Our Wedding- Getting Ready

I am so excited to finally be able to share our wedding with you (albeit late-my apologies once again). First, you can view pictures of our Traditional Nigerian Wedding here. Okay moving on. One of our biggest decisions during the wedding planning process was choosing the perfect photographer. I have spoken quite a few times about making photography a top priority in your wedding food chain. I mean, what’s the point of planning a kick-ass party if your visual memories of the day are whack? We decided to go with Collins of Collins Metu Photography mostly because of his documentary style of photography. We wanted less portraiture and posing and more candid capture which he nailed. Most importantly (of course), the quality of his work was/is amazing.

So, our wedding was a day of dreams. It was just *whew* amazing for me. I’ll be honest with and say some things didn’t work out as I had planned but that didn’t stop it from being the best day of my life. I’ll start from the beginning…

My friends (you know who you are) are truly the most amazing people in the world and I won’t stop being grateful for all the things they did to help make my day as wonderful as it was. They stayed up into the night putting the favors together and were still up and ready to go at 6 am in the morning with smiles on their faces- love them!

#KO2012 Our #AislePerfect Wedding in Orlando

My husband isn’t big on the dramatic makeup look so all I wanted in the makeup department, was to look like a polished version of my self. Patricia of Lejeune Hair & Makeup nailed it. As for the hair, I wanted blunt bangs and a side chignon for the ceremony and a side pony for the reception. Fin!

My inspiration for my bridesmaids was simple – I wanted them to look free and somewhat ethereal. As you know, I am a bit obsessed with pastels so the selection of blush and dove came easy. Due to the large size of my bridal party, I knew I wanted mismatched bridesmaids but in the same color ( I was entirely inspired by Tamera Mowry’s blush bridesmaids). A big factor for me was having pregnancy-friendly dresses as I was sure at least one of my bridesmaids would be visibly pregnant at the time of the wedding (I was right! and she looked amaaazing). With all this in mind we went with chiffon maxi dresses by Amsale.

blush and blue bridesmaid dresses by amsale

Oooh my dress! I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve known all my life that I’d be a Vera Wang bride (yes, despite my false start). I am pretty sure Ms. Wang and I have the same spirit animal. A Vera Wang bride is full of personality. She can’t be pegged into one category- she’s traditional, yet whimsy, dramatic yet demure- she’s so many things!

Inspired by ballerinas, I selected the Emmeline dress from Vera’s Fall 2010 collection. This was one of the best decisions, I ever made and I still swoon at my dress (still in my closet, thinking of selling it) now.

Once I said yes to my dream dress, the battle began to find the perfect sash. The dress came with a fun black sash but I wanted something a bit more whimsical. After a few months of stalking, I found the perfect sash by Erin Cole Couture at the Vera Wang in Toronto (yes, my craziness spanned international waters).

I loved loved loved my bridal jewelry. For the ceremony, I went with the prettiest drop earrings and crystal cuff by Tejani. My reception jewelry was custom created by the amazing Debra of Paris by Debra Moreland (thanks to Mark and Anju at Mark Ingram Atelier). I went with snowflake earrings to blend with the whole semi-winter-inspired vibe the reception had going on and a crystal bracelet (not pictured here).

Elsewhere, in the same hotel…

How handsome does my man look? (special thanks to the awesome staff at the Hugo Boss in Columbus Circle). To compliment his groomsmen’s bow ties which were black with pink polka dots, we went with a studded black bow tie from Thomas Pink. I love the extra coolness it added to his outfit.

My gift to him (below) was addressed “Oko Mi” which means My Husband in our native language of Yoruba. I really wanted our wedding to reflect every bit of who we were and this was just one of the many personal touches.