The Surprise Wedding: Engagement and Wedding on the SAME DAY

This story has been circulating the internet for a little while now, and we thought to share it, as we love ROMANCE.

*story and video from Brides.com*

What would you do if you didn't get to plan your wedding? New bride Amanda Roman found out when her boyfriend of five years, Ryan Leak, proposed and surprised her with her dream wedding—which she had outlined on Pinterest—all in the same day!

Leak got the idea after overhearing Roman tell her friend that she dreamed of getting engaged and married on the same day. After some sleuthing, he found the jackpot—Roman had a "My Dream Wedding" Pinterest board with over 220 pins, a virtual snapshot of the exact wedding she eventually had.

"Amanda basically planned her dream wedding without even knowing it," Leak said in their wedding video. Those plans included captioned pictures of a wedding dress, wedding party outfits ("could this please be my mother of the bride or groom dress?!" Roman captioned on her pin), table centerpieces ("you can get the vases at Dollar Tree for $1 each"), wedding scrapbooks ("the maid of honor could put this together"), and escort cards("great arrangement so everyone can see").

"After extensive (albeit guided) planning and coordinating of all of those moving parts, Leak whisked Roman away to Miami under the guise of helping friends move. He proposed at the site of the ceremony right before it took place and even managed to give his love everything she wanted, including her favorite hair stylist and makeup artist."

A video team shot a half-hour personal documentary of the event, calledThe Surprise Wedding. It features their tale of love at first sight and Leak's "recon work" on Pinterest. Some brides may shudder at the idea of not having a physical hand in wedding planning, but Roman's happy tears and palpable joy show that Leak's actions did speak louder than his words.

Berry and Cakes: The Proposal

In our last post we talked about Proposals and showed some videos. We thought it only fair to post our proposal video and share some pictures too.

PROPOSAL STORY
My birthday was coming up at the end of May. Cakes and I already knew we wanted to get married, so I knew a proposal was imminent. I told him not to propose on my birthday (because I wanted a separate birthday present!) My friend and I share the same birthday, so we’d planned to have a ‘Glitz and Glam’ Birthday dinner at her house, with a few friends and Chef Fregz catering. Dinner was FABULOUS! It was a 5-course meal, and we had a photographer to capture the evening, along with musicians. After dinner, we planned to go out for drinks, but the other girls were lazing about in the living room and I noticed they were acting funny. They were whispering to each other, and would clam up or change topic when I got close. Eventually, I sat at the dining table to talk to my cousin, and a minute later, Cakes walks in, all dressed up! He got down on one knee and said my full name (all 5 of them), while I hid my face in the table (I was crying). It took me a while to compose myself, but I finally lifted my head up and hugged him with a kiss! He’d also come with a cake that read “SHE SAID YES.”

PROPOSAL VIDEO


PROPOSAL PHOTOS

I LOVE my ring! I've always known I didn't want a traditional diamond ring. Mine's a Blue Topaz! Cakes did a GREAT job, thanks to my mum and sister who helped him. 

Proposals

Weddings wouldn't normally happen without proposals, right?

Proposals have taken all sorts of forms throughout time.

Some proposals begin with the man asking his lady love's father for her hand in marriage.

Other proposals involve just the gentleman and his lady in private.

Some proposals are SURPRISES.

Others are formalities because the couple has discussed getting married beforehand.

These days though, proposals are becoming grander and grander! Just visit Youtube and search for Proposals to see a slew of videos. Our proposal is hiding somewhere there too :p

We want to share some of our favorite proposal videos with you... make sure you have tissues handy












Personally, I (Berry) love public proposals. They're fun to watch and share :)

What kind of proposals do you prefer? Public or private?

Apologies

We've neglected this blog because LIFE happened. We've gotten carried away with work, each other, wedding plans, marriage plans, apartment hunting, family and more. And we had so much we wanted to share. So we'll just say, in the words of Timbaland... "It's been a long time, shouldn't have left you, without a blog post to read up." LOL!

We promise we have much to share in the way of wedding plans, romance, life and more.

Stay tuned.

Berry and Cakes.

Couple Inspiration

We saw this story on Yahoo Shine and thought it was the cutest story.

Source: Yahoo Shine

This couple's parents were friends, and when they were 4 years old (in 1926), got dressed up as a bride and groom for a carnival. Turns out that they did eventually get married, when they were 21, and are still together in their 90's! They just celebrated their 70th anniversary.

An excerpt from the article:

"I do not think young couples nowadays try enough," she added. "After one argument they give up."

It's been 70 years, and the Everests are still happily married. Their secret?

"We promised to love, honour, and obey," Mr. Everest told the Dereham Times. "And I did all the obeying."

 Haha! Congratulations to the happy couple - they are truly inspirational :)

Wedding Organizer

A wedding organizer is a vital tool when planning your wedding. It can be a binder/folder chock full of ideas, notes, pictures of dresses or wedding decor, budgets, checklists, and more. Or, if creating one seems overwhelming to you, you can always go out to and buy a Wedding Planning book to help and guide you.

You can use a wedding organizer, even if you have a Wedding Coordinator/Planner handling your event. You also need to have information at your fingertips, and a place to jot down thoughts, ideas, phone numbers or websites, etc.

For the Nigerian bride, getting a book or organizer is especially essential, as our events tend to be grand. However, a lot of the planners out there, cater to western brides in the United States or Europe. Cakes and I were looking for something that could capture what we wanted. Our account on TheKnot.com, while helpful, can't quite grasp the tiny details that are specific to Nigerian culture/traditions. We'd also signed up on NaMyWedding.com, but their website lacks a proper budget, timeline and checklist.

Last weekend, during our Pre-Marital Counseling class at church, we noticed another couple holding a wedding organizer. Imagine our surprise and delight, when we saw that it was written/put together by a Nigerian and was full of contact details for vendors in Nigeria! In addition, it also passed our secret test - the budget chapter included a line item for SMALL CHOPS!!! (This is Berry's absolute favorite thing to eat at events.

Source - Bella Naija

We got The Essential Bridal Handbook by Funke Bucknor-Obruthe at The Hub at The Palms Mall in Lekki. Please note that it's quite pricey - N7500.00 (almost $50)! However, we believe that it IS valuable for what it offers - a Nigerian-centric organizer and directory.

LET THE PLANNING BEGIN!

Reblogged from Power of Prayer

The picture below has been making the rounds on Facebook, and we thought to share with you. It's pretty powerful and deep.

Source: Power of Prayer Tumblr

Excerpt of the post:

Moments before I was to walk down the aisle my soon to be mother in law came in the dressing room where my bridesmaids and I were all gushing with giggles and fluttering about finishing last minute details.

“Sweetheart, your groom has called for you!”.

In a nervous tizzy I said, “What?! I’m not ready! I have to get my shoes and…” She had already taken my hand and led me to a corner, where my groom was waiting. I barely sat down; I was filled with so much anticipation! So much excitement! So many nerves!

“Is he going to like my dress? Does my hair look pretty? Can he see me?!” 

Right around the corner sat my soon to be husband, I so was nervous he might see me yet secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In my excited state I was the first to speak,

“Hi sweetie! We’re getting married today!”

“I know baby and I want to pray with you before we do.” 

There we sat around the corner hand in hand, and together we bowed our heads. People were rushing about; the wedding coordinator directing people here and there, the photographers snapping photos and the bridal party enjoying each others company. Yet in that moment, in the quietness of our hearts and minds, my husband and I were alone in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

My husband prayed that God would bless our marriage, that through thick or thin together we would never lose hope in one another. That instead of focusing on each others imperfections we would always rely on Christ’s perfection. That we would wake up every day and chose to love one another not through our own strength but by the power of Christ’s perfect love.

With our hands clenched tightly to one another together we said “Amen”, both with shaky voice and just like that I was whisked away to blot the tears off my face and put on my veil.