This week's WeddingCrushWednesday couple goes to Mr. & Mrs. Foster. I have known Jenaya for over a decade. She has always been such a beautiful person inside and out. I had the pleasure of knowing her mother very well, as she was a teacher at my high school. I considered her mother as my adopted "Auntie" and it is truly evident where Jenaya gets her beautiful spirit from. Not too long ago my aunt suggested that I interview her nurse for my #WCW feature and I was surprised and excited to find that she was referring to Jenaya. Jenaya is a Nurse and Mike is a Maintenance Tech. The two reside in Northern Virginia and have two sons, ages 4 and 17. Talking with them was an absolute delight and I'm excited to share their wedding story with my readers and followers. The two got married in the same venue as me and my husband and it appeared they had a beautiful day. Please read on to see how Mr. & Mrs. Foster planned their wedding in her mother's honor.
How and where did you two meet?
"Wow... we met... ummm..." Jenaya
"We met at a bar in 2008." Mike
How long did you date before you got engaged?
"We dated for about 3 years" -Mike
How did you know she was the one?
"Because she got on my damn nerves. It's the truth. The one thing you have to understand about a man is if what you say bothers us that means that we care and we love you. When she started to get on my nerves that's when I knew I had feelings for her. What she said affected me. It could hurt me, make me happy, or bother me. With someone that I don't care about it, it wouldn't affect me no way, shape, or form." -Mike
How did you propose?
"I proposed to her in front of her mom, step-dad, and her brother. I kind of jumped the gun by telling her step-dad because he can't hold water. He kind of put me on the spot to do it before I wanted to do it. I already had the ring so I had to do it before he said something." -Mike
Did you cry or have an idea that the proposal was coming?
"No I laughed. I laughed because he played a joke on me a few years before."-Jenaya
"The year before on her birthday I bought her a ring and necklace set. It was mean, but I got down on one knee in front of her dad and grandma so when I asked her for real she laughed at me." -Mike
Wedding Date: August 23, 2014
Inside Ceremony & Reception: Continental Event Center (Manassas, Virginia)
What attracted you about that particular venue to host your wedding there?
"For us wanting to get married in a church just didn't fit the kind of people that we are. We wanted to have everything in one place. Majority of Mike's family lives in Manassas and my family knows where Manassas is, so I found that place and thought it would be perfect. It was easy to find and it was in a location that everyone knows." -Jenaya
Approximate expense: $13,000
Color Scheme: Purple, Blue, and Grey
Where did you get inspiration from for your color scheme?
"His favorite color is blue and mine is purple. I thought they looked good together." -Jenaya
What was most helpful while planning?
"I'd have to say talking to other brides. I had two cousins that we all got married within two weeks of each other so talking with them and doing things with them kind of helped give me ideas. We kind of bounced things back and forth." -Jenaya
"Nothing. I didn't have to do anything." -Mike
Did Mike help with the planning or did he just say 'you do it all and I'll just show up'?
"He was half and half. After I started showing him different things and asking his opinion he would give it to me and we would compromise on things." -Jenaya
What caused the most stress while planning?
"Coming up with this money. We had family assistance, but we also came out of pocket too. Out of the $13,000, we came up with at least $8,000 of it. The most stressful time of it all was the last two weeks. It was a lot of things that weren't 100% in place and we were kind of like how are we going to get the money for this and how are we going to get the money for that. Thank God Jenaya's family is a lot bigger than mine so when it came down to crunch time a lot of people pitched in. Literally the day before the wedding everything came together like the DJ, the photographer, and food."- Mike
"I felt like there was so much to do and not enough time to do it all." -Jenaya
What was your best memory of the day and did you cry?
"Seeing her walk in the door in that dress. Man... Man... Soon as she walked in the door my best man leaned over and whispered to me, ‘You’s a lucky bleep bleep' and I was just like 'Yes I Am!' I teared up a little bit. She's the one that had the crackly voice though. We have that on tape." -Mike
"I have so many different favorite parts. I'd have to say that when I got up to the altar and we were standing there. We both really looked at each other and to me it was like, 'Okay, it's real' and I knew we were really getting married." -Jenaya
What was your worst memory of the day?
"Inviting certain people that didn't show up that should have been there. That was the worst part for me. I have a small family. A lot of my family has passed away, so the family that I do have left I'm very close knit and in contact with. For me, for certain family members not to show up really bothered me, but I didn't let it ruin my day." -Mike
"When I was leaving my mom's house to go to the venue to get dressed and I opened the door and it was pouring down raining. I mean pouring. It wasn't raining all day until it was time for me to walk outside. The two bridal attendants that I had were on their job that whole day so it didn’t affect my hair or anything." -Jenaya
Looking back on that day and everything that went into planning your wedding and seeing where you are today; would you do it all over again and the same way?
"Well it was circumstances to why we did it the way we did it. Our initial plan was to go away and get married in Jamaica. With her mom being sick we didn't know what was going on with her from one month to the next and she wanted to see her get married. We compromised what we wanted basically for her mom. Everyone else's opinion didn't really matter, but the relationship that her and her mom had I was definitely not going against that. That's why we got married here instead of going to Jamaica like we talked about. If we had to do it again then we would be in Jamaica." -Mike
"I agree and I'm happy that we did choose to do it the way that we did." -Jenaya
Do you all think that you may renew your vows in the future and go away to Jamaica like your initial plan?
"Yes, definitely!" -Mike
"Yes!" -Jenaya
Was you wedding day everything you expected, more, or less?
"When I came in and I saw everything it was the vision that I had. It was similar to what I had expressed that I wanted and I was happy with it." -Jenaya
"I feel the same. The venue was beautiful and everything, but I knew what she really wanted. They tried to achieve that with the lighting without having the actual drapes that she wanted. Believe it or not on the wedding day, us men, we want to give you everything you want and so for me knowing exactly what she wanted and they tried to get close to it was good for me. I was happy because she was happy." -Mike
Are there any pose and/or pictures that you wish your photographer would have captured, but didn't?
"I think they did a good job, but I wish he would have gotten more pictures of me and the fellas kicking it because a lot of those people I haven't seen since we got married. I had some friends that came from out of state so that would've been nice. Other than that I was fine because for the price we paid and the amount of pictures we got back you can't beat that." -Mikey
"We were hoping that it didn't rain because we were going to go to a park to take pictures. Of course we weren't able to do that, but you can't stop the rain, so we had to work it out. Overall I was satisfied. We got over like 900 pictures." -Jenaya
What was your most wasteful purchase in regards to planning your wedding?
"We did forget to use the sparklers." -Jenaya
"Yeah, she's right it was a waste because we didn't get to use them during the wedding." -Mike
What is the best advice you would give to someone else planning their wedding?
"Be 100% honest with yourself. Make sure this is what you want. Don't get married under duress, guilt, or ultimatums. Make sure this what you want for you. No one wants to live miserable. That's for man and/or woman. You might hurt the other person's feelings, but in the long run you both will be better." -Mike
"Go to marriage counseling before you get married. Marriage counseling helped us understand each other a whole lot better than what we already did. Be honest!" -Jenaya
Thank you for taking the time to read about this lovely couple and their wedding experience. I wish them both and their family much love, happiness, and success. Please tune in every Wednesday for a new WCW couple and experience to get tips, advice, guidance, and pure wedding entertainment. Also, please feel free to email me at: alluringdekor@gmail.com if you yourself would like to be featured as a WCW couple or if you know someone that you want to recommend.
HAPPY PLANNING FOLKS!!!