Sessi-Traore: My new book is about taking wedding stress off brides

To help brides navigate through their wedding plans and ensure a smooth sail, an event management expert, Adeola Sessi-Traore has launched a book to ease the burden they go through.

Titled, ‘Help! Don’t Stress the Bride,’ the book was launched alongside a vendor’s fair, which held at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.

Speaking on why she came up with the book, Sessi-Traore, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Lemonytouch Events said: “Working as an event planner for over six years now, I have observed that 80 per cent of brides I come in contact with are always stressed by people around them including their sisters, parents and the aso-ebi girls. This is that solution to understand how we can help the bride do away with stressors. There are people you will not be willing to invite to your event, but for what people will say – the book covers how to handle it. It gives you an in-depth understanding of what it takes to support the bride.

“In every typical Nigerian home, once a woman reaches marriageable age, it becomes a prayer point and this definitely comes from a place of love. The moment she is being proposed to, everyone becomes the bride in the making, looking out for aso-ebi styles to slay at the event and the parents are also thinking of the financial capability of putting the event together. The book covers every angle.”

She further noted that she was inspired to x-ray how to organise an ideal wedding without stressing the bride. 

“Hence, I chose to have a manual that helps everyone understand how not to stress the bride and ensure it is an ideal day,” she added.

On lessons garnered while putting the book together, Sessi-Traore said she learnt that there are different phases and that dreams don’t work unless you put action to it.

“It gave me another angle to paying attention to brides. So, in the process of writing this book, I got closer to my brides and got deeper into what they were really feeling. The entire process taught me to be more patient, to understand and study people,” she said.

She also noted that the passion to write the book came after she attended the mastering the business of talent with Steve Harris in August 2020.

She added: “The process of writing made me believe what builders say that the finishing is the toughest part of the job.

“When I set out to write, I had all the bullet points for the chapters but then what to write wasn’t coming. There was a time that for almost four months nothing was coming. I didn’t just want to write a book but pass a message and touch base with it.”

On her advice to brides, she said: “Put God first and clearly communicate what you want on your big day. For a Lagos Island mother, an intimate wedding can be 500 guests, whereas you want 100 guests. So, let people around you know exactly what you want. I also want family members and parents to always listen to their children.”

Sessi-Traore holds an M.Sc in Management from the University of Lagos and a B.Sc in Economics from Bowen University, Osun.

She is the convener of Touch A Life, Make A Difference (TALMAD), an annual charity programme which aims at giving back and celebrating the underprivileged people in the society by putting a smile on their face especially at Christmas.