Entrepreneur Nilma Dileepan’s company strives to make your best occasions memorable
Ever scrolled down your timeline on Facebook only to gape at gorgeous pictures from a friend’s wedding or wondered how such fairy tale weddings, straight out of Pinterest, are actually orchestrated? Thanks to the growing number of incredibly talented event and wedding planners in the city, it isn’t impossible to recreate a scene from your favourite romantic film. And one such dream weaver is city-based entrepreneur, Nilma Dileepan.
Following her degree in Communication Studies, she worked for a production house for four years. “I didn’t see myself growing and being challenged back then so I decided to quit. With shoots there isn’t much creativity as agencies give us a brief as to the exact props they’d need. But with events there are so many things to play around with and the opportunity to be creative automatically presents itself,” Nilma recounts.
She set up ‘With Love, Nilma’, an event company, in August 2014, and in December 2014, she launched Yellow Umbrella Productions, a production house which caters to production needs such as locations, models, props, etc. of brands and advertising agencies, for commercials, digital films, and photo shoots.
Of her maiden venture, the bubbly young event stylist narrates: “’With Love, Nilma’ started when some of my friends were getting married and having babies. I helped them with the decor of their weddings and baby showers respectively. The guests loved what I’d done and people began to notice my work, appreciated my style and the way I put things together. I realised I enjoyed doing this- all the cutting, sticking, planning, scouting for props, and finally setting them all up in an empty space and prettying it up. I started a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/withlovenilma) and many more people began to take notice and thus began a bevy of phone calls and continuous events and celebrations.”
Currently, through her venture, Nilma creates minimalistic and eclectic decor for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, bachelorettes, and just about any celebration which one would like to celebrate with an intimate gathering.
With the wedding planning brigade only growing in our metropolis, it is important to create one’s own niche.
“Our clients always get back to us saying that they love our attention to detail, how every guest of theirs left in awe and said they hadn’t seen similar decor before and that it was tasteful and not over the top/ gaudy. This has been our greatest USP and we believe in doing every event ‘with love’, hence the name,” Nilma quips.
Of her entrepreneurial journey so far, she says, “It’s been easy only because I love doing this. But it’s been difficult because dealing with vendors who provide the raw materials, has been extremely challenging.
For example, they say they will provide a white canopy but instead give us a murky brown dirty canopy with pops of white. Hence, I have to be extra careful and double check every single item and ensure they come on time and deliver all that has been asked for.
Finding an office within a budget, getting the right people to work with and building a team of young individuals who are as excited about this as me, have also been challenges I’ve had to overcome.”
In the coming days, Nilma hopes to take on a lot more work that leaves her “brimming with happiness.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Neeti Sarkar / Bengaluru – January 12th, 2016