Photo: Courtesy

With the wedding season right around the corner, many are gearing up to tackle the enormous task of planning the perfect events. Fortunately, the new and upcoming business of professional wedding planners has given us the option of easing that burden by more than half. Wedding Diary is one such event management company, the pioneer in its field.

Founded by the talented photographer Prito Reza, who graduated with a Bachelors Degree from Pathshala, the organisation had an interesting beginning. “I started off as a photojournalist and never thought of being a wedding photographer,” shares Prito. “I was working for several dailies such as The Daily Ittefaq, New Age, The Daily Star and more,” he tells us. “I took up wedding photography to help pay for my education, but I noticed that people looked down on wedding photographers and did not view it as a respectable profession. This bothered me a great deal and drove me to have an exhibition, the first of its kind, in Bangladesh, featuring weddings. I believe I managed to explain through that exhibition that wedding photography can be a great career option.”

Photo: Courtesy

Through his work, Prito also started to realise that the videography department at weddings was also lacking in creativity, vision and education in the field. “That is when I decided to put together a video team as well. It was the first step I took towards setting up my company, Wedding Diary, in 2006,” he explains. “We also began to realise that our work did not come out as nicely without the proper décor or lighting, so we decided to work on a few experiments involving wedding planning as a whole,” he says. Prito began to try and provide his clients with not only stage design, but venue booking, décor, food, lighting, sound, dala decoration, invitation design, holud jewellery, different themes, entertainment and much more, and has undoubtedly been successful. “In 2011 finally, we set up a formal office and established ourselves as an event management company.”

Prito's company works for clients with a range of budgets and not just for the ultra-rich. “We make it easy for our clients to get discounts with certain collaborating agencies,” says Prito. “For example, if you are hiring us, you can book certain places like Radisson or Regency and get a significant discount. You also get discounts from clothing stores like Ahang, honeymoon destinations like Ocean Paradise Hotel and even grocery shops like Meena Bazaar, so there is plenty to gain by working with us,” he says.

Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

Wedding Diary has also sphere headed the concept of a pre-wedding photo shoot which involves taking the couple to a nice place, perhaps outdoors, to do a relaxed photo shoot, without being surrounded by a thousand guests.

“The point is to make each event memorable,” says Prito. His wife Paula Rahman, the Creative Head of Wedding Diary is also on a continuous lookout for new and innovative ways to plan events. “Aside from wedding related events, we also manage birthday parties, convocations, corporate events and much more. We are currently working on destination and outdoor weddings as well as an eco wedding  concept, where we show clients alternative materials for decoration, for example, we made a stage once using just bangles, instead of the traditional flower stage.”

Prito Reza has been recognised at home and abroad for his achievements. He is the Photographer Ambassador of Fujifilm Bangladesh as well as the Ambassador of WPPA in Bangladesh. Through Wedding Diary, he has covered events in Thailand, India, Signapore, Malaysia, Australia and the USA. He was also awarded The Best Wedding Photographer 2011-12 by Mirror Business Award. “I hope many aspiring photographers will be inspired by what I do and join the industry,” says Prito. “It makes me proud to see my students doing well in this profession and trying to give us the healthy competition we need.”