About Us
Founded by Director and Senior Planner Melanie Kiani in 2008, Bellissimo are dedicated wedding planners based on the South Coast. The highly trained team are on hand throughout your wedding plans and on your wedding day to bring together your suppliers and all the detail to develop into the perfect day. The business has developed into a planning business who specialise in creating beautiful elegant weddings and managing venues.
If you are time short, and looking for some inspiration to bring your dream to life or have the ideas and want to share them and don’t know how to pull everything together – Bellissimo Weddings can achieve this for you.
Venue weddings
Even if you are getting married in a Church and then a separate venue for your reception or a civil ceremony at the same venue for your reception we often work with couples to support them before and on their wedding day. This can be for various reasons. We are not there to tell the venue how to do their job or tread on their toes but to support and look after our couple every step of the way and ensure that all the suppliers deliver and work together on the day. We troubleshoot all day so if anything were to go wrong (and things do – your suppliers are only human!) you would usually not know about it as we solve all the problems for you without you even having to know about it. A completely stress free wedding experience.
Marquee weddings
Bellissimo have a great deal of experience with marquee weddings and love them! Yes they can be a challenge as you are building the whole venue from scratch but its a great opportunity to create the day and the style you want from a blank canvas. Marquee weddings come with a whole host of potential problems you need an experienced planner on your case to be your event manager and central point of communication to work with all of your carefully selected suppliers. What couple want on their wedding day to be dealing with portable loos and generators and chasing up the food service which may be running late, or helping back up a busy bar? We can support through the planning and from early in the morning until late at night at a marquee wedding so everything is covered. We have become known as one of the South West’s leading marquee wedding planning businesses – we thrive on the challenge of making it all happen!
Finally
Your day should incorporate everything you wish for and above all it should reflect YOU. We work hard to ensure you get the day you both want and work with complete flexibility, imagination and creativity. Our attention to detail will astonish you. And the biggest benefit of-course, we make sure that absolutely no anxiety or hassle is pointed your way – that’s what you employ us for.
Meet the Team
Melanie Kiani
Bellissimo Founder, Director and Senior Planner
The unflappable Melanie Kiani was a Lawyer for 20 years – whilst training to be a lawyer Melanie worked in hospitality, catering and restaurant management, she also worked in wedding retail, she takes an extremely hands on approach and is not shy when it comes to unblocking a Portaloo or two!
Accolades
- Regional Ambassador (RA) of the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners (an alliance which aims to promote professionalism, training and development in the UK wedding industry)
- The 2015 Wedding Industry Awards Regional Winner
- The 2016 Wedding Industry Awards National Winner
- Amongst many other awards to her name Melanie holds multiple girlguide badges too!!
Favourite Word
SURE! – Because in Melanie’s world ANYTHING is possible!
Superhero most like Melanie
Wonder Woman– check out Melanie’s testimonials for proof of this!
Important facts about Melanie
Soya milk drinker with extremely clicky thumbs
Favorite quote
“Everything happens for a reason”
Julia Walsh
Wedding & Events Manager
The lovely Julia joined Bellissimo in May 2015 after more than 2 years organising weddings at Highcliffe Castle. Prior to working at the Castle Julia managed the Holton Lee Estate, a stunning 350 acre estate and home where she organised marquee based, festival style weddings.
Accolades
- BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing
- The 2015 Wedding Industry Awards Regional Winner
- The 2016 Wedding Industry Awards National Winner
- Always Top of the class in her gym and dance lessons in her youth!!!
Favourite Word
MARRRRVELOUS! – Because in Julia’s world EVERYTHING is simply marvelous!!!
Superhero most like Julia
Supergirl – because she is SUPER and there can only be one Wonder Woman but together they are an unstoppable force!!!
Important facts about Julia
Julia dislikes beans and pulses!! We know this is crazy but please don’t hold this against her!!!
Favorite quote
“Don’t EVER let anyone ever dull your sparkle”
Amy Beauchamp
Catering & Events Co-ordinator
The sparkly and very hands on Amy joined the team in July 2016. Prior to this Amy had been travelling the world for 2 years – she also worked for Beach Weddings Bournemouth for 2 seasons and before this she worked for a local catering company.
Accolades
BSc (Hons) Events Management (and she got a first – ooo she’s got brains!!)
Favourite set of words
“I love my job so much I don’t need paying!“
Superhero most like Amy
Hawkeye from the Young Avengers – because she has an eye for detail and it takes a lot to rustle her feathers!
Important facts about Amy
Amy dislikes mushrooms and anything to do with fungi but she loves mushy peas.
Favorite quote
“I eat cake because it’s someone’s birthday everywhere”
In summary
She’s a great team player and has a logistical brain, Amy is full of ideas, some of which are slightly bizarre but we forgive her for these because the good out weighs the bad
