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Hobbies
pets, swimming, soccer, boxing, movies, believe it or not-anything TLC/Discovery/Histoy Channel
Favorite Quote
If GOD is for me, who can be against me?
About Me
I love being a scientist. I was born a nerd. There is not really much else to say. I'm a nerd, and I'm happy.
Rants
weddings are waaaayyy too expensive. If we ordered the same services for any other event and didn't call it a wedding, we would be saving so much money!!!! People really get over on you...
Raves Melvin and I both paid our way through school and have pretty much been on our own since college. So with the two of us being so like-minded frugally, we have saved alot of money. Our wedding is turning out very nicely. After seeing the set-ups for our wedding I can't believe how much we DIDN'T pay!
How we met….
Even though I had seen Shenell around work a couple of times , the first time I got the nerve up to speak to her, she was in the break room at work. It was funny cause right off the bat I think we realized we where so much alike but polar opposites. She told me how she hated chemistry (I’m a chemist), she told how she loved the cowboys ( I’m a skins fan), and how she went to Towson, and hated it, but had enough room in heart to hate Morgan just a little bit more (I’m a Morgan man). So we talked a little while in the break room , and I asked her the pointed question; “what do you do for fun’ she said nothing, and she had just moved in to her new house and was trying to re-stain her recessed wooden bookcases that previous owner had painted over. I volunteered my expertise, and she accepted and told me she would cook dinner. As I was walking away I heard her say “see we are kindred spirits”, I agreed and thought “oh yeah, she loves me”. I think it was about a week before I made my way over there for our first date sanding the bookcases together. About a month later she realized she got swept off her feet. And probably about a month and a day before she made me be her boyfriend. And the rest is history….
Her Story( Otherwise known as THE TRUTH! ):
Ok so some of the above is true. (SOME) Let’s bring some clarity to the picture. First off, Melvin has no EXPERTISE!! It took him (5) weekends to sand the shelves and it should have only taken him about 1/2 a day. I ended up leaving the house to go to the mall with my girlfriend because he had sawdust flying all over the place! When Melvin offered to help me with the sanding I cooked him dinner because I didn’t have any money to pay him for his work. He kept making excuses about changing sand paper grains and had to keep coming back. Then he offered to help with other big jobs around the house. He had me cooking for him every weekend for nearly two months! I was Hoodwinked I tell ya! Bamboozled!
Next thing you know I was bringing "our" lunch to work. Gradually, we became inseparable. Then we fell in looovvvveee. Awe, ain’t that cute! And now the rest is herstory...
The Ring
HE WENT TO JARED!!! My engagmnet ring is a custom made 14K Rose Gold with a platinum basket holding a 1 carat princess cut diamond! I love it! I love it! I love it!
My wedding bands are (2) 14K rose Gold eternity bands with alternating round and princess cut diamonds. They will be placed on either side of my engagement ring very similar to a ring guard.
His wedding band is Is also Rose gold with white gold trim on either side and round cut diamonds inside the white gold so it matches mine.
Our Wedding Plans
Our wedding is going to be very special for us. We are footing the entire bill ourselves. By the day of the wedding EVERYTHING will be Paid in Full! We are so proud of that. It is also very special because we are very lucky to have all of our friends be a part of the wedding party. Although our wedding is going to be a moderate gathering, it will still be a very intimate one. We'll post pics at a lter date.
The officiants: My childhood pastor who I grew up with and who performed my confirmation AND my current pastor who presides at the church that I now attend with my hubby to be!! I wouldn't have it any other way!
Our Planning Experience
So far, we are trucking right along with paying everything down and keeping an eye on all of our expenses.
Our Advice
Start early to find the best prices and shop around. Prepare your budget BEFORE you start planning the wedding.Don't let anyone bully you or try to make you book a date because spots are filling up so fast. Go with your gut, if you don't LOVE it, don't buy it! Ebay is your friend. Believe it or not you can find some really good deals on there. Stick to your budget! You can have the wedding of your dreams without going into DEBT.
Most of all: RELAX, it's your wedding. You have the rest of your life to make everyday perfect with the man you love!
Vendors we used in the Baltimore area:
Great Occasions at the Overlea Events Center - the room is fantabulous! Miss Betty is the greatest!
Monica Maith for all your beauty needs (hair, make-up, fashion)!!! www.mrmdesignsinc.com
Flowers by Michael - Excellent deal!!! Wholesale prices to the public!
Liliya @ "The Sewing Place" in Baltimore, MD 410-661-5925 she’s doing all our bridesmaid dresses.
"fabulous gowns" on Ebay. I got my brand new reception gown for under $15 including shipping and handling!
"houseofgowns" on Ebay. I got my brand new Eden's Bridal wedding gown for about $100 including shipping and handlng.
Thanks!! I see that yall met at work, i guess its just the place to be huh! Lol... i love how yall met, because Todd says that we met adifferent way & that he got me & i fell for him & trapped him with the Mavs and Lakers game... & all that.. BUT it was the other way around! and its too funny! Girl they be trying to front, that was funny though, saying he can do handy work.. and YES... it got to a point where i started bringing OUR lunch to work! Lol i was like... wait a min... ! lol.. but thanks... girl... this wedding stuff is crazy, we are paying for everything ourselves... so its going slowly but surely. We found the prefect spot to get married chapel and wedding garden reception for 1700 & since its historical, they give us a letter for $500 of the money as a donation, for tax write off! lol.. hey! You gotta do what ya gotta do!!
Yall are cute together..
Just took a look at the new pics... so pretty. I love the ones on the beach. really nice and i am so happy for you. BTW i read the his and Herstory... girl too funny!
Posted On: Jul 12, 2009 3:33 PM
Jim Saunders, Director, MB3 Program, Towson University
Congratulations on the wedding and the exciting new life together. All thanks to Towson University! Best wishes
.
Great Occasions is now owned by Black Tie Catering. At first I was scared that I would not receive the same services that I put my trust in because of the new ownership. To be honest, I never really dealt with the new owner. I only worked with Kim and she is so spectacular. She really calmed my nerves and assured me that I would receive the same quality of service as I would have from the previous owner. There was one major upset that we experienced with Especially U another wedding wire vendor that was unexpected. Seeing the situation that I was in, Kim really did what she could to help out. she offered us a plethera of other options just in case we ended up not having flowers. She really stepped up to the plate. She is a little hard to get a hold of sometimes, but when you catch her she is on top of it.
Lisa photographed our entire wedding with her son. They got shots of us getting ready for the wedding, great shots of the church and guests, and the reception pics were great too. Once the wedding started we hardly knew they were there. They were great to work with. I would recommend them to any and everyone. There's not a whole lot to say. They are GREAT!
Chris is the best thing in the flower business hands down!!!! After the disaster we had with our other flower/decor vendor "Especially U" he really came through for us. Everything happened so fast and so last minute, but he had great ideas, and offered suggestions that I had never thought of. Not only were the flowers stunning, we got them significantly cheaper than what were asked to pay by the other vendor. I would recommend Chris for ANYTHING flower related. He really knows his stuff!! He even gave us tips on a different flower to use which not only helped stretch our budget, they were more durable than what I previously chose. Chris, we love, love, love you!!!! You honestly saved my almost flowerless wedding!
This vendor came recommended and had a couple reviews on wedding wire that were pretty good. we had an awful experience with her. We hired her for our centerpieces and wedding flowers and paid her in full in good faith. No deposit. About 45 days out I called to confirm with all of our vendors. No answer, no call back. I left several messages and my hubby did the same. We called associates and the venue in an effort to get ahold of her. Still, no answer, no call back. then, about 10 days before the wedding she calls and leaves me a message wanting to meet with me later that day to come and pick up an additional check for a large sum of money so that she could order my flowers. She hadn't even ordered them yet!! At this point we were both pretty fed up with her and rightfully so. We met with her as planned and requested a refund. We explained to her our discontent with her services and she refunded our money in a the form of a check. She called me back later that night (about 9-9:30)telling me that our money was not refundable (the contract states that the deposit is non-refundable, we never gave her a deposit we paid her in full). Mind you, she had already written the check and agreed to the refund. I explained to her that we were not in breach of contract, blah, blah, back and forth. basically, she blamed the entire thing on me and said I should finish the business that I had started with her. She them offered to come over and pick up our other decorative items that we had DIY'ed and deliver them to the venue and to forgo the extra fee she asked for if I purchased my own flowers wholesale (10 days before the wedding) and them just paid her for the labor or making the bouquets. We ended the conversation at a firm no. I had a funny feeling about the check so i took off a few hours off work in the morning and went straight to the bank first thing the next day. She put a STOP PAYMENT on our check the night she wrote it through the emergency bank line!! (Illegal to do if you own a business. You cannot cancel a refund you have already honored). We had no flowers, and no centerpieces, and now no money to purchase new ones!!!
Seeing what a difficlut spot I was in the previous owner of the venue gave us the refund out of our own pocket so that we would have flowers for our wedding!! She felt so awful about the whole thing and did her best to make things right. The night before our wedding my MOH and I made all our bouquets. They look really good and didn't take that long (about 45 mins) because we got a good rhythm going. Especially U- yeah right. We had beautiful bouquets prepared by "especially me". If you value your wedding or any special occasion DO NOT let Brenda Hill-Russell anywhere near it. We trusted her with our most special day and she almost ruined. No apology, no nothing. All she left us with was a stopped payment check. how can you do that to someone on their wedding day?
**This really happened to us. I have the signed contract and the original stopped payment check to prove it just in case we have to go to court.
I have to give Sugarbakers a perfect score because the cake tasted great!!! Everyone is still telling me about it. But I have to be honest, I can't comment on professionalism, responsiveness, etc. because that wasn't a task that I needed to handle. My venue has a contract with them so they use them for all of their events. My communication was through the venue ( We picked the cake from a sugarbakers catalog, added some minor adjustments and told them what flavor we wanted) the venue did all the contacting for us.
Again, the cake was delicious! It was all gone by the end of the night. Everyone kept coming back for more so we ended up not using all of our to go cake bags! Sugarbakers has definately earned their reputation of being the best in our area.
Tiffany is so great!! I met her through one of the managers at the Men's Warehouse where my husband and groomsmen got their tuxes. She makes all of her cakes from scratch and they are soooo good. I used her for my husband's birthday cake last year. We used Sugarbakers for our wedding cake at the formal reception. We also had a dessert reception for co-workers and church family that we couldn't invite to the formal reception. Tiffany made us a 2 layer sheet cake. The cake was lemon flavored and it had a raspberry jam-type filling with buttercream icing! There was non left when we came down to greet the guests! Everyone loved it. We didn't get any of this cake or our actual wedding cake. You can't beat her prices either!
Liliya hand made each of my bridesmaids dresses. I purchased the fabric myself so that each girl would have the exact same color dress. I then asked each girl to choose a dress any style that fit their specific body type. They all bought their pictures in to Liliya and she made each one by looking at the pictures that they had bought in. She is great! They all loved their dresses and were so happy that they were custom made and tailored to fit them.
She does all kinds of work, proms, flower girls, costumes, anything you want.
Ezekiel provided us with a great band at a great price. People are still talking about the ad-libs and line dance songs they played. They were better than we expected. Highly recommend them! They did a jazz set, blues set, and some free-style music. They are young but they new a lot of the "old school" music that kept everyone entertained and on their feet. His e-mail address is rushhour_04@yahoo.com . Make no doubt, age is nothing but a number in his case. His talent far exceeds his age in years.
Review Date: 07/07/2009 Services Used: Beauty & Health
5.0 out of 5.0
Quality of Service:
(5.0/5.0)
Responsiveness:
(5.0/5.0)
Professionalism:
(5.0/5.0)
Value For Cost:
(5.0/5.0)
Flexibility:
(5.0/5.0)
I know Monica because she did my make-up when I was in another wedding. Of course she was so excellent I hired her for mine. All of my bridesmaids loved her and I will continue to rave about her to anyone who inquires. You can't beat her prices!! Her work speaks for itself. We all looked so GLAM!
I also did a "bedroom boudoir" photshoot with her at her studio. It was my wedding gift to my hubby. I can't post those obviously, but they were very tasteful. She does excellent work. My hubby wanted to send her a thank you card himself. LOL
Highly recommend her wedding make-up. Hey, call her just to do your prom make-up. She uses MAC products but she puts some of those MAC counters to shame!! She made me feel so beautiful!
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