(From right to left) Asangla Imchen, Aboli Dina Yepthomi, Loye Tungoe of A.D.L Weddings.
Akangchila Longchar
Morung Express News
These three girls are the most sought after in town. Especially during the wedding season. Friends since Primary School, Asangla Imchen, Aboli Dina Yepthomi, Loye Tungoe are three women entrepreneurs who always knew they would somehow work together. Huddled together at Asangla Imchen’s home, the three best friends would always dream of setting up a business.
Today, with a friendship that has only grown stronger over time, the three women established and runs successfully, A.D.L Wedding, a wedding planning and event services business that is reputed to be the best thing to happen to wedding crazy Nagaland. A.D.L is the moniker from their names: Asangla Imchen, Aboli Dina Yepthomi, Loye Tungoe.
A.D.L Weddings provide the A to Z of everything to do with weddings. From planning, design to unique décor, beautiful flowers, classy catering, furniture, and accessories, they are ready at your service. In fact A.D.L is known for its theme decorations and so far they have pulled off themes like Moroccan, Hawaiian, English Garden Tea, Bollywood, autumn, summer and many more. During wedding offseason in Nagaland, the trio even takes catering from outside Nagaland. So far, they have catered to several events and weddings at Meghalaya, and Assam.
Beginnings of A.D.L Weddings: ADL shares that they were always fascinated with décor, flowers, and with the desire to do something together, A.D.L Weddings was ultimately started in 2009.
“We used to meet up all the time, so we thought why not use the time to do something. We in fact started with just some pots and pans. And we never knew that it would amount to this big of a success” ADL said.
Background: “We didn’t know anything about wedding planning and everything we have learnt from wedding to wedding. Till now we cannot claim to be experts. We are still learning and we still make mistakes,” said ADL.
Hindrance of entrepreneurship in Nagaland: “We started this business on our own from scratch, so we haven’t faced any kind of problems as such but one hindrance we find on the job is basically the mentality of some Nagas” said ADL. They also shared, “We want to hire local boys to work along with us, but most are not sincere or willing into put in hard work. We constantly discuss among ourselves that we have to help some of our people through our work, but sometimes we even face negative attitude. We have received comments like, “this would not have happened if we were working for men,” from “our workers or a defiant attitude of not wanting to take ‘orders’ from us just because we are women”.
Dislike about what we do: “Sometimes we don’t get to sleep at night. In the beginning this was quite frequent, but now we have learnt the art of time management so it’s not so bad now,” ADL shared.
Most rewarding moment: “When the bride and groom is overwhelmed when they reach the wedding venue. We have had some clients who had Goosebumps and couldn’t express their excitement,” shared ADL.
The success of ADL: “We agree that A.D.L Weddings has been a success and it’s solely because of the partnership that we have. There has been so much hard work put in” said ADL. “The response has been great and we got encouraged from wedding after wedding and it just took off. We never even thought of advertising our business and it is by word of mouth that we gained our hard earned reputation. We are proud of the good feedback from our clients and guests,” the three chime in.
Aboli Dina Yepthomi, (who is married and has four children) adds that she has had to sacrifice time for her children and husband. “I am so thankful to my husband who has been very understanding and supportive of my business and my friends” she gratefully said.
Wedding planning over the years: ADL feels that right now Naga’s are splurging on weddings and its just getting bigger and better every year. And so most people want professional help as they want unique themes, decorations, and flowers.
Advice to interested wedding planners: To be in the wedding services, ADL feels that one needs to possess creativity and be willing to be sincere and put in hard work. One cannot take risks with wedding planning as it’s a time bound job. “So one also need to have good time management skills. Focus is also very important. You cannot have several interests at one time or your job will suffer,” they said wisely.
Benefit of hiring a professional: “One gets to sit back and enjoy the wedding. Otherwise while being involved in all the nuances of wedding planning the family and friends usually do not get to enjoy the wedding,” said ADL.
Future Plans: A.D.L Weddings will soon be opening its store cum office at Duncan Bosti, Dimapur. The shop will retail and also hire out wedding decors and many others. “Most of our clients request to sell them the stuffs we have, so we decided to open a store where one can come and buy wedding decors,” ADL informs.
A.D.L weddings in ten years: “We want to expand the business beyond our imagination. We do get offers from Delhi, Mumbai even now, and one day we want to be able to take our services far,” said ADL.
ADL opines that Nagas have become very enterprising. “When we travel, we meet a lot of young Naga professional working as chefs, photographers etc and we feel proud of it. As for the three of us, we love our work, and it’s our passion” said the three women entrepreneurs who dreamed of working together, and made it happen with their resilience, hard work and determination.
