Post # 1
Member
45 posts
Newbee
I’ll start! I am 34(will be 35 when I get married), I am from SW PA born & raised in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. I am getting married in Oct of this year, and I am soooo excited! I’m just in the beginning stages of planning my wedding but have already made some decisions…for starters, Our budget is $7500(including honeymoon & his ring)I am prepared to push it up another $2500, but after that, we’re done! Period. I will be using a classic-romance theme. My color palette is red, ivory, & gold. My flowers will be red roses(a given) & ivory callas Since we are getting married on a fri night, our wedding will be semi-formal. I haven’t decided what kind of dress I want…I know this is going to sound crarzy, but the dress is probably the least important detail to me in this whole wedding planning she-bang…lol Don’t get me wrong, I love to look at all the beautiful dresses out there, but when it comes to the other details such as flowers, favors, decor, etc…that’s where my heart is. We are also planning to host a post wedding brunch on sat. It won’t be anything fancy, being as it will be held in my church fellowship hall. Lol (it’s free to use, so we’re going for it!) we already have the menus planned for the wedding, brunch & rehearsal dinner(also being held in the fellowship hall) we are having a smallish wedding w/100-150 invited guests (We’re trying to keep it at 150 max) Our reception will be held at an old railroad station that’s absolutely Beautiful! I really don’t plan on doing a lot of diy because I am not a crafty person at all…lol So AA Bees what are your plans? Are you having a themed wedding? Are you going w/ the current wedding trends out there? Are you planning to do any african traditions such as “jumping the broom”? Share your inspiratons, ideas, tips….ANYTHING! I’d like to know what other AA brides are doing….. I know that I posted this thread in the AA boards, but ANY Bee who would like to share, comment, etc is more than welcome. Looking forward to hearing from you all.
Post # 3
Member
678 posts
Busy bee
- Wedding: September 2014 - SPRING VALLEY COUNTRY CLUB
Hey there!!! I am getting married 09/28/2014 in Boston. I am 30, and i have been with my fiance for 6 years.
My whole wedding is a lot of DIY. I have designed my STD, Inviations, Menu’s. Isle runner, table numbers. I got mostly got all that stuff off wedding paper divas. Very easy and affordable.
My wedding theme is Cinderella. I am having pumpkin center pieces(with fall themed flowers inside them) Cinderella’s carraige as wedding favor boxes. Lots of fall colors. I have most of my wedding put together because it’s at a country club. They do all the food and drinks and the wedding ceremony will be held there as well.
I have 8 bridemaids, and i have chosen their dresses already and i will be ordering them April first.
I am not having rehersal dinner because of the cost, i am trying to keep everything under 30,000. But it’s really hard.
It’s going ok. My biggest issue is the fighting with my fiance, i am doing everything alone. And he’s not really all that helpful
Post # 4
Member
224 posts
Helper bee
@Soon2BeeFirstLadyJee: Hi, and congratulations on your engagement! My wedding date is roughly a week before yours, yay for being month twins. I am 29, currently live in Southern California, but was born (and largely raised) in the south. We are fairly well into the planning stages of our destination wedding– we are getting married in San Jose del Cabo. It is a little different from a “destination, beach, resort…” type of wedding though.
We found a small boutique hotel with a chapel that will serve as our venue. We bought out the rooms between friends, family, and the bridal party. It is a very charming, whimsical place and area; the town has a very lively historical art district that we are hoping our guests enjoy. Our budget is about $38K excluding honeymoon, but when I first started planning, my budget was around $22K… I am great at planning and budgeting, but really didn’t know how much things cost in the wedding industry until I started planning for our wedding. Also, our budget is the way it is such that we can pay for our family and other VIPs lodging costs and offset some travel costs, which we are happy to be able to do.We are inviting about 90 people, but budgeting for about 60 people, and likely 40-50 will ultimately show up.
We plan to have a welcome dinner the day before the wedding, and a farewell brunch the day after the wedding. So far we have not figured out specific things that we are doing around the ceremony, but we do have a priest. In fact, I think we have the basics ( officiant, photographer, venue, guitarist, DJ), but now need to fill in all the little details. The main color will be plum; which complement the flowers in the garden like setting of our venue. I think it’s appropriate for a fall wedding as well. I ordered my dress and it should arrive by June… really excited about that one.
The idea of a hosting the reception at a railroad station sounds so cool. I love it.
Good Luck on planning and once again, congratulations!
Post # 5
Member
866 posts
Busy bee
Hello everyone! We haven’t finalized our date yet, but its looking like September or October, depending on what is available and his graduate school schedule. I’m in the very early stages of planning, but I’ve done a lot of research. We are not officially engaged, says my boyfriend, until he gives me my ring. It has taken him a while to source my stone as I wanted something a bit different. I asked for a padparadscha sapphire in a Tacori setting we picked out together. I think he has it because he told me I would have it “soon”, and I’ve been putting off losing weight and he told me I should start my diet. (Started it a few days ago). He already purchased my dress late summer last year. It’s from David’s Bridal and is from Vera Wang’s White collection, it’s blush pink! I’m in the process of making a brooch bouquet, as well.
I’m thinking the budget will fall around 30k- nit including honeymoon and beauty, but he’d like less. It will be a big wedding as I have a huge family on my mother and father’s side. I’m thinking 300…. I’ll be hunting for bargains to pull off the budget I have in mind.
Here is my dress….this is not me in it! Lol
Post # 6
Member
45 posts
Newbee
@absolutely_tati:
Hi! Wow, your plans sound AMAZING!,I loooooovee Cinderella! can’t wait to see your pics(providing that you post some) 😉 I haven’t decided on bridesmaids yet….still debating on whether I even want a wedding party, but we’ll see what my Honey says & go from there…I plan on using pomanders for most of my decor. A Bee was nice enough to post a tutorial on how to do them, so, I may try my hand at that….I have been researching prices for them & found that they are sold for a reasonable amt on efavormart.com. I may try to do one & see how it turns out before trying to make more. As I said, I am really not crafty…lol. I have been OBSESSED w/ them ever since I first saw them…lol Because our budget is small, I may have to try & get creative…real fast! 😉 happy planning! & thanks for posting!
Post # 7
Member
45 posts
Newbee
@Paguilar84:
Hi there! I played around w/ the idea of doing a Destination Wedding, but if we did, it would only be the 2 of us since we can’t afford to pay for anyone’s accommodations. But since we are getting married in my hometown, we’ll be able to have a great wedding & show our guests a good time…oh if only money would grow in my yard…lol i’m just excited to be marrying my guy! It sounds like you, your husband to be & all of your guests are going to have an awesome time! Thanks for posting & happy planning! 😀
Post # 8
Member
45 posts
Newbee
@SherryBlossom78:
Hello! You must post pics of your ring! It sounds awesome! That dress is dreamy!!! I love to see brides wearing blush colored gowns! It just looks so elegant & regal to me. I’ve been trying to lose weight before going dress shopping…which I am not looking forward to btw…lol I told my Mom I was going to let her choose my dress…I figure since she has “dressed” me for big events(prom, homecoming…etc) she might as well “dress” me for my wedding….I really don’t know why that’s the least thing that I’m excited about, but I guess it is what it is…lol i’m not worried about it because,my Mom has great taste & probably knows what will/will not work for me better than myself…lol I’m going to be a plus sized bride, so shopping should be interesting…lol…thanks for posting & happy planning! 🙂
Post # 9
Member
61 posts
Worker bee
@Soon2BeeFirstLadyJee:
Hi! Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I’ll be an October bride as well. I’m 24 and living in Virginia with my Fiance. We officially got engaged in July of 2013 but I was ‘planning’ long before the ring came lol. The budget is $10,000 and I’m crossing my fingers that if we go over its no more than $2,000. Our colors are Brown, Champagne, Yellow, and Ivory. I’m a mostly DIY bride and i’ll be taking on the flowers (SAMs club), centerpieces (birdcages and wine bottles) and all decorations, cake stand, the booze, and some of the food. Ive already bought our table cloths, candles and holders, and my shoes during various black friday sales. I’m ordering hydrangeas (white and yellow), roses (ivory and yellow), and babys breath and plan to arrange them with my ladies. We currently have a guestlist of like 175 people which is way bigger than my orginial 100 person max idea but I’m hoping to end up at like 130. My hunny has a huge family. For food we’ll be having three separate stations: asian, italian, and southern comfort. I love variety so I knew buffet style was the way to go for me. I have 5 bridesmaids and I’m searching for the perfet dress for them cause I want them to look like gorgeous grecian goddesses. I bought my maggie sottero dress in September for 75% off! I ultimately want the ceremony to be quick, 20 minutes tops. I’ve had the processional song picked out for about 2 years and I listen to it while I walk on the tredmill and pretend im walking down the aisle lol. I want our day to be all about just stuffing our faces, drinking, and dancing with our guests.
I’m glad i found this! I love being able to see how many other african american guys/gals are here to get inspiration from.
Post # 10
Member
23 posts
Newbee
Hello ladies I am 24 and my fiance and I are getting married June 28 on the 6th anniversary of when we first started dating. My budget is around 5k basically we are paying for things as we go and not going into debt. We are really non traditional so our wedding reflects that. We are not doing many traditions like the boquet toss/garter business, we will probably stay together the night before (and hopefully wake up and have a nice private bfast) basically anything that we didn’t like or felt didn’t fit us we did away with. I think we will have 50-75 guests and I have 3 bridesmaids.
Post # 11
Member
2408 posts
Buzzing bee
Hi ladies! I’m getting married in May (eek! It’s almost here!) and have been with my lovely fiance for 8 years (9 in March!). We’re getting married here in the Bay Area, not too far from my grad school. Our wedding’s turning out to be a vintage glam inspired wedding (props to my DOC for being able to figure out a common link between all the random pins I had on my Pinterest board) with tons of DIY elements. We’re hoping for no more than 100 people attending (though at this point, our wallents wouldn’t mind there being less!). I’m Korean and Black but we won’t be incorporating any cultural traditions. I had my heart set on doing a Korean tea ceremony but we couldn’t fit in our timeline or budget, unfortunately. We are doing cupcakes because I love cupcakes and a photobooth. We’re also doing a modified “first look” since Fiance doesn’t want to see me before the wedding even though I want to. Here’s what we’re going for:
This wedding has been a long time in the making and while I loosely planned a good chunk of it before we became engaged, I’m still kind of shell-shocked at the amount of stuff that has to be done!
Post # 12
Member
45 posts
Newbee
@CherrytoBee:
Hi! Believe it it not, i’ve had my processional song picked out since 2005!!! Lol! I love it & it’s perfect for us! My Honey doesn’t know it, but I’ve been pre planning our wedding for some time now…lol Food stations are soooo cool! You get a great variety of food that you & your guests enjoy! If we do decide to have a bp, I’ll probably have 3 ladies and 3 gm’s for Fiance…that’s enough for me. I don’t think we’re having a fg or rb, but we’ll see when we cross that bridge. I love the grecian goddess look for bm’s. Those kind of dresses are really forgiving & cover a lot of “sins” especially for those of us who have a lot of “friends & family” in the stomach, thigh, hip & booty area lol! I’m using silk & real touch flowers for my bouquet & decor….using real flowers would’ve cost over $5000 for what I want & that isn’t happening!! Good for you being able to diy so many things! I sure wish I could. Big score on getting your dress for 75% off!! I’ve budgeted $1000 for my dress & any alterations…that may be a pipe dream, but we’ll see…lol as far as the ceremony goes, we are going to have someone sing the Lord’s Prayer while we take Holy Communion. My cousin is going to do a reading & we are going to present my mom & his parents w/ roses…I would say the ceremony should be about 30-40 mins long. That’s just because I HAVE to have this woman that I know who has an awesome voice sing…it’s a must for me…lol..happy planning & thanks for posting!
Post # 13
Member
45 posts
Newbee
@tea:
Hi! I love that modified first look!! What a great idea! My Honey & I may do a first look simply because of the time constraints with our ceremony time. I wants lots & lots of pictures, so a first look will work well in our situation. Now trying to convince my Honey to do it, is a totally different story…lol I’m really hoping we get around a 100 guests or so…I have a big family & I am inviting my church family as well so it will be interesting to see how many people show up…I do know that our guest limit absolutely cannot exceed 150. Our reception is only going to be 3.5 hours(no alcohol or dancing) as we are born again Christians…but we are going to do our first dance together, & he’ll dance w/ his mother…i’m planning to have the young ladies from my church do a praise dance & we’re going to have a video montage of our lives leading up to the wedding. I’m not going to do a garter toss, but I will toss my bouquet. I’m going to have a “legacy” table at the reception & I am really excited about that. I found the idea for it while researching ideas for honoring loves ones who have passes away. My Dad is deceased and I really want to honor him on our wedding day. I will have various framed pics of him with stories about his life & accomplishments. So far, we’ll have my dad, grandparents(both sets) &FI’s grandparents….I can’t wait to see it all come together! Other than those things, we’re not doing any other traditional things except for jumping the broom…another MUST for me. Lol. Happy planning & thanks for posting!
Post # 14
Member
224 posts
Helper bee
@SherryBlossom78: That dress is beautiful.. please post a recap after your wedding!
Post # 15
Member
678 posts
Busy bee
- Wedding: September 2014 - SPRING VALLEY COUNTRY CLUB
@SherryBlossms78 THIS IS THE EXACT DRESS I HAVE BEEN STALKING ON LINE. I even went to DB to try it, and they didn’t have it availbale. I about cried.
Have you tried it on yet? How does it feel? Is it awesome.
Post # 16
Member
866 posts
Busy bee
@absolutely_tati: Awwwwwwwww I’m sorry you couldn’t find it. :(. I had them search their system for all sizes in Illinois. Turns out the one I tried on (larger size) was literally 5 mins from my job, and the smaller one he actually purchased was 30 mins away. I was in love with it from other peoples pics, and I liked it in the store too. I purchased it 2 sizes too small though, lol, in the size I was 3 years ago. I need to drop some weight to try on the one he actually purchased.
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