KATB KETAB & WEDDING CEREMONIES | PRIVATE VILLA, 6TH OF OCTOBER
Sherif Gaber & Jana Bassiouny: Hollywood-Themed Katb Ketab
A 150-guest Katb Ketab on 17 August 2024, turning a private 6th of October villa into a movie-premiere journey through full event management, creative direction, theatrical buffet presentation and substantial reception hospitality.
- DATE: 17 AUG 2024
- OCCASION: KATB KETAB
- VENUE: PRIVATE VILLA, 6TH OF OCTOBER
- GUESTS: APPROX. 150
- LORIENTAL SCOPE: FULL EVENT MANAGEMENT + CREATIVE DIRECTION + CATERING
A Hollywood premiere built around the couple
Sherif Gaber and Jana Bassiouny held their Katb Ketab at a large private villa in 6th of October on 17 August 2024, ahead of a larger wedding celebration planned for later. LOriental was appointed directly by the family to manage the event as a whole, covering creative direction, planning, production management, setup, ceremony environment, catering, live bar service and live stations.
Jana wanted the evening to feel like a glamorous movie premiere rather than a conventional home Katb Ketab. The creative direction therefore started with the guest journey: the couple would be treated as the stars of their own film, and the theme had to begin before guests even reached the garden.
From the villa entrance to the lower garden
A large printed film strip ran through the arrival route, continuing from the main villa entrance, down the stairs and toward the lower garden where the main event took place. At the garden entrance, six oversized movie posters reimagined well-known Egyptian films with Sherif and Jana as the stars.
The poster titles, cast, director and producer credits were rewritten around the couple and their families. The arrival sequence was therefore doing more than decorating the route: it introduced the story before the ceremony began and gave guests an immediate visual cue that the evening had its own cinematic identity.
Designing the environment, not just the backdrop
The wider event plan carried the same language into the red-carpet arrival, curved garden aisle, gold-framed guest seating with soft champagne draping, ceremony stage, film-strip floor graphics, photo-booth concept, candles, white petals, feathers, pearls, flowers and arrival effects including fireworks. Around the ceremony, white florals and feather plumes carried the glamour into a softer setting around the Katb Ketab itself.
The photo-booth concept became an oversized magazine-cover installation, extending the couple-as-celebrities idea beyond the movie posters. At the bar, a digital-screen front façade played a continuously looping animated film strip built from photographs of Sherif and Jana, so the cinematic language stayed active inside the beverage service rather than becoming a static graphic.
Creative control across distributed fabrication
Not every physical element was fabricated by LOriental. Selected assets were built locally by the family’s carpenter. LOriental supplied the design and technical specifications, coordinated the production, inspected the finished pieces and approved them before installation.
That distinction is important because the capability being demonstrated is production control. The team could protect the creative standard even when fabrication was distributed, keeping the storyboard, dimensions, finishes and installation intent aligned through final delivery.
A creative brief and a family hospitality brief
The creative brief also had to satisfy two priorities. Jana wanted the cinematic experience to feel youthful, glamorous and visibly different, while the family expected the hospitality to carry the substance of a major formal gathering.
The reception therefore needed more substance than a visually light finger-food program. The solution kept the format elegant and circulation-friendly while adding premium proteins and more filling options, including salmon, shrimp and grilled or barbecue-style items.
Hospitality inside the same story
Food, live stations and the non-alcoholic bar were treated as part of the event rather than as a separate service layer. The service style still suited a reception, but it carried enough weight for the family occasion and sat inside the same visual language as the arrival, ceremony, buffet and bar.
Making the buffet part of the spectacle
The buffet carried a distinct Theatrical Hospitality layer through custom-designed illuminated hardware integrated directly into the food display. Curved gold structures rose through the buffet at different heights, each ending in a glowing globe and creating a sculptural canopy around the service rather than lighting it only from the perimeter.
The maximalist florals were designed as one continuous, intense serpentine runner rather than separate arrangements. White roses, fuller white blooms, baby’s breath, greenery and sweeping white feathers moved through, over, under and behind the food, weaving the catering into the floral composition. Together with tiered presentation and reflective surfaces, the custom hardware and floral runner turned the buffet into one of the event’s visual focal points.
This is where the case moves beyond themed décor. Creative direction, production management, guest environment and hospitality were solved together, with the event moving from red-carpet arrival and film-inspired installations to the Katb Ketab, theatrical buffet and animated digital bar as one continuous experience.
What this case demonstrates
This Katb Ketab is a strong concept-to-execution proof point. A specific idea was translated into guest movement, custom visual assets, ceremony design, a Theatrical Hospitality buffet layer and food-and-beverage decisions, while family expectations were reconciled inside one full-service plan.
It also shows how LOriental can manage third-party fabrication without overstating ownership of the physical production. The value lay in directing the system, protecting the concept and integrating the finished elements, including custom buffet hardware, into a workable private event for approximately 150 guests.
