Hi Guys!!! My name is Carol Boateng and My fiancé’s name is Charles Oke. We both currently live in the Houston area and our wedding will be here in May 2015! We’ve been together for a little over 3 years and looking forward to spending our lives together. He is my best friend and I truly believe that God made him specifically for me (after you hear our story and all of our commonalities you’ll understand why I say that!) I currently work as an educator. My fiancé spends his days in a chemical plant working as a chemical engineer. Naturally, as an engineer he’s a problem solver and thinks that there is a logical and strategic way to do any and everything….we all know that when it comes to wedding planning THIS IS NOT TRUE!!! He’s learning! LOL. I am so excited to have the opportunity to be a AP bride and document this journey from Ms. To Mrs!!!
How we Met…
Our first meeting was in 2006. I had just graduated from Baylor University and he was home visiting his parents from Lousiana Tech University. Our initial conversation was very brief. I remember him having a baby face and the whole time he was talking thinking to myself he has to be younger than me…I don’t think I’m old enough to be a cougar! (He’s not younger than me by the way! lol) Although he was quite the charmer, I resisted his attempts and needless to say, no numbers were exchanged that day. A few weeks later I received a facebook friend request and when I enlarged the picture I almost immediately recognized Mr. baby face and accepted his friend request. For the next 4 years that’s exactly what we were, facebook friends, and that was it. No direct messages, pokes, tags, game request, nothing. He had become a distant memory until one day in October of 2010, I had a message in my inbox from him! After a series of messages, we exchanged numbers and planned to talk that evening. I remember staying on the phone all night! It was like we had known each other all of our lives and we were just old friends catching up! We soon discovered that our birthdays were one day apart (October 20th and October 21st) and thought that it would be appropriate for us to celebrate together. The only problem we had at the time was distance. I was still living in Dallas and he was living in the Houston area. We decided that it would be best for him to come to Dallas so that he could visit his family as well. A few weeks later, on October 22, 2010 we had our first date, celebrated our birthdays, and I also became his girlfriend.
Fun Facts about us:
- Our birthdays are one day apart
- Our first names both start with “C” and our Middle names both start with “A” so our initials will be exactly the same when we get married!
- My younger brother and his younger sister’s birthdays are a day apart
- All of our siblings have May birthdays
- His mom was born in Ghana in the same town my dad is from (My family is Ghanaian and his is Nigerian)
- Our parents live minutes away from each other (that’s not how we met though, we figured this out later)
- We both are a part of greek organizations whose colors are Crimson and Cream
- We love to travel! Our first trip together was to London, UK
The Proposal
January 3, 2014. After celebrating the Christmas and New Year holiday with our families, this was the first time that we had time to ourselves in a few weeks. Charles and I love to try different food and visit restaurants that are unique so it wasn’t a surprise when he suggested that we have lunch later that day at a place that I had never heard of before. As we were getting ready, I noticed he was dressed a little nicer for a Friday afternoon than usual. We usually are part of team #teamoverdressed, so I didn’t think much of it to follow suit and dress up a little bit too. After driving for what seemed like forever, he parked his car in front of a beautiful plantation home beside the river. I was pretty hungry at this point and was trying to figure out why he thought it was appropriate for us to come to a stranger’s house before we went to have lunch but I followed my man any way! To my surprise, the house was actually a restaurant and each room in the house had been transformed into private dining areas. We were escorted to our “area” and proceeded to have lunch. Throughout lunch, I noticed the conversation was leaning more toward our future plans together and thats when I started to become suspicious! I had no clue what was going on but I did notice that Charles had became noticeably nervous. He started to give a speech (which I don’t remember at all… almost everything from that point forward was a blur), as he reached down into his pocket and got on one knee! I felt like I was floating as I tried to hold back tears (knowing that he hates to see me cry). After making some very unattractive faces to prevent the tears from falling, I finally let it all out and said “Yes!”….Now that we’re happily engaged, he is always telling me about the elaborate plans that he and his brother had in store, but honestly, I couldn’t be any happier with our story. Nothing extra, just me, him, and some really good food! lol
Our Big Day
Charles and I are both West African. In our cultures there is a traditional engagement/wedding ceremony that takes place before the “White Wedding”. Although our cultures are very similar, there are still quite a few differences that are all important to each of our families. Our traditional ceremony will take place August 2nd…whew!just a few weeks away! I’m so excited to see both of our cultures come together to celebrate the true world culture, which is LOVE!
After our traditional ceremony, we will be having our white wedding May 2015. My family is from what is formerly known as the Gold Coast and so naturally I like shiny things! It would be safe to call me the bling bride! We want a modern chic wedding with a soft romantic feel. I am leaning more towards gold and various shades of pink for the colors with hints of crystal and sequin embedded within the décor. Although this is our white wedding, I do not want to leave out aspects of our West African culture. I look forward to finding ways to subtly incorporate this into the wedding without it mimicking our traditional ceremony. Here are a few photos that give an idea of the vision I have for the wedding!
So there it is guys! I am truly blessed to have Charles in my life. He has the biggest heart in the world, treats me like a queen, and never lets a day go by without telling me I’m beautiful and letting me know how much he loves me. What else could a girl ask for?!? I am so excited to document this journey with you guys! My traditional engagement is coming up in a few weeks. I’ll be back soon to let you know all about it!
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Carol B is blogging as part of our APbride Real Bride blogger series. Follow Carol and the rest of our APbrides here and check out what their pinning here.
