Jamie’s “diary of an intern” at Classy Affairs
Hi everyone!
I will introduce myself first. My name is Jamie Groenveld and I am nineteen years old. I study Marketing and Communication and I am in my fourth and final year now. At this moment I am an intern at Classy Affairs. Until June I will blog once a week to share my experience with you guys!
Tuesday 1/2: the beginning
In the beginning of February I started my internship with studying multicultural weddings. I did this by reading wedding magazines, wedding blogs and a number of websites that Renate introduced me to. Lots of desk research as I’m new into the world of weddings and especially the type of colorful weddings Classy Affairs is planning.
Sunday 23/2, 6PM: menu tasting with our Malaysian couple
Renate had a meeting with a bridal couple on the 23rd of February, a couple from Malaysia that will get married in Amsterdam in October 2020. It was a tasting at a restaurant. Renate only spoke with the couple over the telephone and by videocall the last months, but they never met in person. They booked a four day stay in The Netherlands and Renate made a schedule for all meetings with vendors, venues and tastings. A summary:
Sunday: tasting at an Indian restaurant + meeting our couple
Monday: hotels visits
Tuesday: venue visits at churches + venue + meeting an Imam at a mosque
Wednesday: cake tasting + meetings with the pastor, photographer, wedding venue and another restaurant tasting
Those were very long days as you can imagine, because we had to do all of that in a short amount of time. But it was very interesting! The first day at the Indian restaurant it was a first time Indian food for me. The intention was to taste different kinds of dishes so they can choose which they want on their wedding day. The couple was very nice and the food tasted very good!
Monday 24/2: 10AM – 11PM
The next day we got up early, because we had a meeting at a venue in Hilversum with another couple. Various suppliers came here to discuss the day of the wedding. After what I have seen, I think this wedding is going to be a big show. I am very excited!
After the meeting at Studio 21 we were with the couple from Malaysia again. This day we had a few tours in different hotels to arrange the overnight stays for the family, who will visit The Netherlands in October for the wedding. We also visited a couple of restaurants again to do tastings for the welcome dinner.
Tuesday 25/2: 9AM – 11pm
The third day with the Malaysian bride and groom we had another tour in a hotel and after that we went to visit two churches. For your information, the Malaysian bride and groom will get married here in Amsterdam in October 2020 and it will take three days. The bride is Christian and the groom is Muslim. So on their wedding day they get married in church in the morning in and in the evening they have the Nikaah, the Muslim wedding ceremony conducted by an Imam. The two churches that we visited were both in Amsterdam. One more beautiful than the other. After that we went to a mosque in Utrecht, we met the imam here and talked about the special situation, because the bride is Christian and interreligious wedding ceremonies are not common in Islam. After the conversation we were also allowed to have a look in the mosque itself. How beautiful was that!
Wednesday 26/2: 1PM – 11PM
Day four with the couple from Malaysia we started at cake supplier in Zaandam to taste and brainstorm about how the cake and dessert will look at the wedding. After the tasting we went to a location where the wedding party will take place. When we came there, they first talked to the pastor who will marry the couple in the church. I found this conversation very interesting. The bride and groom explained their situation and talked about themselves, so that the pastor could get to know the couple a little. After the conversation with the pastor, the photographer came. They went through the program of the wedding and indicated the points that he will have to pay attention to. After discussing everything, our contact at the event venue came to discuss the program of the wedding and told them what we can and cannot do. After we left there arounf 8pm we went to a restaurant in Amsterdam for a small tasting and venue visit and ended around 11pm.
The past few days have been very busy and long, but super interesting and educational and definitely worth it. I wouldn’t want to have missed it!
Love, Jamie