Maame Esi Appiah — Founder & Lead Planner

I grew up in a home where every gathering was an occasion. Sundays meant extended family around the table, and every outdooring, engagement and anniversary was planned with love — and, usually, with me running around with a notebook making sure nobody had forgotten the drinks. Long before I knew event planning could be a career, I knew how it felt to watch a room come alive because someone had thought of everything.

Over the years I helped friends with their weddings, then friends of friends, then colleagues who needed a launch or end-of-year party to feel special. What I loved most was not the décor or the flowers, beautiful as they are. It was the quiet work behind them: listening carefully, keeping track of a hundred small details, and making sure that on the day, the people at the centre of the celebration could simply be present.

I am especially drawn to celebrations that blend modern elegance with Ghanaian tradition. A traditional engagement that honours both families' customs, a white wedding with kente woven into the styling, a reception where the highlife band and the string quartet both have their moment — these are the events that feel most like home to me. Tradition and luxury are not opposites; done thoughtfully, each makes the other more meaningful.

I started Planned by DD to give couples, families and companies a planner they can trust completely — someone who is organised, honest about budgets, calm under pressure and genuinely invested in their day. When you work with us, you work with me and a small team who treat your celebration as if it were our own family's. That is a promise I take personally.