An idea that led three friends to conceptualize Melbourne's first South Asian Wedding & Lifestyle Expo with their brand Aquila.
Aquila translates to a constellation lying in the Milky Way. Latin word interprets an eagle that resonated with the three budding business entrepreneurs. Monica Kilam, Senior Project Manager with FujiFilm Code Blue, Bhavna Kapoor, Technology Consultant and owns her consultancy and Nidhi Jain, who is a Customer Service team member at Bunnings. As powerful as the eagle spreading its wings far and wide, so is the aim of their first exhibition, a collection of exhibitors from around Victoria and beyond.
On the 2nd of Oct Consul General Dr Sushil Kumar inaugurated the exhibition with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Whitehorse Club Function and Convention Centre at Burwood East.
We sat with Kilam on behalf of Aquila to understand how they came about choosing this niche market about weddings and lifestyles for the South Asian market.
The trio noticed something was missing in the community.
Still, at the same time, there are lots of exhibitions within the community with the start of October, Diwali Melas, Navratri Melas to Garba dance and wedding expos.
Kilam elaborates that it's all about attire and jewellery; in these wedding expos, there was nothing that had a collection of everything that makes up a wedding.
The fundamental idea germinated during a friend's daughter's wedding which happened to be in the middle of the pandemic.
Usually, Indians would book a flight to India for the entire wedding shopping, but this time around, it was a unique situation in lockdown, there was nowhere to go, and everything needed to be done in Australia, but where?
Living in South Eastern suburbs of Glen Waverly, there was little to no availability or knowledge. Kilam explained that it was a dire situation as if everything depended on what people said.
A proper Indian wedding requires a lot of planning, especially when it is done with traditions, for example, the bridal kalire, Kangana mundri, the garlands, mandap etc and all of those little things and the thought that goes into making a big fat Indian wedding.
So, in essence, Kilam and her friends did manage everything for the wedding, they had to courier some clothes from India, but it wasn't the same, as they missed the whole experience to absorb the wedding rush that left so many unhinged, especially with the budget. It's a different experience!
So, why not link the gap and have everything under one roof as they were sure Kilam, and her friends were not the only ones with this dilemma?
The three friends sat down bouncing ideas in April of this year had a full debrief of their friend's daughter's wedding and to see what was missing.
"Let's do something to bring all of these things together. That's where this whole idea of expo came from!" says Kilam.
But they wanted to do something more creative, interactive and definitely with a purpose because it had to be outside the anomaly of just food and socializing. Hence, the three partners created something more meaningful and purposeful for this niche market.
Though it's a niche market, the vendors and artists they selected were in the middle to upper price tags but still affordable for everyone. The most important thing they wanted was to save people from spending money on an air ticket for a shopping trip to India.
Kilam adds that they researched on Instagram and looked out for designers, their products, reviews, prices, services, artisans and followers as they wanted quality exhibitors.
They looked for exhibitors not just in Melbourne or around Melbourne but also Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane but unfortunately, the time frame was very tight.
Also, the partners didn't realize that these designers started the collections six to seven months for any event and their event was in October due around three to four months.
So, given that tight frame, they had to settle with exhibitors from Melbourne and around Victoria.
For this exhibition, they partnered with vendors displaying apparel, jewellery, and mandap decor. When they saw the quality and the interest coming up from these creatives, they thought of getting vendors from the South Asian sub-continent.
"Let's make it, a community event thing, more widespread.” says Kilam. They had exhibitors from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, and Fiji Indians, making it a wholesome community affair.
The community is different these days, especially for millennials when it comes to designers. The clarity for tradition in outfits is more of a fusion for this group, and because the trio were launching their brand, they had to be at par with the community's preference.
Their idea is not just to stop at weddings and lifestyle but to continue into a broader spectrum of fashion and lifestyle and then expand to other states of Australia.
Once Kilam was back from India in May this year, the partners got busy with their brand promotion and marketing campaign. Their aim was for thirty- five vendors, but their hard work paid up and they ended up with thirty-eight exhibitors and more who wanted to join in.
Four hundred and fifty people registered on Eventbrite for the event, but over a thousand-foot fall on the day of the exhibitions spoke about how important this exhibition was to cover the gap in the community.
Patrons were exposed to exhibitors ranging from apparel, bespoke jewellery from Pakistan, garland and floral designers, make-up artists, photographers, food stalls and decorators.
Kilam adds that the idea is also to showcase upcoming new talents brewing here in Australia and give them that chance to highlight their talents.
As this South Asian Wedding Lifestyle expo coincides with a month of festivities for the Indian community and the Melbourne Fashion Week, we were totally in awe of these three budding entrepreneurs for this successful exhibition.
We are sure this is just the beginning of a solid partnership for bringing bigger and better events to Australia in times to come. We wish them all the best for their future endeavours.
The team at Aquila events Melbourne would like to thank all the participant, exhibitors and valued sponsors for partnering with them to make Aquila's South Asian Wedding and Lifestyle expo 2022 a huge success. They were delighted by the flood of appreciative compliments from their exhibitors and patrons.
By Nandita Chakraborty