São Paulo – It took six months of preparation for Jacqueline Benevides to create the 9,000 giant EVA flowers used to decorate a wedding in Saudi Arabia, attended by 1,000 women. Alongside a team of 10 people, the Brazilian artist arrived in the Arab country at the end of 2023 to set up the ceremony space.
“After producing the flowers, we shipped the materials and headed to Riyadh. We arrived in December 2023, and it took us 45 days to set up the entire wedding décor. It was grand—I’d never been part of a project like this before,” recalls Benevides.
“The bride was so happy with the result she recommended us for another job in the country. However, we didn’t go forward due to differences in artistic styles. And contrary to what people might think, Arab women love bright colors. The flowers for this wedding were all made with hot pink and orange colors. Very different from Brazil, where brides usually prefer decorations with more subdued and neutral tones.”
The invitation to work on the wedding came in May 2023. The following month, the Brazilian traveled to Saudi Arabia for the first time to meet the bride. Days after arriving in the country, she presented different types of flowers, and once the decoration was approved, preparations began in Brazil, between June and November 2023.
During the time she stayed in Riyadh to organize the decoration, Benevides and her team had no communication difficulties. “Everyone spoke English very well, and even the people in my team who only spoke Portuguese managed to communicate very well. The Arab people were very welcoming, warm, and helpful. They assisted us with everything we needed,” says Benevides.
After this positive experience with the Arab people, the visual artist is now very open to new negotiations. “I’d definitely work again with Arab weddings. Besides the whole experience being incredible, after that I created giant flowers for other weddings and store windows in Costa Rica, the United States, and Brazil,” Benevides concludes.
Former business administrator now a visual artist
Born in Cianorte, a city in Paraná state, Brazil, and holdign a degree in Business Administration, she worked in the field for 20 years before starting her new career as an artist.
“I went to the U.S. in 2017 to pursue my master’s degree in Neuromarketing when an opportunity to work with flowers came up. I was part of a church, and one day they asked me to help with the decoration. After watching a few tutorials on YouTube, I decided to make some colorful flowers using colored paper,” said the Brazilian.
“The following year, I created a decoration with giant flowers for the spa panel at Tonya Beauty, owned by a famous businesswoman from Orlando. That place is known for hosting celebrities, like Gisele Bündchen and Cleo Pires. This led to a feature in Glamour magazine in Brazil. After that, I opened an Instagram account, and the orders started coming in.”
After being discovered, Jacqueline Benevides took an online specialization course from Russia to create giant flowers using EVA. The course, which helped her gain new clients from different parts of the world, lasted two years.
For the future, the 43-year-old artist wants to continue creating and focusing on different projects, this time including fabric and paper sculptures. “These have been the new market trends. Now, my goal is to keep training and learning to meet the needs of new clients.”
Report by Rebecca Vettore, in collaboration with ANBA.
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