The story of several hundred weddings in which there is no place of any funeral

Feeling the tickle and thrill, and to see (almost literally) the butterflies fluttering in the air. To become daily, a part of, as well as to be the main reason two lovers experience the most exciting day of their lives. There is such as a profession – that of the wedding planner.

Bo Yordanova has her own wedding agency. To date she cannot the exact number of weddings she has organized, but allegedly, there are hundreds. She shares with us that she does not perceive her work as such, but rather, immerses herself into every little detail with a great deal of love and inspiration. In fact, her work is her greatest passion – all of the invitations, guest books, bottles, cups and other decorations that she creates with the help of her team.

Please, introduce yourself as a start.

My name is Bo Yordanova, or so I’ve been known since nobody calls me by my whole name. I did many other things before I started wedding planning. You may wonder how I got my start in the wedding industry. There was a time when I was extremely restless and life felt unfulfilled because I was not able to commit myself to one thing. I did arts, opera singing and studied fashion design, and I had many good qualities in terms of organizational skills. Many of my friends were getting married and, knowing that I am a creative person, they started begging me for help – “Bo, do this. Bo, do that. Bo, can you help us with our wedding?” After planning the first wedding, came another one, and one after that, until before I knew it, I was planning my own wedding. After my husband and I returned from our honeymoon, we moved to the United States where I finally decided to make wedding planning my profession.

How long did the agency exist?

The agency was not known as an agency until recently. Before that, I had the name Bo Creations ~, but no one knew it was a wedding planning agency. In the beginning, I basically made cards and other handmade details, but I was not satisfied with on these things. I wanted to do more with the qualities that I knew I possessed. I quickly decided to start organizing events and I said to myself, “Well, I’ll start with making wedding – invitations, guest books, cups, decorations, bottles and so on.” But that was also was not enough. After one or two weeks, I decided that my work should be more serious, therefore, I threw myself into wedding planning very bravely. Perhaps, the phrase that best describes me would be “thrown in bravely.” In reality, Bo Creations ~ became a wedding agency more than two years ago.

How do you usually spend your day?

My day normally starts at 8 AM when I go out for meetings, shopping, organizing details, and making arrangements with individual units. It often happens that a client will call me at 3:30 AM inspired by something she remembered.

Sounds pretty dynamic. When do you find time to rest?

It may sound odd, but I find rest in my work. When I love what I do, I really immerse myself in it and I do not feel stressed or even that I am working.

I’m getting married. I decided to trust an agency for my wedding day. I know nothing except the date when I want it to happen. How do we begin to organize?

When clients come to us, we first listen to their ideas and desires for the wedding. Usually, I am able to interpret their styles from the beginning of the process. The proposals always come from us based on our first discussions and impressions. We offer the clients specific details and decorations that would best fit their specific tastes. So far, I have only had one client to have absolutely no idea what they wanted. The only thing clear to them was that they were in love and wanted to get married. They were clueless to everything else that accompanies planning and preparing for a wedding. In these cases, we come to the rescue. We walk the clients step by step through what happens during the wedding day, before and after it.

What is the most important detail of a wedding and what is it that you can never predict?

There are a lot of unpredictable things that can happen on a wedding day, but it is important to try to be as prepared as possible. Take for example an upcoming wedding. The weather forecast is bad with predicted showers. The restaurant venue is in the mountains and the even will be in the garden. Inside the restaurant, there will be another event. For a wedding planner, this is a very bad situation. If it rains, the waiters will have to serve meals in the rain which will be terrible. These things need to be anticipated, therefore, back plans should always be ready for such cases.

What is the most important moment during the wedding, which feels the most emotional?

The newlyweds and their parents normally have high emotions and personal feelings throughout the wedding. They are always the people who cry, no matter how strong. Even if they say, “we do not cry or we will not get emotional”, there comes a moment when it happens. These are moments where the bride and groom say their “I do’s” in the civil hall and church and also as a part of celebration during the personal greetings.

What is the busiest season for weddings?

Summer, of course! It is difficult to say there is a “season” with us because we do weddings year around, but the peak time is during the warm weather months.

The most pretentious bride wanted to…?

First, let me start by saying thank God we do not usually have demanding brides (laughs), but I can think of one exception from a wedding last year. The request came not from the bride or groom, but rather, from their parents since they were responsible for organizing the wedding. They wanted a wedding party of about 300 people, but expected it to grow to 500 or 700 people. To make matters more complicated, the parents wanted an “Eiffel Tower” cake. In Bulgaria, there was no pastry shop or manufacturer that would agree to make such a cake. That was until the moment I said to myself, “Well, why do I have to go from outside in as I could do it inside out?”. I called one of my partners and asked him if it was possible for him to make a cake in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. He was intrigued with the idea and potential challenge of making the cake. We arranged a meeting with the decorators and the clients, who were warned that it may not be possible to make the cake. Ultimately, the cake was made and it was amazing. It stood 1.70 meters high! It was so tall that it had to be transportation to the wedding venue and assembled piece by piece on site.

The most unconventional place chose for the wedding was…?

I can say that Bulgarians are only now starting to open their minds regarding rituals, decorations and so on. We organized a wedding outside of the city, completely outdoors in a meadow, and it was easy because we did not have to request permission from the local municipality. We catered everything we needed such as all the equipment, tables, chairs, floors, tents, generators, music, entertainment…

And was that the strangest wedding?

No, we had rituals near a waterfall before so that was strange but interesting.

Did you organize traditional Bulgarian weddings?

We will have such a wedding on August 27th in Karlovo. Again, a big wedding of about 300 people. As with any traditional wedding, we will use an old iron that the newlyweds are very keen to have incorporated into the wedding. The invitations include traditional elements – buttons, cotton lace, lavender – materials that will be present throughout the wedding. As for rituals, we will include Karakachan motifs. We have not had celebrations with typical Bulgarian costumes and rituals, although we would like to create more weddings in this style. I think at some point the traditional Bulgarian wedding will become a boutique style. The best part is that foreigners who marry here want Bulgarian motifs and details in the form of little gifts, invitations, decorations and/or in the entertainment.

The brightest memory of the wedding remains…?

People always say to us, “Bo, things just as we had imagined” and, by saying that, they mean they were relaxed during the day and did have to think about the scenario, organization and atmosphere. They were free to enjoy one of the best days of their life.

Always advise future newlyweds about…?

When they are not our clients and we first meet, I always recommend that they meet with another agency. I think it is important for them to seek other options in their planning process.

Why?

I want them see the difference in the attitude, including our level of professionalism and in the way we organize every single detail.

And those who are already your customers, what do you advise?

We advise them in everything (laughs). There is always consultation regarding every aspect of the big day.

What worries most of the newlyweds?

For the bride, the most important thing is the dress. There are brides that have a second dress as well. Most are concerned about the budget and whether they can fit in. I think this is completely unnecessary because there is always money for the wedding. This is a blessing. When two people decide to marry, they have all the blessings from God. Marriage is a blessed thing, definitely.

** See the original article in a famous Bulgarian lifestyle media:
http://ladyzone.bg/article/laifstail/lica/bo-iordanova-brakat-e-blagosloveno-neshto.html