My advice:
Ooo boy, there’s a lot that happened that day. Most of it was just as I envisioned, while others, not so much. However, remain calm and remember the main thing is you’re marrying the love of your life! That’s all that matters! The love you share will be the core that will carry you through the day! The wedding is somewhat like a big performance in front of your family and friends, showcasing the love you have for each other. So just smile, look beautiful and enjoy the moment! The day does go by really fast! My husband and I planned for an unplugged ceremony and had the announcement on our website and on the programs, but we had some people go FB Live! Omg! While others did take some great shots. So it’s a toss up with unplugged ceremonies! Nothing we could’ve done about it at that point.
Most of our vendors did awesome! We had a couple hiccups (cake and DJ) that I was kinda disappointed in, but I had to look on the bright side and smile since of course the photographer and videographer were in front of us 😅 capturing moments lol. The cake: We had a 3 tiered cake where the bottom tier was pineapple, middle tier was a lemon cake with blueberry-lemon filling and our top tier was red velvet. The issue was with the bottom tier. As soon as my husband and I cut into it during the cake cutting, I was slightly disappointed to see a dark brown cake. Usually, pineapple is a yellow cake, but we had a cake that looked like carrot cake on our wedding day lol. During the cake tasting, the pineapple cake was the best pineapple cake I ever had, so you see to my surprise, we didn’t really get to enjoy it on our wedding day. The other hiccup was the DJ. We signed a contract with a guy, and had been in communication with him since March of last year, and again to our surprise, a random guy shows up to provide the DJ service! Yes, you read that correctly! And again, I had to smile through it because the photographer and videographer were capturing our moments. This DJ didn’t play the song we wanted during the cake cutting, he abruptly started our first dance by playing the first word instead of starting with the intro to the song, and my brother and I had a surprise performance for our sibling dance, but he didn’t played the song at the mark we requested and instead, played the entire song lol (awkward). We know it’s not his fault since we actually communicated with the DJ we hired, not him. He was doing his best! Guests still had a blast!!! We later found out our hired DJ was in Mexico DJing another wedding!!! So we’re currently trying to reach a resolution over his breach of contract. Ugh!
The food and service was excellent! We had open bar with 3 kinds of beers and 6 wines that we purchased. Guests loved their food and the service the caterers and bartenders had provided. A lot of them said they felt special and accommodated. We had 96 people rsvp, but 83 people showed up! Bummer, however we still had a blast!
Vendors:
Bride’s Dress: Gavin Christianson Bridal (formerly known as Dashing Dames Bridal)
Designer: Casablanca
Groom’s Tux: Stacey’s
Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Azazie
Groomsmen’s Tux: Black Tie Formal
Bridal alterations: Sew-U-Nique
Bridal Hair: Loc Nation
Makeup: Breanna Bennett (SpicedFacesbyBre)
Venue: Villa de l’Amour
Planner: Brittany Vaughn (BVaughn Events)
Officiant: Rev. Joe A. Jackson (my childhood pastor)
Photographer & Videographer : Ed Jones & Najee Johnson
Musicians: Wasi Akinkuowo (sax), El Lambert (keyboard & vocals), Jalen Robinson (guitar)
Flowers: Sam’s Club, Wholesale Flowers and Supplies, and Petal Delivery
Catering: Visions Catering
Bartending Service: William’s Bartending
Event Design: These guys are retired and are friends of the family! They did great!
**Message me if you have any questions! We had many elements that were incorporated into our big day! I didn’t want to bore everyone with all of the details 😅
