00:00As a young man, I spent most of my life telling myself, I'm not going to get married.
00:05Why would I settle for somebody and the next great thing can come the next day?
00:09Once we established a level of trust, I became so secure in that that I didn't want to gamble anymore.
00:20I launched my business in 2019.
00:23It is a luxury eyelash brand. It's called 1688.
00:27At the launch, it was less than 20 people, my close family, my close friends.
00:33In our talks about proposals, she always said I wanted my family there, I wanted all my friends there.
00:38So me thinking, how can I actually gather all these people without letting the cat out the bag?
00:44So when that idea of hers manifested, I seized the opportunity to kind of throw the engagement in there.
00:50I'm at the end of the launch party, giving a speech, letting everybody know about the brand.
00:56And as I'm bending down to grab boxes to hand out, I was giving out boxes and long stem roses.
01:03He comes around and one of my slogans for my lash business is, a woman and her lashes is an
01:10endless love affair.
01:11And I'm bending down and he comes and whisper in my ear, are you ready for your endless love affair?
01:16And 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 as much as we
01:38could.
01:39Everyone that we hired was connected to us in some capacity because I know how it feels to be hired,
01:46you know.
01:47I'm so grateful for those who participated in making our day become amazing.
01:52I already had like an idea on a budget.
01:55So 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 Tamika.
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 Tamika.
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 and all black.
02:45Just giving looks, giving style, giving pizzazz.
02:49They did.
02:50I'm real laid back.
02:51So I didn't need any of that.
02:53But we both knew that this is the only time we're getting married.
02:56For 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.
03:07I do.
03:09The ceremony was very short and simple.
03:11I think it was 16 minutes to be exact.
03:1416 minutes.
03:15After our ceremony, they played a bounce love song.
03:18We didn't request that, but in New Orleans,
03:21every song that's out, it gets bounced out
03:23and literally it starts to party.
03:27As we're walking back from down the aisle,
03:29we go in, take our pictures.
03:31The beat, that beat is rolling.
03:33Oh, we also added a little jig music in there.
03:36Shout 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.
03:51Yeah.
03:52But when everything came to play, it was over too fast.
03:56Occasionally, you do have the people,
03:57like the price is not an option.
03:59Write the checks, write 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, so...
04:11Even 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.
04:32You
