New wedding, event planning firm's work 'sealed with kiss'

By Darcy Jones

FORT WAYNE-Kiss Wedding and Event Planning Inc. made its official debut on Nov. 17 with what some people are calling the wedding of the year. Ebony Marie Johnson and Gregory Pierre Baker exchanged vows at Union Baptist Church. Afterwards, the newly weds climbed into the back of a Club Car Limo and were whisked away to the Grand Wayne Center, where 300 guests awaited their arrival in the Anthony Wayne Ballroom.

All night long, people kept repeating "Who did this wedding?" They whispered, they murmured, they asked, "Who did this wedding?" The backdrop of the ballroom was the perfect setting for the contemporary chocolate and blue d?cor that Suezette Phillips, creative director for wedding design, put into place. The softly lit room featured fairy lighting, chocolate twigs in tall vases, stones artfully arranged and more.

The whispered comments turned into phone calls.

"I've gotten so many calls," said Sherille Johnson, mother of the bride. "People kept telling me that Ebony's was the most beautiful wedding that they had ever seen and they wanted to know who did the wedding. I told them Kiss!"

"The mother of the bride called me the day after the wedding to thank me," said Phillips. "She said, 'Suezette, you made my daughter's dream come true! I knew it would be nice, but I didn't know it would be this nice.'" Phillips chuckled. "I told her that that's what we do! That's Kiss."

Dartanya "Keke" Williamson, consultant and coordinator for the Johnson wedding said, "The unique thing about Kiss is that we are not just a group of professionals, we are friends who love what we do. As a group, we can share expertise and accommodate more clients."

"Kiss is the total package," said Suezette Ford, the other consultant and coordinator in the group. "We can do it all. Design. Consult. Coordinate. We focus on the details because we care about the results."

When asked why the three decided to form a group, Phillips said, "It got to be too much for me. I was doing the wedding design and the consulting and coordinating. I just couldn't keep doing it all." She asked her daughter, Suezette Ford, to help with the coordinating. Williamson, who had been doing consulting and coordinating independently for six years, frequently referred her brides to Phillips for wedding design. The three of them talked and decided that as a team, they could take their business to the next level. Thus, Kiss-Keke, Suezette, and Suezette-was formed.

"Weddings are our bread and butter," said Phillips, "but we can help people plan and coordinate any event. For example, I just worked with the Bowman family on their mother's 65th birthday and retirement party."

When asked why one should hire a wedding planner, Shonda Cann, another of Phillips's daughters and business manager for Kiss said, "Planning a wedding takes a lot of time and weddings are very expensive to host. The bride wants to get the best value for her dollars and we can help her do that. Also, today's brides are busy women. Because of that, one of our specialties is the professional woman. These women know what they want but they are too busy to plan. We can handle all the details for them. She can give us her vision and we can do the rest- from sending out the invitations to handling the RSVP list, to meeting with the vendors-we can do as much or as little as she needs."

"People with a tight budget really need to consider working with a consultant," said Ford. "If a bride has limited dollars to spend, she wants to make sure they are spent in the right area. Our vendor list will include experienced, professional people that will provide excellent services. We will definitely prove to be of value."

"The bride called me the next day to thank me again," said Williamson. "They were on their way to the airport for their honeymoon, but she just wanted to call and thank me-again. She used words like seamless and professional. That's what we want to provide- a seamless experience and a stress-free day!"

To contact Kiss Wedding and Event Planning call (260) 471-Kiss (5477).

This is part of the December 5, 2007 online edition of Frost Illustrated.

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