00:00Hi, my name is Danielle Cadet and I am the managing editor of Refinery29 Unbothered and
00:05I am currently planning the blackest wedding ever.
00:09My fiance Jonathan and I met about two years ago through a mutual friend.
00:16Jonathan is thoughtful, he's loving, he is my home and he makes me feel safe.
00:22We got engaged in November 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia and we will be getting married in
00:28October 2019 in Washington D.C.
00:31Our engagement was amazing and it was truly the most perfect thing, it was the best thing I could have
00:38asked for.
00:41And you know I listened really closely to him and I can't even lie I blacked out for part of
00:46it.
00:46I can't remember everything he said but I do remember him saying that he just couldn't imagine
00:52his life without me and he didn't know how he even got to this point without me being in his
00:57life but
00:57he didn't want to know what that would be like.
00:59And he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and it was truly the most incredible
01:06moment
01:08that I've ever had in my life.
01:09I started planning my wedding before I was even engaged.
01:12It's going to be black tie, it's going to be beautiful black people.
01:16This evening is all going to be about black excellence.
01:18When I started planning my wedding I really thought about what was important to me,
01:23especially with respect to the vendors that I was working with and how I was spending my money.
01:28My fiance and I will be paying for the wedding with the help of my incredible mother.
01:32Our goal is to spend about 75% of our budget and use 75% of our vendors
01:39for those vendors to be black owned businesses.
01:41I've never planned anything of this magnitude before.
01:44The first thing I do when I don't know where to start, I ask a black woman.
01:49A great friend of mine recommended Nikkei Lewis, Events by Nikkei,
01:53and just like black women always do, she saved us.
01:57The five things that were most important to me were our stationery, our cake, my dress,
02:05our venue, and our rings.
02:09The invitations are really important to me.
02:11From the save the date all the way through the programs, the menu cards, everything,
02:16through a wedding, I really feel like you're communicating something through the stationery that you use.
02:21I came across Isabella Invitations. It's a black woman, her name is Christiana Turner,
02:27and she's based in Houston, Texas, and she just does incredibly beautiful work.
02:32My cake, it's food, but it's also this like artistic installation.
02:36My wedding planner recommended Couture Cakes by Sabrina, which is an incredible DC-based bakery
02:43ran by a black woman named Sabrina, and she is also a soror of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated,
02:51so I was very excited to work with her.
02:54I am that bride who's been thinking about my wedding day since I was a little girl.
02:59I watched countless episodes of Say Yes to the Dress.
03:02I knew that I wanted a fit and flare or a mermaid gown.
03:05I wanted something that was going to show off the few curves that I have.
03:07I don't have a lot, but I have some of them, and they're going to show on the wedding day.
03:10I have a large tribe of black women who all had input on the dress.
03:13So we went shopping, and I wasn't planning on buying anything,
03:16because I felt really passionate about getting something from a black-owned store,
03:19and I absolutely fell in love with an Allison Webb dress.
03:25I was not ready to fall in love with a dress that wasn't designed by a black woman.
03:31The only way that I thought I was able to kind of come to grips with that is if I
03:36got my wedding
03:37alterations done by a black-owned tailor.
03:41Giving the remainder of the money I'm going to spend on my dress and spending that money
03:45in the black community.
03:46I came across an Instagram of a black woman-owned tailor in Washington, D.C.
03:52Cheryl A. Lofton and Associates.
03:55We are getting married at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
04:00I got the wind knocked out of me when I walked into that place.
04:03It feels grand. It really feels appropriate for D.C.
04:07It really matches my vision, and who I think Jonathan and I are as a couple.
04:13It is not a black-owned venue, and that was something that, you know, was very challenging for us.
04:21And not only is it not a black-owned venue, it's a federal building, and there are a lot of
04:25rules
04:25that come with having an event in a federal building, including what vendors you can work with.
04:33I think just like the dress, you kind of spend so much time thinking about what your ring is going
04:39to look like. It's a ring you're going to wear for the rest of your life.
04:41Shout out to my incredible fiancé, who found the only black woman in the Diamond District,
04:47and that's where he bought my engagement ring. Her name is Cheryl Jones.
04:52I felt like it was really important to go back to her for our wedding bands.
04:56While I am trying to plan a very black wedding, and I'm trying to use as many black vendors
05:01as humanly possible, it's not easy, and it takes a lot of time, and it's hard to find,
05:06and, you know, accessibility information is not always readily available.
05:11Honestly, buying black is not the easiest thing. There's a lot you have to do, and a lot of research.
05:16So if you know somebody, and you know a black bride who's trying to do the same thing,
05:20tag her in the comments below.
05:22Thank you so much for watching Refinery29's Unbothered.
