Group Wedding Outfit

I just wanted to share with you guys pics of my sisters and friends uniform that they wore the day of our traditional wedding.

In Congo and in Ivory Coast and in many other African cultures, when there is an event/celebration, people usually wear a commonly agreed fabric that is sewn either into an already picked style or a design of the "wearer's" choice.
In Congo and Ivory Coast (I'm only specifically talking about both countries because I personally know the culture but I'm sure it's the same for other cultures -- I believe my Nigerian people call it "aso-ebi", right? Please correct me If I'm wrong), the groups that wear the uniform are as often large groups of friends and family (mostly at weddings, baptisms, graduation parties, funerals) or even political parties, cultural associations, church groups etc etc.

In my case I was reminded how important it was to have it and originally the uniform was supposed to be worn by a very large group, but I hate being disorganized when it comes to things like that.
The fabric was going to come from home (sent by my mom) and we needed to have a final count plus, erm... I am on a budget, so yes, you pay for your own ooo.
Not only that, but to have it sewn would mean more money as it is not as cheap as back home to have it made here.

Now, I know my people okay? Always late, disorganized, always finding excuses and stuff. People would be coming from different states, it was summer which let me remind you is "wedding season", tailors are busy and often booked for weeks and months in advance. I just thought, let me make it easy on myself.

I only asked that everybody, please everybody be dressed in native/traditional attire, or anything African.
A few people wanted to show up in evening gowns, can you imagine? like seriously? (Told them they can't come if so... I know, but you gotta be firm sometimes to get what you want).

So I kept the fabric for close friends and my sisters only so that other people do not feel discriminated against (some aunties versus other aunties, some cousins, versus other, mom vs pop's families etc.)You guys know how frustrated people can get over these kinds of things.
My other concern was to remain zen at all times. If something got overly stressful, it got x'ed from the list of things. Not about to argue or have migraines over a day that is supposed to be joyful!

Anyhow, it made my sisters and friends (as well as my aunt representing my mom) feel special since they were the only ones wearing it and I was able to just give them the fabric and pay some of the cost of having it sewn for them. I was def a win win, plus it was fun looking for styles and all that.

I originally did not like the fabric. I trusted my mom to pick something a little trendy like this newer woodin type of fabrics with goldish and silverish accents or even little glitters. One thing I did NOT want was lace, too much lace everywhere around worn by everybody lol.

The fabric she picked is an old design, I'm sure one of your aunties or gdmas might have a different color or version in their closet somewhere. So I was really kind of disappointed as I envisioned something a little "fresher". But hey... it is what it is, my mom picked and bought it with love so that is all that matters at the end of the day.

As for the outfits, everybody kind of picked what they wanted, I did not care as long you are not looking like you "tried too much" lol. I'm not an extravagant person, and not trying to be "faboulos" (I hate the way girls throw this word around anyhow) so I didn't want anybody looking like they've watched too much of Project Runway or something.

 

My Bridal Makeup

Okay so I had nothing to do with the makeup at all at all at all, lol. Denike did an extraordinary job, and I just told her I wanted some pink on my lips and some of my theme colors on my eyes but she was pretty much free to do whatever she wanted. I trusted her entirely because she a very talented professional makeup artist. She is the one who also tied my headtie.

Denike is also a wedding planner, her company Glow Event Managements does excellent work. She is based in Bowie, Maryland but traveled almost an hour to come do my makeup.
Visit her website here and her company's facebook page, search "iloveyourglow".

It was really comforting to know I could trust her entirely because I had been in contact with her over the telephone  a few times and she was never rushed to hang up (like a few I had called), she listened to me blabbing and we talked about things other than business. She is beautiful inside and let me tell you she is a hottie too, I discovered she had competed  and won a beauty pageant in Nigeria. Anyhow here are the pics (which she took) after she was done dolling me up!

Makeup by and copyright to Glow Event Managements. 

Makeup by and copyright to Glow Event Managements.

My Bridal Outfit

 Hello guys!!!

 Here is the post I promised on my wedding outfits. But before I get started with that, I thought I would share with you guys that I decided to blog on more than just wedding planning.

Initially when I started this blog, it was mainly for me to be able to document my progress and share tips and money saving tricks on planning a simple African wedding on a budget. I thought it could be useful for somebody out there and that maybe it could serve as a platform to communicate with other women who have been through or are preparing to go through that.

With time I'm realizing that I would not know what other purpose my blog would serve once I'm done covering the wedding planning. The other thing is that I loooove writing, and although my husband had been suggesting for quite a while that I start blogging, I just did not know how to start writing to an unsoliciting and invisible audience.
Having spent a couple months on Blogsville and following many blogs has allowed me to enter a world where people are sooo the image of one another, funny, caring, passionate, generous, talented, and soooo different yet very similar to me They sound sooo much like people around me in real life!! They follow each other, encourage one another, visit each other's blogs and comment on them, they suggest, they cheer up; Blogsville seems like an interesting place to be especially when like me, you like to keep to yourself, and you don't have a long list of close friends.

Anyways, I'm quite happy to be making this little change. I feel like I will have tons of things to say about any and everything and that might make me come back and post more often.

Alright so now back to my wedding outfits. As you may know from my wedding inspiration post, my main outfit was going to be royal blue and gold.
Here is a better picture of the fabric.

I ended up opting for a long mermaid style skirt that was designed and sewn by my amazing tailor. She's a very nice and caring lady from Ivory Coast (where I grew up). Her rates are very very affordable, and if you live in the Washington DC area and would like to have her info, I'll be more than happy to share it with you. She made all of our outfits, my husband's and mine, as well as some of my in-law's and the uniformed outfits for the women of my family.

Here is the skirt.

This is the fabric that I found for what would the top. It's light goldish with some shade of silver. I love that it is not too "bling bling" yet it's very "royal". Because of the shiny and glittery texture of my materials I opted for a very simple design for the top.

Here is the top.

And this is what it looks altogether!

I received a lot of compliments, and I still do up until now. I love the fact that nobody has the same outfit as me. It's original yet very traditional.
And I managed to keep it top secret!!
Friends and acquaintances kept asking me what I would wear and I kept responding very vaguely  "Something simple oo, you know me nah, I'm not complicated. My aunt is taking care of it" giving them a feeling that I did not really care to look good. So I know for sure that most people (except my sisters) who had spoken to me thought my look would be a disaster, especially with the fact that I made a point to neglect my appearance a little bit the last couple of months before the wedding. And to be honest, this blog was the only place I could let me excitement show.

Upcoming, I'll post about the accessories that helped to complete my look with that outfit, as well as a close up of my makeup.

The venue on the "D" day!

Hey all!!!

So this is when everything comes together and either it works or it doesn't! For some reason I was quiet and confident, silently praying that everything goes well. For one I was still busy cooking (I cooked for 2 days straight with 1h30 sleep), and people have commented that it's rather sad that a bride has to cook on her day. For me it was a joy and a pleasure to make sure that everything would exactly like I wanted tastewise.
Anyways, my sisters, cousins, big sisters and aunties went to the venue early in the morning with pictures of what the decoration was supposed to look like - our home decoration trial - (the pictures in the previous post), and armed with the decoration materials all boxed and organized and... they did a fabulous job!!!

See my ideas coming together through the hands of the people I love the most!!!

PS: Upcoming next is an update on my wedding outfits. Stay tuned!!!

Decorated table (Pics) - Glasses, Napkins and Final Look

Hey all!!!

I have not posted in nearly 3 months despite the fact that this blog is really my baby lol. There are a few reasons for that.

For one, I am a little superstitious and although I love sharing gists and knowledge, for some reason, in this case, I felt like sharing too much might affect the outcome of it all.
You might think it's silly and thinking about it, it is lol. But I felt the need to conceal a little bit of the preparations until a little while after the wedding.
The superstitious side of me was running paranoiac and was whispering with a naughty voice and a little sarcastic grin that someone out there with bad intentions might see all that's getting planned and turn it into a disaster... Any of you brides (past or soon-to-be) feel/felt like that with all or part of the wedding planning?

Anyhow, today let me share with you my vision of the way I wanted the setting at each table to be:

• Silverware: You already know how the royal blue and gold wrapped silverware would presented. (See the silverware post)

• I purchased royal blue and gold napkins that I wanted to used for serving food and beverages but it turned out that although they were relatively cheap (50 for about a couple dollars, 3 dollar something), going to Costco (or any wholesale member club grocery store) I realized that was NOT a bargain when you find 2000 napkins for under $6. Plus I thought people won't care that I am on budget, they will use the napkins anyhow they will, wiping their nose, their makeup, spitting bones in it etc. lol. So I decided to buy just enough blue and gold napkins for the glasses.

• The glasses: I believe I mentioned that I was going single use all the way??? I'm not here to wow anybody ooo. People would only be wowed by how happy I, my husband and our family will be, the warmth, the joy and the atmosphere, not the expensive fancy glasses ooo. Economic recession LOL. Anyways, the glasses are single use 6oz plastic wine glasses in which I folded 1 blue and 1 gold napkins. Correction: I didn't fold the napkins lol. I watched videos of different folding styles and I just couldn't get the hang of it, plus it just was not cutting it with paper napkins. So I just decided to try something. I layered a blue napkin on top of a gold napkin with alternating angles and stuffed them in a glass by the center and I loooooved it!!! It took 30 seconds per glass!!! My sisters, let me tell you something: less is often more!

• Finally, I ordered royal blue napkins with our names and wedding date engraved in gold. It sounds a lot fancier than it actually looks lol!

Here is the final result!! I loved it. Simple, easy to do, cheap and still classy, me thinks? Do you agree?

What I did is that I set it up on the dining room table just the way I wanted it to be and I took pictures for my sisters and friends to replicate exactly the day of the wedding.

Do-It-Yourself rocks, girls!!! I cannot tell you how it feels when you enter that venue and everything looks exactly like you wanted, and knowing that you did almost all the work yourself!!!

Civil Wedding Ceremony Attire (pics)

We opted for a very simple and intimate civil wedding... I did not have to go shopping for too long to find a dress that would be acceptable. The dress is a white greek style single arm knee-long dress. It also cost me a whoooooping...$19.99!!!!

My shoes were from a local store; got them for less than $35... I love the gold and the little diamonds, and I also really like the little glittery stuff under the shoe.

And finally my little creamy gold purse that I stole from my auntie's closet...

And here is the final result... (I had to do my hair myself since I only had about 45 minutes to get ready after coming back from work. I ended up doing my hair the evening before and just added the hairpiece when I was getting ready).

Traditional Wedding Attire - Inspiration (pics)

So before I chose the gold and blue as my theme colors, I was pretty much set on green and brown (green is my favorite color). But as I was constantly searching and browsing for some inspiration, I came across some pictures from a traditional wedding outfits on www.bellanaija.com.
Here they are...

Third and Last outfit (Light Gold top and blue lace)
I just thought the combination of colors was so beautiful and elegant that I decided to do something similar for my last outfit. So here is the fabric that I bought from a store owned by a nigerian lady about half an hour from where I live. It was relatively cheap compare to how pretty the lace is (or at least so I thought).

And I purchased a light gold/silver fabric for the top. And would like it to look it something like this (the woman's top of course).

Second outfit: Purple and silver dress
My second outfit inspiration came from browsing the internet and facebook. The fabric I purchased is a purple and silver ankara. I stumbled upon this and I am doing the exact replica. (The lady who is posing is also the designer, she does excellent work, and sells fabrics too. Her website is on the picture and you can also find her on facebook under the same name "T n T Fashions).

Except that the black belt will be silver in my case and I am thinking of not wearing a headtie with this (only with my last oufit), other wise what is the point and paying somebody to do my hair if it's going to be all hidden huh?!)



First Outfit: Green outfit
I purchased a green ankara for my first outfit and I saw the style in which it will be sewn at the tailor's. Not sure if I can find something similar online, but when I go for my trial I'll make sure I take a picture and post it on here. It is a fitting top and a long mermaid style skirt... and I am kinda short of words to correctly describe it. Sorry lol....

Decorated Table: the silverware (pics)

So like I had mentioned, I had bought silverware from an online store. They are the plastic silver-looking type. I got them because for 1, they are cheap, 2 they look like real silverware and that look I thought was important for an overall feel of elegance, 3 they are convenient, when we are done, all goes to the trash, not cleaning involved, and no complications with the rental company (deposit, counting etc. etc.). I realize I wouldn't have enough of them when the store rep called and told me that they had some of what I wanted on back order. I just drove to Costco and added what I needed.

So following the same Gold and Blue theme, I got some blue and gold sating lined organza ribbon. Not sure how exactly it was going to work I just kept browsing the internet for ideas until I found this

and this

So I thought I would reproduce a hybrid of both ideas. Since my tablecloths would be white, blue and gold ribbon-wrapped silverware would definitely be an added plus in terms of color on the table and the overall look.

So here is my version.

and Voila!!
There will be more blue than gold because I have more gold decoration than blue so I would like the colors to even out (even though royal blue is a little "louder" than gold especially on white).

Don't you think it's pretty and elegant and definitely less boring than lonely silverware?

The Invitations -- Did it myself! (pics)

Just like everything else I tried to stick to the royal blue and gold theme and after browsing countless templates and samples invitations, I decided that I could do my own. You probably read somewhere that it is mostly friends and families so I am not trying to have my invites look like you are going to a royalty event since that is not the case lol. I'm on a tight budget...
Anyhow, here is the process and the final results at the end of the post. Enjoy!

So I got gold cardstock from Staples. There was 8 sheet per pack and I got 3 packs. They were regular A4 paper size and I wanted my invitations about 8 per 6. So I cut 3 cards out of each sheet of gold cardstock.

I also bought some ivory linen paper from Staples and typed out what I wanted the invites to say. I typed it into 2 columns, then printed, and cut it to be smaller that the gold card.

Finally I used royal blue satin ribbon to line the invitation wording and slightly larger gold organza ribbon to make a bow at the top of the invitation.

Final result !

My sis and I doing the invitations

I also purchased ivory envelopes from Michaels (the craft store) and I got some gold spray. I sprayed the envelopes with the spray, let it dry for a few seconds, then put the invitations in there with a little RSVP card that directs the guests to our wedding website for RSVP. I close the envelope with a little gold flower with I found where I was not looking for anything like that at Staples. I thought it could be of some use. I will have to add a picture of the final envelope front and back.

 The invitations project took us (my 2 lil sis and I) about 3 evenings (I usually get home from work around 6pm). It was a fun project and I did not feel rushed at all. We came up with about 80 invitations, but we only need to send/give about 50, which are all ready.
I hope this can serve as an inspiration; it does not have to be annoying or time consuming if you planned ahead. I hate to feel stressed out especially knowing that I am doing 90% of the things on my own. So I tried to do most things way ahead of time so I know it's out of the way!