This week's #WCW Wedding Crush Wednesday couple goes to my beautiful cousin, Niaren and her husband Lawrence, referred to as Nia and Larry in the interview. These two had a magical wedding just recently and I am so sorry that I missed it. They currently reside in New York and both live very busy lives, but were gracious enough to take the time to share their wedding experiences with me. Please read along to see how these too planned their wedding day around their love for each other and their passion for art.
How and where did you two meet?
"We met at one of my best friend's barbecues." answered Larry.
How long were you dating before you got engaged?
"We dated officially for two years" Larry answered
How did you know she was the one?
"Due time. It wasn't right away. I'm not a firm believer of love at first site, but when you realize you don't want to be with anybody else and can't see yourself with anybody else that's when you realize that's the person you want to be with. That's how I felt." replied Larry.
How long were you engaged?
"It was 2 years" answered Nia.
Wedding Date:
August 8, 2015
Why did you pick that date?
"We just sat down and talked about it and it seemed like a good idea to have it on 8-8 two thousand fifteen." replied Larry
Outside Ceremony & Indoor Reception (Chateau Briand)
Approximate expense: $40K
Color Scheme: Teal and Coral
Theme: 'The Arts'
"Since I'm an artist and he's a musician, we wanted to bring those two aspects into it. There was a lot of water color throughout the wedding and music notes." explained Nia
What caused the most stress while planning?
"Family!" Larry simply exclaimed and later elaborated saying, "Getting them together to do stuff without them asking us a million questions was stressful"
Nia added, "Yeah, it was hard with them being over-bearing and trying to micro-manage and critique. That was the hardest part, trying to get everyone to be organized because we both have a lot of brothers and sisters and come from large families, so that was the hard part, I think."
Larry additionally added, "We had a lot of people giving ideas, but not really giving us any help."
What did you find to be most helpful during your planning process?
"I think Pinterest helped a lot and also a lot of bridal blogs helped me get my ideas together. Watching different wedding shows like 'Say Yes to the Dress' was helpful as well. Those different things helped a lot and then I was able to take that inspiration and create a lot of the projects." answered Nia.
With the help of Larry, Nia also added "Getting advice from other married couples helped a lot. We had a 'Day of Coordinator', but we did pretty much everything else ourselves. We had a lot of DIY projects from the invitations to the centerpieces. Being an artist, I couldn't let anybody else do anything. I just wanted to take care of it all."
Did Larry help with the planning or did he just say 'you do it all and I'll just show up'?
"Larry was a 'Groomzilla'. I was the laid back one. He was the one more on top of things. He was on top of me. 'Did you call this person?' 'Did you do that?' so he definitely did a lot." replied Nia
Larry added, "My family is happy the wedding is over because of me. They were on time because I made sure they were on time. Let's put it like this, I'm a cop so we see how that goes when I'm trying to get people to do what I want them to do. I'm kind of forceful so my family is pretty happy that it's over, in a good way."
What was your best memory?
Larry responded, "The Ceremony. Watching her come down the aisle, reality kicked in."
Nia replied, "I think once I walked down the aisle and we did our whole ceremony, we did a unity painting and that was really special. Also turning and facing everyone and being announced as husband and wife was really special."
What was your worst memory?
"The only thing that I would say is that people kept stepping on my dress and ripping it. You couldn't really tell, but it was just me knowing it." answered Nia
Larry replied, "The only thing was that up until the day we had five people that told us they were coming and never showed. That was it and that was minor because that was 5 out of 220 people. It's not that bad, but I just don't like losing money."
Was your wedding day everything you expected?
"It was definitely magical, I would say. It was more than what I could have asked for. It was really amazing. It was smooth and no major problems the day of, so it was a great day." answered Nia.
"I feel the same way. I think it was more than what I expected, which was good, including the fact of all the work we put into it. You hear a lot of stories about how the grooms and brides don't eat, but we actually managed it really well. We came up with plan before the actual day. We decided to eat during cocktail hour and take pictures while everyone was eating and take some of the reception food home, for later. We still had time to talk to everybody at every table. I think the day went smooth." added Larry.
Are there any pictures that you wish your photographer would have captured, but did not?
"I think when it was me getting dressed and things like that, some of the shots were not as flattering as I wanted them to be or as I thought they were going to be. It's not really that he didn't capture it, but more that I wasn't really happy with how they turned out. “answered Nia.
"Not really. I mean it's meaningless, but I don't like smiling with my mouth open so I felt like in some pictures it was more forced to show my teeth." Larry responded.
What was your favorite wedding gift?
"We created a 'HoneyFund' so most people gave monetary gifts. If I could pick one gift that I really loved I would say my grandmother gave us a quilt. It had a nice wedding quote on it, with our names, and wedding date and that was really special and something I will keep forever." expressed Nia.
Larry agreed saying, "I would say the same."
Nia later added, "My mom gave us some really nice wedding frames, so when we actually do print our wedding pictures we'll have some nice frames to put them in."
What was your most wasteful purchase in regards to planning your wedding?
"I spent a lot of time making centerpieces and things and they weren't really shown in the way that I wanted them to." responded Nia.
After taking some time to think, Larry responded, "No not really."
What is the best advice you would give to someone else planning their wedding?
Nia advised, "I would say to enjoy the process and just try not to get stressed out. Enjoy the moments of being engaged and planning the wedding because it goes by so fast and before you know it the wedding is here and over so fast. Also, I would say enjoy every moment of the wedding day because it does go so fast."
"Don't expect too much from the unexpected. If you put in a certain amount of money, just put in as if you won't get much back. Things happen and at the end of the day don't forget the real reason why you're marrying the person you are marrying." Larry also advised.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my cousin's beautiful day and I hope that you were inspired by their experience. I wish these two much love and happiness and I look forward to seeing them continuously succeed. Thanks for reading and tune in next Wednesday to see who will be our next #WeddingCrushWednesday couple.
Happy Planning Folks!