Simone Sant-Ghuran celebrates 20 years in wedding industry

Simone Sant-Ghuran is one of the pioneering wedding planners in Trinidad and Tobago, having launched the first wedding website in the country, www.trinidadweddings.com, in 2004. She said her sincere desire is to help visitors and clients to have the best wedding planning experience possible.

Sant-Ghuran said when she started in the wedding planning business there were only a few event courses being offered by the national hospitality school.

“So I attended those, but mostly I learned about events on the job and through experience, which really is the best way!

“Back then, I worked for one of the largest banks in the country and my department was responsible for staff and corporate events. After I left that job, I did HR, marketing and business development at a few other jobs before leaving the corporate world entirely.”

She took a year to plan her next step and realised there was a gap in the wedding planning market, with no online resource for wedding vendors and engaged couples.

“During that year, I did marketing consulting and event management, but more importantly, I started planning for www.trinidadweddings.com, which I started in 2004. We were the first wedding website in the country.

“Our main service is internet advertising and providing promotional and marketing support for brands and wedding vendors with private events, product reviews, give-aways etc.

“When we started in 2004, online advertising was very new, and social media as we know it now was almost non-existent, so wedding vendors were understandably hesitant. Before us, wedding vendors used to promote themselves strictly offline or in traditional media like newspapers and the Yellow Pages. Engaged couples got their information from books, the newspaper, and magazines.”

In addition to the website, trinidadweddings.com offers wedding consulting services, a wedding column, a wedding app, and a magazine.

Sant-Ghuran comes from a background of entrepreneurship, as her parents ran a hardware store in Central Trinidad where she grew up.

“They left banking careers to become entrepreneurs and I was one year old when they launched it. The hardware was where I grew up, since our store was downstairs our house and I learned many things about the real world of business there.”

As the business grew, Sant-Ghuran decided to expand and move to a physical format as well as being online, in order to feature more in-depth stories and content in another medium.

“The first testing of the waters came in 2009, when we put out a digital magazine issue on our website. We had hundreds and hundreds of downloads and so the following year, we decided to do a print hard copy and we called it the TW Wed-Zine (a play on the words ‘weddings’ and ‘magazine’).”

The magazine, published once yearly, was sold at bookshops, pharmacies and retailers across TT from 2010-2018, as well as online through the website.

Sant-Ghuran said the magazine was a beautiful, thoughtful magazine resource for brides and grooms.

“Over nine years of publishing we have worked with over 450 wedding vendors and brands, about 50 per issue. Over time, we have carefully built our magazine brand, and it’s always a joy to discover that our readers love our voice and carefully-curated content.

“One of our philosophies is to only use real brides on our cover. We want our brides to be able to relate to someone who looks like them. Even though we say we are for brides and grooms, the truth is, all walks of womanhood come to TW Wed-Zine for inspiration, ideas, and of course, love stories.”

She said people ask whether the publication is foreign-based, and she is proud to say it is 100 per cent based on TT.

“We are the only brand serving the TT wedding market with a comprehensive suite of services across major media – print, website and social media. We take great pride in having the highest ratio of quality editorial-to-advertising placements.

“The magazine is my ‘greatest love’ out of all our services and I feel maybe it was destined for me to do. The subjects I did at A levels were English literature, history and art, and I feel that unique combination really laid the foundation for what I was about to do next in life.”

The company took over distribution of the magazine following the abrupt closure of TT’s only magazine distributor in 2018, coupled with the fact that most bookstores and pharmacies stopped stocking local magazines.

Sant-Ghuran said the covid19 pandemic proved detrimental to the event industry as a whole, as public gatherings were prohibited and then restricted. She said publication went on hiatus, but people could expect hard copy and digital editions in 2024. She said the demand for ad spots had been very keen.

“In fact, we are almost sold out for this issue.”

She finds there is a lot of ignorance about marketing, and one of the biggest challenges she faces is educating advertisers.

“Helping vendors and brands understand that their marketing should be a mix of brand activations (these are short-term, like digital promotions) and brand-building activities (these are long-term, like magazines) is a challenge, because they see social media as a ‘magic bullet.’

“Yet whilst social media is a useful medium, generally its shelf life is very short and fleeting. So usually your post, after 24 hours (if so much) is going to be easily ignored or forgotten.”

She said print media such as magazines still hold a position of credibility and authority, as well as building community.

“For example, our magazine is shared by brides with their bridal parties, with sisters and cousins, moms and aunties etc. It is passed along, so one magazine generally has a readership of about three-five people! So despite the rise of digital platforms, the enduring appeal and effectiveness of print media shouldn’t be overlooked by brands that want to pursue a 360-degree marketing approach. The problem is, most advertisers are only looking at the short term.”

Sant-Ghuran said she hasn’t seen her gender make a difference in how brides and suppliers interact with her.

“I deal with all wedding vendors and brands (small or corporate) the same, and that is with respect and genuine concern for them and their business. I think what’s more important than gender, is focusing on your skills, expertise and professionalism to build trust and credibility.”

She said what sets her apart from other wedding planners is her focus on the business of weddings, which involves helping wedding vendors and brands reach engaged couples and helping engaged couples get the resources and advice they need.

“Unlike most wedding planners who may just focus on couples and the wedding day, and rightly so, my path led me to experiences that have given me a more bird’s-eye perspective, as I have worked on the advertising side of weddings, the publishing side, the planning side, produced bridal events and been a wedding industry educator speaking at international conferences.

She said if she had to pick, she preferred themes that portrayed understated elegance. “Personally, I don’t prefer bohemian, rustic or over-the-top florals. I like French-inspired themes, Great Gatsby themes, tropical-inspired themes or in terms of colour scheme, black and white is timeless and you can never go wrong with all-white decor and design.”

Sant-Ghuran attended St Augustine Girls’ High School and then UWI, St Augustine, where she did a degree in business management.

She has diplomas in marketing, digital marketing and fashion journalism. She has used the knowledge she has gained over the years to teach others in TT and regionally.

“I was part of the event management faculty at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business and during 2011-2019, I trained hundreds of students in TT and Guyana. I am still an adjunct lecturer there in the area of marketing. I’m often asked to be a speaker and trainer, on topics such as marketing, branding, entrepreneurship and publishing.

“I’ve been a feature speaker at the Jamaica Bridal Expo in September 2016, the Love and Sunshine Destination Wedding Conference in Guyana in April 2017, the Association of Bridal Consultants Conference in New York, also in April 2017, and at a Bride’s Expo for Destination Weddings in Fort Lauderdale in June 2018.”

Sant-Ghuran published a book, It’s Knot Difficult!, in June 2023. She said it is the first in the wedding planning category/genre from a TT author to be published through Amazon.

“This year, I celebrate 20 years’ experience in the wedding industry. I’ve run the gamut and covered all aspects from wedding planning for couples, teaching event management professionals, being a speaker at international bridal shows, hosting my own bridal shows and events, wedding magazine publishing, being a wedding columnist for 11 years for a leading national newspaper TT and a wedding contributor for other local and international magazines and publications.

She said the most important piece of advice she would give to someone getting married would be to focus on what matters.

“Remember that your wedding is ultimately about celebrating your love and commitment to each other. Focus on the meaningful moments and experiences rather than getting caught up in perfectionism, what other people expect or minor details.”

For more information on Sant-Ghuran, her philosophy, and her business, visit https://www.trinidadweddings.com.