Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Okeke and Martina Onodugo.
Hi Brooke and Martina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It seems like such a blur looking back at our origin. Our journey started shortly after our weddings. We were initially a trio, but she gracefully bowed out to pursue educational endeavors but is secretly still part of our dream team. We then manifested into the dynamic duo – Brooke and Martina and formed GlamSeven.
We have known each other for over ten years; since our meeting, we have been really good friends because our personalities and values complimented each other so well. We both are the planners amongst our friends and family. We help cultivate ideas and provide structure for organizing and designing events for friends and family.
We both planned most of our wedding and during this process came to the realization – why not go into this business. Most people dread the process of planning a wedding or any big event; they are stressed out and overwhelmed with the amount of work that is required which is why this job exists in the first place. We realized that if we can plan our wedding with minimal hiccups, we can do this for others and help them truly enjoy their experience. That big day is supposed to be one of enjoyment so we handle the stress of planning and logistics while the client reaps the benefit of a well-planned and smooth day. The hard part for us was getting started. We had the idea of what we wanted to accomplish but neither of us had any experience with starting a company or any experience with professional event planning. What we did have was a lot of determination and drive. We are both very passionate and goal-driven people so once we settle on a goal, we work very hard to accomplish that goal. Once we decided that we were going to go forward with this, we started to research how to go about it and the rest as they say is history.
This job has allowed us to meet so many amazing people, learn the beautiful stories of our clients, and help provide a little guidance along the way. Additionally, it provides us the opportunity to decorate and design events that is unique to the individual or couple. Overall, we enjoy what we do and we are thankful for the opportunity to express our creativity while fulfilling our client’s vision for their special day.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As with most things in life, we have had our share of challenges with this endeavour. As mentioned earlier, we started this journey with no prior experience and no guidance. We felt comfortable with the event planning aspect of the idea but there were a lot of questions and uncertainty on the business side of things. Would this work? Could we figure this out? Are we in over our heads? How does one even start a business? We had a lot of questions and we were on our own to figure things out. Once we finally launched the business and got the ball rolling, we finally felt like we were slowly understanding things. The current challenge for us is trying to find a balance with family, our primary career and growing this business. We both have families with young children which places a huge demand on our time and then there’s our primary career. At the same time, we both love what we do with this business and love making our clients happy so we have been working hard to maintain a balance that keeps everyone happy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are event planners and event designers. We started this business with the zealous idea of helping to impact and shape great memories. Planning and decorating is not easy, but we love the challenge and enjoy seeing the result. You can count on our team to deliver greatness. In addition to planning and decorating, we also provide travel planning services such as honeymoon packages that is included in our wedding coordination and planning services.
What does success mean to you?
Success is something that has wide definition and something that is continuously evolving. For us, this comes from accomplishing our milestones and the goals we set for our business. This journey was something that we started from scratch with no prior knowledge or experience, but we had a plan and an idea of what we wanted to accomplish. We have both small and significant milestones of success that we have reached and are still looking to obtain, but we continue to celebrate the small and big victories. These goals and milestones include successfully launching the business, fulfilling our role for an event (i.e., coordinator, designer, etc.), ensuring our customers are satisfied with the outcome, and maintaining a consistent flow of events coming monthly. Above all this, our biggest success comes at the completion of every event when we see the vision of our clients come to life and see their satisfaction with our work. Our client’s satisfaction is our biggest reward for doing this job and is what continues to drive and motivate us.
Contact Info:
- Email: glamsevenevents@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.theglamseven.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glamseven7/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/glamseven7
Image Credits:
Photos by Humphrey Okeke Photos by Brittneyjeanphotography.co
