighboring countries.
The author did research on colour psychology to see whether these colours fit well in a place like Monze where brides and grooms prefer an outdoor wedding to an indoor wedding.  Orange is an uplifting, positive and motivational colour which exudes warmth and happiness. This colour in your wedding will create a friendly and social mood with lots of chatting amongst the guests, laughter, fun and enthusiasm.
Yellow is illuminating and uplifting, relating to the mind and the intellect. Yellow in your wedding colours will create a warm, welcoming, cheerful and happy mood which will lift up the spirits of your guests. While green on the other hand is a colour of rebirth, renewal and growth and it will balance the emotions. Green in your wedding colours will create a calming and restful mood with enough warmth to encourage a feeling of unity and togetherness among the guests.
Lavender with a slightly bluish tinge, lavender is sensitive, fragile and nostalgic. These colours best describes how the wedding in Monze are organized, it’s like they plan with the colours in mind.
It’s time to leave Monze, how sad, allow me to end here as l enjoy my chibwantu (munkoyo) drink before l leave and continue dancing to the song nicali-boobu, nicali-chibotu, (nicali-boobu)! Nicali-chibotu. (If it was like this all the time, it would have been good),
nicali-chibotu. Wala! Wala! Wala!
Stay blessed.
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