Man and woman, both surgeons, want to become husband and wife. After a long day handling the intricacies of the human body, they have neither will nor inclination to delve into anything else. What do they do? They find entrepreneur and owner, Madeleine Kojakian.


It all began in 2000 when Kojakian worked with a venture capital company—she was responsible for planning events for the media division. There she got the experience of collaborating with different designers, planning events and launch parties. She was delegated the responsibility of hiring, selling and promoting. “We did campaigns with different brands. And that’s how I got to know the fashion and lifestyle industry in Montreal. Then, I was getting married in 2003, and with my research in weddings, the CEO of the company I was working with said, 'Try to keep a journal of your wedding and what you’re doing.’”

Inspired, Kojakian suggested doing a wedding issue. “And that’s how I got into the wedding business,” she says. “While we were doing the wedding issue, I got to know a lot of the wedding vendors. I got to know the industry locally as well as nationally and internationally because we had to do a lot of research, try to benchmark ourselves with other existing magazines. And, at the same time, I was planning my wedding. “I remember asking one of the girls that was writing articles to do a profile story on a wedding planner.” In two weeks, they were unable to find a single local wedding planner. After doing extensive research online, Kojakian decided, just for fun, to launch the wedding planning site. “Next thing you know, it grew, and people started calling me, and one thing led to the other. They liked the fact that I had experience in the fashion industry...and because I had experience with events, the wedding planning came very easily.” Now she is the official wedding planner for both the Hotel Nelligan and the Hotel Places D’Armes in Old Montreal.

Maddy K, Kojakian’s registered trademark and company, organizes weddings for foreigners, in particular, Americans. “Montreal, especially Old Montreal, is one of the top destination locations for weddings...it gives you a touch of Europe without having to spend the Euros and without having to fly across the Atlantic,” says Kojakian. Seventy-five percent of her clientele, she estimates, is from the U.S., 15% from Canada, 5% from Europe, and the rest, from just about everywhere.

“A lot of our focus is downtown, and it’s for couples who are looking for something different. For example, the science center, is a very big loft space. We’ve done weddings there, which is very nice, because you’re able to transform the space the way you want it. We did a very nice Indian wedding there...the girl was Indian, and he was American, and we tried to merge the West with the East, and we kind of gave it a more modern twist. Another one was two doctors from New York. One was Canadian from Quebec, and another one was Indian...and they both were extremely busy surgeons, and they wanted to incorporate some elements of their background. So, again, we merged both aspects of their ethnicity.”

OBJECTIVES

“Now that the brand is established, and it’s pretty known in the wedding industry, we’re looking at merchandising,” says Kojakian. Negotiations are underway to launch their product line in outlets throughout North America. “This way, it’s not just our couples who get our products...it will still have the design elements of Maddy K, only it’s cheaper and you don’t have to necessarily hire Maddy K to design it for you.”

THE CHALLENGES

The challenge, says Kojakian, is not the weddings themselves. Those usually run better than expected. It is human resources that baffles the mind and consumes the time. “The challenge has been finding good people to work for you because you train the juniors, and then they realize, ’hey, you know what, we can create our own wedding agency.’ And then they move on, and they do it, and they kind of duplicate things that you’ve already taught them. That’s been the biggest challenge for me; to always innovate myself...”

THE ENTREPRENEUR

“When you’re an entrepreneur, you have that fire in you, and that flame is there from the moment you are born. You either have it or you don’t. But if you have it, the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is, they get overwhelmed, because there’s so many things they want to do, and they want to be everything. So, my advice is try not to diversify yourself. Find a niche. Don’t try to be everything, and focus on that niche and grow that niche. Because if you put all your energy into one thing—guaranteed you’re going to succeed.” BN

—Maggie Pagratis