00:00I'm Austin Tribut-Luket.
00:02And I'm Caleb Luket.
00:03And this is our Essence Bridal Bliss story.
00:06Let's do it.
00:12So we met back in 2017 at my father's church.
00:18We opened up a new church in Orlando, Florida.
00:26And seven years later, here we are.
00:28It was important for us to be friends first because, one, we were at such a young age.
00:34My emotional and mental capacity could only hold but so much.
00:38And I'd rather just get to know you before I just try to make you into something.
00:42I wanted it to be something natural.
00:44So it just felt more easy to just have a friend and really just get to know her for who she is rather than as a girlfriend.
00:51I just wanted to know Austin.
00:52When I decided to take this friendship to the next level, I was actually on vacation with my mom in the Dominican Republic.
01:01And I was just venting to her about my feelings and how I feel like we're ready now to take it to the next level and get serious about it.
01:09And she encouraged me and pushed me to just do it.
01:12And after that, we just went up.
01:14Yes, being a celebrity's daughter, it does feel like it's a lot of eyes on me.
01:19But for me, I only care about my mom and my dad's appease at the end of the day.
01:24So, yes, my mom was very excited about it.
01:26And my dad actually was, too, because since he was 14, he claimed Caleb as a son.
01:32He'd been playing the drums for him at church and traveling with him on the road.
01:37So they had a lot of time to bond.
01:39And he actually knew him, knew his heart, knew how he thought and all of that.
01:43So it was safe for my dad to just be like, hmm, if this is what I want to do, I'm with it.
01:48The process of the whole proposal and, you know, when it was time, I felt like through that whole year,
01:57because we got connected in December of 2023, and throughout that whole time period,
02:03a lot of things just started to happen.
02:05I started to mature.
02:06I started to grow as a man.
02:08I started to, you know, just carry myself a little differently.
02:11And I realized that I really didn't want to spend my life with anyone but her.
02:15So I had a whole plan.
02:17I'm like, okay, we're going to do a bid.
02:19We're going to have like a nice dinner.
02:20They're going to put the ring inside the cake, and she's going to cut the cake and see the ring.
02:25And there's going to be all this crazy stuff.
02:26But it started to feel like a performance.
02:29And I'm like, okay, I think I just want to kind of be spontaneous.
02:33And we had a really good encounter with God in our room.
02:36And it was just like, I can't wait anymore.
02:39I ran in the room and grabbed the ring, and I just proposed.
02:43It was a spontaneous thing, but it was really genuine.
02:45And I just told her everything I felt.
02:48You don't ever have to worry for anything.
02:50You don't got to work another day in your life.
02:52And I'm like, ah, I got to make sure I can, like, you know, provide.
02:55But I just knew in that moment it was real.
02:58When it comes to the wedding, I personally did not want a big wedding because I thought it was going to be a lot of stress on me and my family.
03:09And I know we have a lot going on.
03:10We just opened up a church and a building and things like that.
03:14So I didn't want to put pressure on anybody.
03:16Personally, I was like, I don't need a wedding.
03:17But my mom was like, my love, you need to have a wedding.
03:20Like, this is going to be the biggest day of a lot of our lives.
03:24So you need to have a wedding.
03:26And when she said that, I was like, okay, cool.
03:28Before she said that, we wanted to go sign the papers on 12-12-24.
03:34December 12-2024 because we felt like that's double.
03:3712 plus 12 is 24.
03:39And it's 20-24.
03:41So I was like, wow, that's double blessings.
03:43That's your alignment.
03:44To me, that was like alignment and double.
03:46And we're both 22 years old.
03:48So it's like, it's a whole lot of double.
03:50So that date.
03:51Two halves.
03:52Two halves.
03:53We were set on that date without wanting a wedding.
03:57So when my mom said, well, you have to have a wedding.
03:59I'm like, well, 12-12-24 is my date.
04:02Can we do it in three months?
04:03And my mom was like, girl, this is what we do.
04:06Challenge accepted.
04:08And it turned out beautiful.
04:10Amazing.
04:11Amazing.
04:12The dress to me was, it was perfect for my little body shades.
04:15I'm only like 4'11.
04:17So this, the dress was perfect.
04:19It was petite.
04:20It was tight fitted.
04:21It had cute curls along the top.
04:24All one shoulder on with pearls around here, pearls around the waist part.
04:30And then for the tail, the tail was my favorite part.
04:33It was so long and cutable.
04:36But for the tail, my, um, so for the long tail,
04:40the tailor had to add about six buttons to the back of my dress so the tail can fit.
04:46Because I'm so little and everything is just so difficult to fit.
04:49So we had six buttons on the back and that ended up being one of my favorite parts.
04:53The button look was so cute.
04:55It was amazing.
04:56It was amazing.
04:56So yeah, that dress was chef's gift.
05:00The process with my tux, I thought everything was just going to go smooth.
05:04I had the ideas of what I wanted it to be like.
05:06I didn't want a traditional look.
05:08I wanted something a little more eccentric, a little more urban, a little more new.
05:12Because I'm, you know, I'm a little artsy guy.
05:14So I like stuff to be a little.
05:15So we wanted to keep it small and intimate.
05:17So we had an idea of renting out a tent, a white tent,
05:21and putting it on the land right in front of the lake.
05:24So we can have a wedding and, um, get married right on the land where we have,
05:29where we do everything else that we've been,
05:31we've been getting counseled at that house and all of that.
05:34So just the spirit of it, we felt like it would be.
05:37More home.
05:38Yeah.
05:39It was covening.
05:40And more natural.
05:41I can't explain it.
05:42It just felt like we were just doing life.
05:44And it was, you know, performance.
05:46It was just a nice flow.
05:48We were comfortable.
05:49It was no, like, no unfamiliar energy in the area.
05:53It was just nice.
05:53It felt comfortable.
05:55Yeah.
05:55We're coming and things like that.
05:56So everything just hit me up one time.
05:58I teared up really bad about to cry.
06:00And my dad just stopped and said, he whispered to me like,
06:03hey, it's okay.
06:03This is your day.
06:05This is your moment.
06:05You can stop as many times as you want,
06:07as you need to stop on this aisle.
06:09If it's for you, take your time.
06:11And when he said that, I was like, okay.
06:12And kept walking.
06:13And then I saw my handsome husband.
06:16The man looked amazing, okay.
06:17I was looking at him like, wow.
06:19I'm so blessed.
06:20I literally was thinking, like, I remember my thoughts.
06:23It was like, I'm so blessed.
06:24Thank you, Lord.
06:25It was so funny.
06:26This ceremony, we were really ourselves.
06:28We didn't do it super traditional.
06:30I was so excited to see her.
06:32I thought I was going to cry.
06:33You know, I'm in some of my emotions.
06:35I ain't ashamed of, you know, I'll cry if I need to.
06:37But saying it, it was just like, whoa, I have a wife.
06:41I think it was pretty funny when our Uncle Kirk Franklin got up there and gave us a speech
06:48and told him, marriage ain't always pretty.
06:51Sometimes he ain't going to like the way his feet smell.
06:52And I was like, what?
06:54It was hilarious.
06:55I'm clearing.
06:55That was one of the funniest parts of the reception, along with my great-grandma.
07:02So we had four generations, the ceremony and the reception.
07:06So my great-grandma got up there and gave us some love and advice.
07:10And it was beautiful.
07:11And it meant a lot.
07:12I mean, because she's been to millions of weddings.
07:14She has so many kids, grandkids, great-grands.
07:17But she made it to Florida from New Jersey to come to our wedding.
07:21And yes, she gave us so much love and advice.
07:24And then she took us to church at the end.
07:26You know how those black people do.
07:28We don't play.
07:29I need some church.
07:30Yeah.
07:31And we church kids.
07:32So she took us right to church.
07:33And we had a little tent revival for five minutes.
07:36And I think that part.
07:37That part was hilarious.
07:38The wedding cake was beautiful.
07:40And it was so good.
07:41I'm sure many other brides and glooms know how that goes.
07:44But just the excitement and the anxiety, but the good anxiety and all of that, it was stressful.
07:50So we, to this day, I don't think we tasted the cake.
07:52And that's actually, that's not good.
07:56But you know, we did do something traditional.
07:58We saved the top layer of the cake for our one-year anniversary.
08:02So maybe in December, we can tell y'all how the cake came.
08:05So for the wedding, my parents helped us a lot with this.
08:09They did not tell us what their budget was.
08:11But as we were planning, I heard my mom comment a few times,
08:14Woo, we're over this budget, but it's all right.
08:17This my, this my firstborn.
08:18This my baby girl.
08:19Let's do it.
08:20I think we went over a little bit.
08:22It's good.
08:22It's a fit.
08:24But God look good.
08:25We're okay.
08:26We worked with a few black vendors.
08:29My aunt Gail, the woman who raised me in homeschooling,
08:32she does interior design.
08:34Brooks G interior.
08:36Let's go.
08:37She did the whole wedding.
08:38It was beautiful.
08:40Nailed it.
08:40Nailed it, everything we could have imagined.
08:43We had the red roses there because he proposed with red roses.
08:46Damien.
08:47Chef Damien.
08:48Thank you, thank you, thank you.
08:49He's the best.
08:50He's like our whole production team.
08:52Jamie Phil.
08:53Shout out to you, my bro, Carl.
08:54You're amazing, bro.
08:55Thank you for all you did, bro.
08:57We did a little staycation here this summer
08:59because we still went to church that Sunday.
09:01Why?
09:01We got married Thursday and went to church Sunday.
09:03What?
09:04Okay, we have to praise God for the week.
09:06I ain't skipping on Jesus.
09:07Some advice I would love to give to some brides
09:10as you're planning your wedding is,
09:12yes, go for everything you desire,
09:14but at the same time,
09:15don't set your expectations too high.
09:19Be free, be at peace as you're planning
09:21and as the day comes
09:22so that if anything goes wrong
09:24or if it messes up or tweaks,
09:26it won't affect you too bad.
09:28It will be more, but it's all right.
09:30It's okay.
09:30And you'll just flow throughout the day.
09:32So no expectation.
09:34I feel like that's the best invite I can give
09:37because then if you don't expect anything,
09:39it's okay.
09:39I would just say,
09:41don't forget what it's really about.
09:43At the end of the day,
09:44you can have all the bells and whistles,
09:45but that's literally just going to be for a day
09:48and you have a whole lifetime with your partner.
09:50So I would just say,
09:52don't lose the meaning
09:53and don't lose focus on what really matters.
09:55Everybody Evolved was chocolate.
09:57We stuck to our people, amen?
10:00Amen.
10:00Amen.
10:09Amen.
10:10Amen.
10:11Amen.
10:11Amen.
10:12Amen.
10:12Amen.
10:13Amen.
10:13Amen.
10:14Amen.
10:14Amen.
10:14Amen.
10:14Amen.
10:15Amen.
10:15Amen.
10:15Amen.
10:16Amen.
10:16Amen.
10:16Amen.
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