I Have Some Explaining to Do. I Know.

It may appear that I have taken somewhat of a hiatus from this blog since I haven't been posting daily liked I used to. Things will make sense next week when I thoroughly explain the reason for why my postings haven't been consistent. Don't you hate it when people make you wait to hear what it is they have to say? How dare I do that. But bare with me...all will be said next week. Don't fret - it's nothing bad. Mr. Wonderful and I are still madly in love with each other and all that mushy jazz. Married life is {more than} gravy.

Changing topics...

Our wedding is currently being reviewed for publishing consideration with The Knot! Upon their request to see more pictures from our wedding, I informed them about this little blog where they could see more images from our special day. My fingers are crossed! Long before I got engaged I delved into many Knot magazines where I perused their pages gathering visual inspiration for my wedding that would "one day" be. It would be awesome to have our wedding grace the pages of their pretty mag!

They also happened to suggest that I may want to consider submitting my blog to the Wedding Channel blog awards {you'll notice the new badge in the upper right hand corner}. If you'd like to nominate this blog, just click on the badge, find me in the list and let 'em know what you love about this site of mine!

I leave you with a pretty picture from our wedding day that you haven't seen yet - us outside of our venue with our wedding party...

photo credit: Karen Nickel Photography

Our Wedding: Nigerian Music & Attire

It was important to incorporate Mr. Wonderful's Nigerian culture into our wedding. Aside from American food, we served up Nigerian cuisine, exited the ceremony to Nigerian music, had my FIL's pastor {who flew from Nigeria} bless the food and the evening, had an eight piece Nigerian band {some members flew in from Chicago} and we changed into traditional Nigerian attire.

After the cake was cut, the Nigerian band took their place...

Mr. Wonderful and I were joined by his father on the dancefloor...

Soon after, we were joined by our guests...

The Nigerian band played back and forth with our DJ. Here is Mr. Wonderful's brother bustin' a move...

Everyone hit the dance floor and had so.much.fun!!!

Here is Mr. Wonderful's mother "spraying" me with money...


And here she is with her friends spraying her...

Mr. Wonderful and I went to change into our native attire about three hours into the reception. Here I am with my SIL, helping me change...

Hand in hand, making our way back into the reception...

Our second entrance...

Here is Mr. Wonderful's dad {in the turquoise hat} spraying us {notice how their hats match and have their initials embroidered in them, just in different colors - love it!}...

Trying to dance on beat to the Naija tunes!!

My hubby...

The spraying of the money went all night...

As the night came to an end, we danced our last dance to this Nigerian song.

It was time to head to the hotel...as husband and wife!

It was the best night of our lives...

Our Wedding: The Dessert Bar

Our dessert bar, full of an abundant amount of sugary treats, came together beautifully.

Thankfully, all of the bulk candy that I ordered arrived in time - and I ordered {more than} plenty!

I purchased all apothecary jars {$9.95 ea}, cylinder vases {$6.99 ea}, dessert plates {$35 for all 8}, etc. that you will see displayed on our dessert table.

It's time to showcase how things turned out...

To spruce up the table, I used silver dollar silk flowers and ostrich feathers...

Our dessert bar extended to two tables, and each treat was labeled...

We had a variety of delicious desserts for guests to choose from. Here are the petite fours {from the place where Mr. Wonderful and I had our first date}...

If you've been an avid reader of my blog for quite some time, then you know that I have a love for Sees Candies. Growing up in California, it was a candy store that I frequented often as a child {there's no other chocolate I like better}, therefore Sees just had to be present on our dessert tables {my Aunt Janice actually purchased all of the Sees Candy and shipped it from California to Atlanta. It was out in abundance because of her!}.

Other treats...

The pretty dessert napkins...

Close by the dessert table was also coffee and tea for those who wanted it...

photo credit: Karen Nickel Photography

I was in awe when I saw the dessert bar for the first time. As the pictures show, it came together beautifully and guests really enjoyed it!

---

When posting any of my wedding images seen on this blog please reference An Atlanta Bride, with a link back to this site - and please give proper credit to the photographer, Karen Nickel. Thank you!

Our Wedding: The Bridesmaids Shoes

Just as we gave our groomsmen gifts that they could sport on the wedding day {Italian ties and Kenneth Cole Wallets}, we did the same for the bridesmaids - giving them a gift that they too could wear on the wedding day.

Sparing them the stress, and time, of finding a shoe that perfectly matched their dresses, we came across these beauties and bought a pair for each of the girls...

The color could not have been more perfect as they matched the dresses beautifully.

all photos: Karen Nickel Photography, except for photo 1, by Mr. Wonderful

Additional details: Dresses by Bill Levkoff. Shoes from Off Broadway Shoes.

Our Wedding: The Invitations

This post comes at nearly 12 midnight on Friday {muuuch later than the normal time that I post}, but I know that many of you also visit wedding blogs on the weekend so I thought that this post would still provide fresh content for the weekend browser.

With that said, allow me to finally showcase our wedding invitations. I absolutely love how they turned out. I provided a sneak peek here, but now it's time to reveal them in all their beauty.

I worked with a wonderful and talented designer out of California who flawlessly executed my vision. I provided her with a picture of a design that I found online and then I personally picked out everything from the paper to the ribbon...everything was customized. I guess you could say I was pretty particular when it came to the design of our invitation {I even sent the designer an image of how I wanted the outward envelopes to look} but she was wonderful to work with and patiently bared with me as I made ongoing changes to make our invitation just perfect. The end result was truly everything I wanted it to be.

Here is what the outside mailing envelope looked like...

{click on any picture below to enlarge!}

The inner envelope addressed the invitee.

The back of the mailing envelope....

And here they are. Our invitations...

Here is a close up of the outside of the invitation {notice the two Swarovski crystals}...

One more Swarovski crystal was also placed in the middle of the ribbon that held the RSVP card in place...

We had two different sets of RSVP cards made up. For family and guests {who traveled from afar}, their RSVP card included the mention of, and formal invitation to, our post wedding brunch. Rather than have an additional insert with the brunch information {thereby increasing the cost of our invitation}, I had our invitation designer simply add one more line to the RSVP card and provided guests with the brunch details in the out-of-town gift boxes.

photo credit: Mr. Wonderful

I loved the process of creating a one-of-a-kind invitation and seemingly, for me, it was less expensive than going through any of the well known wedding invitation companies.

For future brides, be sure to order extra invitations, and extra envelopes "just in case" and also be sure to put aside one of your wedding invitation sets for keepsake!

Our Wedding: Bathroom Baskets

About a week before the wedding I put together two baskets {full of potential necessity items} to place in the Ladies and Gentlemens restrooms.

I got the baskets, on sale, at Michaels, for around $2 each.

I tightly secured a champagne colored ribbon around the basket and affixed an outside tag that read, "Please help yourself to the contents within, Compliments of the Newlyweds" {notice the scroll design is from my blog!}.

{click the below image to enlarge}

The contents within the baskets {which varied based on men's/women's needs} included:

• Shout Wipes
• Bobby Pins
• Sewing Kits
• Safety pins
• Band-Aids
• Lint rollers
• Tampons/pads
• Tylenol
• Excedrin
• Pepto-Bismol
• Tums
• Halls
• Hair Rubber Bands
• Dental Floss
• Hand Sanitizer
• Hand Lotion
• Bath & Body Works Body Splash
• Hairspray/Hair gel
• Packs of Individual Combs
• Nail Files
• Clear nail polish
• Gum
• Mints

A few hours before our reception came to an end I went to the restroom to only find remnants of what was placed in the baskets. I was happy to see that guests found the contents useful and that there was hardly anything left {I gathered some items around the house and placed them within the basket below to somewhat give you a visual of what the baskets looked like on the actual wedding day}.

photo credit: Mr. Wonderful

If you're thinking of doing bathroom baskets for your guests on your wedding day, first scour the house to see if there is anything unopened that you could use before heading out to buy items. Next, hit up your local Dollar Store, like I did, where you will find brand name items.

Are bathroom baskets necessary? No. But it's a thoughtful gesture that guests will surely remember.