Our story

Perfect Day. The beginning of the story.
Interview with Kamila Kenig and Anna Piwonowska

Anna Piwonska: After we had our children, we were in danger of returning to the corporation. Kamila came to me with a proposal that we set up a wedding agency that would deal with the organization of weddings comprehensively. This idea seemed completely unrealistic to me, but then I thought it all over and decided that it could work. Quite quickly we began to put the plan into practice, starting with the writing of the website. It took us an incredibly long time, because there was very little material on the subject in Poland.

Where did the idea come from?

Kamila Kenig: Actually, it wasn't that one day I woke up and thought I would become a wedding planner. I had previously worked at the Sheraton Hotel in the banquet sales department, and on behalf of the hotel, we were in charge of catering for a bride and groom who were holding their wedding at Malbork Castle. This wedding was catered by a foreign agency. That's when I first heard about a wedding planner agency. The idea itself seemed so great to me that I thought maybe there would come a moment when I could take care of it myself. Well, and that moment came a very long time ago, when both Anna and I were pregnant and it was natural to switch off from the corporation for a while. That's when the idea of starting my own wedding agency began to sprout and even took color.

The beginnings of client work...

Anna: We were a bit lucky, but we also put in a lot of work. After we opened the agency and set up the website, we didn't have a big problem finding clients. There were a lot of takers. But our first conversations with young couples repeatedly ended in failure. We didn't have experience, we didn't have anywhere to draw knowledge from. Back then, there were also no training courses, of which there are countless today. We learned everything ourselves and from our own mistakes. Nevertheless, after each such meeting we sat down, wrote down our observations and drew conclusions. By such a method of self-improvement, we reached the point where we managed to find a client who signed a contract with us. And we remember this client very well, and we have kept in touch with him to this day.

Kamila: That time was very difficult. There were few agencies like ours in Poland. What was most difficult was client awareness, which was negligible. It was a surprise to us that we were so quickly approached by those willing to work with us, but we noticed that this client did not fully understand what our profession entailed. Very often our work was seen as comprehensive, that is, the cost of flowers, for example, was included in the price of our services. Building this awareness of what a wedding planner does was a painstaking job for all wedding consultants. Because this customer really doesn't need to look hard, but it is also much easier to convince them of your services, because today they are much more aware.

Our first conversation with a client....

Kamila: Maybe it's worth starting with the fact that we thought we really knew a bit, after all, we had already organized our own weddings to our credit. In fact, those first conversations were a total flop. At the first meeting, we were so monstrously stupid that we would most like to just leave or hide under the table.

Anna: I remember there was a question about organizing an outdoor civil wedding. 17 years ago it was not at all that easy. We, inexperienced, started to wrench, tell something, create some unbelievable story. I myself am surprised that this client lived to the end of our meeting. Of course, he didn't hire us, and rightly so, because after that conversation I wouldn't have hired us myself. It was a very heartbreaking experience for us.

Kamila: Why poignant? Because, it revealed to us our shortcomings and ignorance! And after such several meetings, when we learned what was important to the client, what his priorities were, we held a meeting that resulted in a contract. This first couple, who decided to use our comprehensive services, was a Polish-Dutch couple. They were people who dreamed of having a wedding in the Masuria region. And, since our husbands are from Mazury, we were also more aware of what we were talking about and, of course, we were spreading the vision. We managed to convince them. They, I think, already said at that first meeting that they were decided on our agency and wanted to sign a contract with us.

Anna: Which came as a huge shock to us. Pressure: 200.

Kamila: It was such a real school for us. Actually we were learning on them how a wedding planner should behave. And now there was no more theory, but we had to act practically. Before each meeting we sent a reminder text message to the client. Our client was surprised that not only were we making these appointments for her, but we were still reminding her of them. Today this is a daily occurrence and the norm, but those 17 years ago it was very strenuous work. We took care of this client of ours, we blew, we huffed. In retrospect, I'm glad that in the beginning we could focus on one bride and groom. That way we learned how to take care of her perfectly.

Anna: And do you remember when the bride dreamed of melon galia? We drove around the local bazaars ourselves. And the decorations cost a total of 3,500 zloty.

Kamila: Impossible! (laughs)

Anna: It was like that. I remember they were made by a local florist.

Kamila: Oh yes... The bride, she was also an amazing perfectionist. And that was very cool, too, because her high expectations immediately made us good habits to work with the client.

Anna: It was also a very successful wedding with a reception. The guests from the Netherlands were delighted.

Kamila: Yes! But they were also charmed by Polish hospitality. The bride and groom told us later that the fame of this wedding dragged on for several years. And there was no shortage of traditional elements: there was a pig with buckwheat groats, and amendments under a shelter with a DJ. On the one hand it was elegant, on the other it was a bit overdone. Well, and we did things we no longer do today. We drove to a nearby wholesaler in Kętrzyn to bring back two kegs of beer. Later it turned out that they didn't fit in the pouring machine, so we would drive back to that wholesaler to replace the kegs. With these weddings today, we know that we wouldn't be able to drive and carry thirty-kilogram kegs by ourselves. And it's not a matter of wanting to, but most simply a lack of time. But at that first wedding of ours there were no slip-ups either....

Anna: No (laughs).

Kamila: No, except for the pigeons that escaped us under the church and there was nothing left to release. (Laughter)

Anna: Yes. Those were the days when pigeons were wildly fashionable. And they - these pigeons - were sitting comfortably in the car, because, after all, it didn't occur to us to order a company from letting pigeons go

Kamila: Let's agree, back then there weren't even many companies from letting pigeons at weddings. We had to search in those wild Mazurian islands for a pigeon fancier with homing pigeons that can return. We found such a gentleman who lent us these pigeons. He gave them to us in a shoebox. We decorated them nicely and imagined that the moment the bride and groom left the church, we would give the box, the newlyweds would open it, and the pigeons would fly out. What we didn't anticipate was that the pigeons would open the lid on their own and fly out at an inopportune moment.

The long road from the first wedding to today's exclusive celebrations....

Anna: It all happened organically. Each year we learned new things and gained new experiences. The turning point was a wedding we held on an island under a tent on private property. The bride and groom decided that the wedding would be at their property. 

Kamila: This was a huge challenge for us. Before, we hadn't done weddings where there were absolutely no facilities and everything had to be ordered from outside.

Anna: We had many meetings with the bride and groom, with subcontractors, to prepare everything as it should be. There was also a very rich artistic program at this wedding. With this reception, we jumped over a certain threshold, which made us realize that we could do much more complicated projects. And in fact, after this realization, more and more difficult receptions began to appear. Recently, we even organized a wedding with an ecumenical wedding by the sea, where the bride and groom and their family made huge demands on us. First of all, we had to combine a Jewish and Catholic rite wedding. Substantively, we had to prepare a lot. It was a big wedding. Then logistics, because each of the three days was in a different location. Guests from different continents, so also a program in different languages. It really was a big challenge for us and cost us a lot of work. I remember that we didn't sleep for more than 36 hours that day. It's already such a level of fatigue when a person starts to rant. I, at least, had that (laughs). But we succeeded and again jumped to the next level of organizing weddings and weddings.

Changing approaches to Perfect Day services...

Anna: Today we don't want to do 30 weddings in one season, but we like really complicated projects. And without false modesty, we can say that today we can easily organize even the most complicated wedding project, because we know that we are able to meet even the most offbeat ideas of brides and grooms.

Kamila: I think that if you have a complicated project in front of you, you either give up, or with your last strength and breath, but you manage. However, to give it a go, for me, means to give your all and dedicate yourself fully, and with this you can really climb upwards. However, it seems to me that there is a very large personal element in our development. We don't artificially pump up what we offer clients. On a daily basis, neither of us walks around in glans, and only for weddings do we wear stilettos and organize exclusive parties. We like to take everything in life to the smallest detail. What's important, however, is that luxury doesn't have to drip with gold, because we value most the style described as "quiet luxury....

What is luxury...

Kamila: For us, luxury means fine-tuning and thinking everything through to the smallest detail. We just like it. Another thing is that there are more and more younger people in the industry who want to do weddings. If we didn't take on more and more new projects, we would either settle on our laurels, or we would have to give up this profession, because it wouldn't give us satisfaction. I guess that's the way it is in every profession - the further into the forest, the more trees. It spurs us on to action.

Anna: We used to even talk among ourselves that we actually know of no other profession that required personal development in so many areas. We have to know about catering, art, trends and physics. We have already had a wedding with the theme of Igor Stravinsky's The Wedding, where ballet dancers from the Grand Theater performed, and the decorations were done in the style of Marc Chagall. Such themes require really comprehensive and rapid self-development. We need to learn about many fields, even we should know mathematics well. Mathematics is the queen of all sciences, and in our profession this really applies.

Kamila: We happened to calculate from Cotangens at what height we can hang the trellis in the tent, so that we can find out at what point the trellis can contact the ceiling. These are things that can be done by trial and error, but....

Anna:.... It's better to sit down and count to make your job easier.

Kamila: Well, and not to learn from the client. Although, on the other hand, there is no wedding where we wouldn't learn something new.

Expand your knowledge... news about the wedding industry....

Kamila: Wedding planner must be a trendsetter. We try not to be inspired by wedding articles, but by our life and interests. If someone is actually interested in art, it will be much easier for him to build interesting receptions, because art in itself is very developing. And on the other hand, what is fascinating about this profession is how many people can try to do this profession just by their different interests. There is no field that is not used here.

Anna: Oh yes... Polish language (you have to write a lot with the use of different vocabulary), foreign languages, visual arts - it is not uncommon to draw our vision of certain projects with better or worse results....

Kamila:... in my case definitely with the worse. (laughs)

Anna: But sometimes you have to provide subcontractors with a drawing that makes it easier for them to work and visualize a given task. Here you certainly have to be very creative, but also meticulous. Have a sense of style and taste, but often know the etiquette as well, because the client is really sometimes different. It's a necessity for constant development, and because of this, the work is really very interesting.

The idea of creating the Perfect Day Academy...

Kamila: This idea came when we had a lot of really complicated projects on our hands. We had knowledge dictated by practice and we knew that we could pass something good to these young people. We remember very well how we started, and we care about the professionalization of this industry. It is bad for the reputation of our profession when clients on their way encounter wedding planners without any experience and knowledge. This backfires on us. Although this industry is constantly growing, compared to Western countries, we are really few in number. As a result, this bad reputation spreads very quickly. We really want all those who want to enter the profession to get the right knowledge to start with, thanks to our training.

Anna: Our training has also evolved and we are constantly making changes to the program. We have found that if someone decides to come to our training, we have to impart our knowledge to the best of our ability and cover many threads. And, above all, not to let go and go into great detail. In our view, anyone can organize a wedding, but a well-organized wedding must be properly planned and we focus the attention of our training participants on this. We are constantly expanding our training courses, just as we are making changes to the manual we wrote for our trainees.

Advice for future wedding planners....

Kamila: If you dream of a job on your own terms, a developing one based on contact with people, start by gaining thorough knowledge, build business relationships, follow trends, learn from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others, be organized and hardworking.

Anna: And once you become a wedding planner, you will enjoy every day that you are doing the greatest profession in the world (laughs).