My big sister Ata from InkHearts.com put these gorgeous invitations together based on the theme they chose, despite being occupied with her twin babies. I saw them and was totally awed – Fabulous and very me! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this Ata!

The invitations arrived in this pretty little box -
Just in case you are wondering who Bola is -It’s me! That’s my first name, Onada is my middle name  – people call me either or :)

And inside was this gorgeousness -

Did you figure out the theme yet? The shower took place this past weekend. Wait till you see the photos!
Coming soon :)

Our wedding took place at a place called Island Club, a men’s only club that my dad has frequented since I was a child. They have a party venue there and obviously I knew without question even before we got engaged that this would be my dad’s venue of choice to have our traditional wedding surrounded by all his best friends.

While these photos don’t tell the full story of the ceremony they do give a general idea of what happened…plus you get to see me all dressed up in my fancy “Aso Oke” :). We had a fabulous time and it was amazing to see our friends and family we hadn’t seen in forever – even my family from Vienna was there! So amazing! I really appreciate all the love and support we got and I’m so happy we went “home” to do this! Thank you and we love you guys!

These gorgeous photos were taken by the talented Jide Alakija of Alakija & Co Photography.

Enjoy!

Here goes -

My pretty clutch and shoes – I bought this clutch from England and my shoes from Barneys months before I even knew what I was wearing – I didn’t actually decide to wear them until I saw my outfit a few days before the wedding!

my dancing Choos :) -

Half of my BM crew (Vickii and Fisola – we missed you! Don’t worry we filled you in on all the details – even the mystery of the missing dress!)

Then it was time to get my face on -

Make up done, time to get my “Gele” tied -

And it begins -

Looks are deceiving, I’m not used to doing this on a regular basis and it hurt. I had to be reminded to smile about 100 times (thank you!).

Headtie done, Jewelry on.

A few portraits

And then it was time to wait until the bride (me lol) was called (at almost the end of the ceremony)….and so we took photos….

And then I checked my headtie in the mirror for the 700th time…looks ok…for now…

In the meantime our parents were having fun upstairs as the ceremony progressed with family introductions and talk about why I’m such a gem of a bride (yes please) etc…

And our parent’s dancing….

The formal marriage proposal letter -

And then the handsome groom arrived -

Photos I didn’t post: The “Dobale” when he prostrates in front of my parents and then his parents for prayers and as a sign of respect.

Almost time for me to make my appearance so I got my wrapper tied – Yes I was prancing around in half of my outfit up until this moment -

Dancing in with my friends and cousins – In case you were wondering what I had on my mind – I was so concerned about my head tie falling over (even though in retrospect that couldn’t happen as tight as it was tied) and tripping in my 4 inch heels -

Going to Kneel in front of my parents for prayers -

Saying thank you to my dad for raising me in the best way ever and making me his little queen -

Eye contact with my crying mother and the water works started -

MY FAVORITE PICTURE EVER! I love you mama!

Off to my in-laws!
Photos I didn’t post: Getting reveiled and taken over to my in-laws. Kneeling in front of them for more prayers. My “husband” coming to join us, kneeling for more prayers. G officially giving me my engagement ring, cutting out cake and the “Kiss(es)”.

Money for my first pot of soup – I cooked it already. It was fabulous thank you very much.

My dowry – LOL

Ceremony is done – we are married!

oh and our cake :)

Change of clothes, time to party!

And of course you know my camera had to be in the mix somewhere – My brother took photos with it -

Dancing with my friends :)

And then we  went home, got dressed up again and hit the town -

One wedding down. One to go. I’m ready.

My brother’s friend was nice enough to take a few pictures of me. Here’s me looking at them like “Did you figure out my camera yet?”

And here’s me laughing at them go all paparazzi on me.

We also took a drive up to the Hollywood Hills where I took this photo. The view was gorgeous -

And finally here’s a photo my brother took of me close to his home in Pasedena (I miss you already Femi!)-

In other news, so far, wedding planning is coming along great (Thank God for a great wedding planner) and I’m trying to enjoy the whole process without getting overwhelmed (…all this work for one day). I’ve moved the general gist of wedding planning to my lookbook so feel free to stop by there to see what’s going on from time to time (but I’ll still be making updates here).  Top on my priority list is buying a dress. I’m the bride that starts looking for wedding shoes before finding her wedding dress… you’d think it would be the other way around right? go figure. Although I’ve hated trying on dresses I have to admit it’s been a lot of fun. I made sure I tried on everything from the most ridiculous to the most fashion forward just to see what I’d look like. I wore the Cinderella ball gown and the sexy backless sheath dress. I wore the dress with the weird high neckline and the one with the most unflattering cut that made me look like I was in a tube sock. Although I have not 100% figured out what dress  I’ll be buying I do know what I will not be wearing :)

Anyway I’ll be back with more wedding posts shortly.

Thanks for stopping by.

I got these gorgeous little water color wash cards on Etsy.com from an amazing shop called Lily & Louise. They came with different dresses on the front (which I chose to represent the unique personalities of my BFFs) and they were also blank inside which was exactly what I was looking for as I wanted to be able to add a hand written personal note to each of  my friends. Here they are (illuminated by my desk lamp as I decided to photograph them the night before I dropped them off in the post) -

The shop gives you the option to customize the cards to your choice – I personally liked the ones that she already had listed and if you can’t tell from the photo the paper stock and detail on these cards is just gorgeous! (You can feel the little hanger and elevation of the dress hanging on it!). Here are all of them in unison (one is different from mine) from the Lily & Louise shop -

I purchased a gift to go along with these cards for each of my friends but you’ll have to visit my  lookbook to find out what the other gift was and the story behind it :)

Thanks for stopping by and I have many more updates to come!

Since most of my clients are future brides and a lot of my friends are dating, soon to be engaged, engaged or married with their own wedding related businesses I thought I’d share the blogs currently in my reader. So here’s my list (In alphabetical order) -

All Things Lovely
Bliss Event Group
Clover and Bee
Classic Bride
Elizabeth Anne Designs
Green wedding Shoes
Grey Likes Weddings
I Love Lolli
It’s a Jamie Thing
Once Wed
Polka Dot Bride
Ritzy Bee
Snippet and Ink
Southern Weddings Magazine
Style Me Pretty
The Bride’s Cafe
The Connecticut Wedding Blog
Wedding Chicks
Wedding Nouveau
Wedding Bee

If you guys have any other blogs you’d like to recommend I’d definitely love to know about them :) In the meantime enjoy the list and I’m sure they’ll be super helpful to you!

p.s. I created a section on my look book where I talk more casually about this whole experience so make sure you stop by!

1. Find a wedding planner (complete – yay)
2. Find venues for the ceremony/reception (pending)
3. Find a wedding photographer (pending)

The wedding planner: We wanted someone who lived in Philly or in the Philly area (although I live in NJ, G lives in Philly and we’d like to get married in Philly), someone who knows the city, someone who understands the vision we have for our wedding and isn’t going to push or force us to do anything we don’t want to, someone I can get along with for the next year and send a million emails :) – just joking Kathy! -  and just generally someone we’d love working with. I know a couple planners but none of them lived close by and then I remembered during Nicole and Roosevelt’s engagement session I had asked Nicole who her wedding planner was (side note: Nicole by the way is one amazing chick and I’m so glad to call her my friend now – check out her blog here). So after Nicole’s wedding, I asked her about her planner again and she told me she was amazing and I just had to meet her!

Kathy Bado owns The Wedding Factor and as soon as I met Kathy I knew she was perfect for us. She’s an amazing lady with so much insight, I mean there’s so much I assumed about planning weddings that I was totally way off about, the first being that it’s not easy peazy (and you’d think I’d know this being a wedding photographer lol). We are so happy to have someone to guide us through this process because I wanted to think of my wedding day as perfect and fabulous which I know I personally do not have the time or expertise to plan all by myself. Kathy has been one step ahead of me – it’s almost like before I think of something she suggests it and she’s totally on top of the vision we have for our wedding. Love it! For all you Philly bride’s to be searching for a planner, definately check out TheWeddingFactor.com.

2. The Venues: We are having a large wedding here. 300 to 350 guests. It’s daunting but we’d love to have all our close family and friends be a part of our special day which pretty much comprises of 300 to 350 people lol. That being said finding a venue we love is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Philly has a million gorgeous venues, majority of which are too small for our wedding size :( I’ve also kinda limited our options majorly because I don’t want a hotel ballroom reception. Hotel ballroom weddings can be amazing and absolutely stunning but it’s just not our style…but perhaps we’ll have to settle? I won’t give up though (and Kathy our rock star planner is totally on this). We have two places in mind that could possibly work…or not. Fingers crossed!

3. The wedding photographer: No venue = No photographer hahahaha. On a serious note our wedding photography is a huge deal for me. I’d get married in a shack on the roadside if that’s what I’d have to sacrifice for the photography I want and love. I could look at photographers I love forever and ever but I’ve settled on two of my absolute favorite photographers that fit within our budget (budget, this is a very important word in wedding planning). I’m finding it hard to choose but then I can’t really think about it until I have a venue with a confirmed date and then we can make our final decision hoping and praying that one of them is available. Fingers crossed here again :)

So there’s my first wedding update. If you feel like hearing about the emotions and all the other craziness involved stop by my Lookbook here.

I’ll be back soon with more engagement sessions and wedding posts – and of course more updates on planning my wedding :)

Thanks for stopping by!