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Manchester wedding planner brings a touch of Bollywood

9/10/2008

BOLLYWOOD style comes to Manchester weddings with lights, silk, satin, flowers and velvet, building a romance-inspired business for Manchester wedding planner Ibrar Ahmed.

The 32-year-old who is succeeding in what’s seen as predominantly a woman’s world, launched Zinc Occasions single-handedly last October.

A year on Ibrar’s defied the credit crunch and employed 70 people with a potential turn over of nearly £600,000.

Said Ibrar: "Zinc Occasions offers bespoke Indian weddings with sophisticated elegance and contemporary twist, there’s nothing garish with my designs.

"I fell into this job by accident and love it so much it doesn’t feel like work."

The former recruitment consultant and hospitality graduate was roped in to organising a wedding for a friend.

Results were so impressive orders flooded in and with more than 100 weddings behind him, Ibrar plans everything from décor and flowers to catering, venues, hair and beauty, cards and tiaras.

The décor is tailored to client’s wishes, from elegantly low key to spectacular, working alongside the bride and her family, even checking the colour and fabric of the wedding gown to help with the theme.

One bride and groom’s stage had a flower-draped swinging seat; another is covered by luxuriously draped silk canopies, adorned with lights, feathers and flowers.

Table displays can be simple flower stems in beautiful vases or developed into stand-alone floral works of art.

The smallest wedding catered for 180 guests and the largest saw 2,500, celebrate, whilst one for 700 guests expanded when 1,500 turned up.

Ibrar said: "Those are challenges I love. If there’s a problem I have a trusted team to resolve it and I never panic."

Vital to Ibrar’s thriving business, has been the extensive free marketing he’s received from FreeIndex.co.uk the nationwide, free-to-use and join, business directory.

Thanks to FreeIndex.co.uk customers call from as far as Birmingham, Hull, Derby and Leeds making him one of the north’s major players in Indian weddings.

Nearly a million people visit FreeIndex.co.uk every month and 5,000 new businesses sign up every month.

Ibrar said: "Around 35 per cent of inquiries come through FreeIndex which is great as I only promote online."

FreeIndex.co.uk Managing Director, Martin Turner, said: "With a limited budget for a new business, Ibrar’s done his marketing online which has worked perfectly under difficult economic circumstances.

"The free expert business advice is something extra for nothing to help companies through the credit crunch."

The future looks bright for Ibrar and he said: "I want to grow the business carefully because quality and service count and it’s great I can get free advice and marketing from FreeIndex.co.uk."

For more information on Zinc Occasions  call 07845 805 275.

For more information on FreeIndex visit www.freeindex.co.uk .