00:00As a young man, I spent most of my life telling myself,
00:03I'm not going to get married.
00:05Why would I settle for somebody,
00:07and the next great thing can come the next day?
00:09Once we established a level of trust,
00:12I became so secure in that,
00:13that I didn't want to gamble anymore.
00:20I launched my business in 2019.
00:23It is a luxury eyelash brand.
00:25It's called 1688.
00:27At the launch, it was less than 20 people,
00:31my close family, my close friends.
00:33In our talks about proposals, she always said,
00:35I wanted my family there, I wanted all my friends there.
00:38So me thinking, how can I actually gather all these people
00:41without letting the cat out the bag?
00:44So when that idea of hers manifested,
00:47I seized the opportunity to kind of throw the engagement in there.
00:50I'm at the end of the launch party,
00:53giving a speech, letting everybody know about the brand,
00:56and as I'm bending down to grab boxes to hand out,
00:59I was giving out boxes and long stem roses.
01:03He comes around, and one of my slogans for my lash business is,
01:08a woman and her lashes is an endless love affair.
01:12And I'm bending down, and he comes and whisper in my ear,
01:15are you ready for your endless love affair?
01:17And I was shook.
01:21I stood up, couldn't say anything but shake my head,
01:24and I shook my head yes.
01:26As a black woman who launched her business on her birthday and got engaged,
01:31that kind of set the course for what everything wanted to be.
01:34We just wanted to step up and kind of make that a part of our wedding
01:37as much as we could.
01:39Everyone that we hired was connected to us in some capacity,
01:43because I know how it feels to be hired, you know?
01:47I'm so grateful for those who participated in making our day become amazing.
01:51I already had, like, an idea on a budget,
01:54so the first dress I tried on was the dress I purchased.
01:58That one just, it was it.
02:01My sister was like, oh my God, this is it.
02:04We FaceTimed my mom.
02:05She was on her way to Mississippi from New Orleans.
02:08She turned around to go back home to show my grandmother on FaceTime,
02:12and she was like, oh yes, yes, that's the dress.
02:14So, literally, the first dress I tried on was the dress.
02:18I got my second outfit handmade by Tameka.
02:22She is the owner of Denim and Diamonds Boutique in Dallas.
02:27She asked me what I wanted and gave me exactly what I wanted.
02:31So, shout out to you, Tameka.
02:34Our wardrobe was also all black, and it was all black formal.
02:39We wanted to have a bunch of black people looking amazing in all black,
02:45just giving looks, giving style, giving pizzazz, and they did.
02:50I'm real made back, so I didn't need any of that,
02:53but we both knew that this is the only time we're getting married, for sure.
02:58So, we're going to do this right.
03:00Let's say, for example, if the wedding was going to be three hours,
03:03it was going to be two hours and 45 minutes of reception.
03:08I do.
03:08The ceremony is very short and simple.
03:11I think it was 16 minutes to be exact.
03:1316 minutes.
03:14After our ceremony, they played a bounce love song.
03:18We didn't request that, but in New Orleans, every song that's out,
03:22it gets bounced out, and literally, it starts to party.
03:27As we're walking back from down the aisle, we go in, we take our pictures.
03:31The beat, that beat is rolling.
03:33Oh, we also added a little jig music in there.
03:35Shout out to Baton Rouge.
03:37And we party, listen to that beat all night, for the most part.
03:42The idea of you being the center of attention
03:47for a whole entire day is very stressful.
03:52But when everything came to play, it was over too fast.
03:56Occasionally, you do have the people like,
03:57the price is not an option, write the checks, write the checks,
04:00write the checks, write the checks, write the checks.
04:01But for us, it was very strict about the price,
04:05because we both knew that we had to live in New York City.
04:10So even her mother said,
04:12always keep in mind that you have to live after this.
04:15Yes.
04:15So it was just about trying to find that balance.
04:19I am very, very thankful for how everything panned out.
04:24The way we did it, we probably wouldn't have had it any other way.
04:28To Pharisee, check those maps and ona vest them from компositions.
04:34I'm really unique to you and I said,
04:39it's a part where I left from a planet to support it.
04:42I think this is the heart of my centered line.
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