Colorful African Wedding at The Farmhouse

January 30, 2023 Cillia Marion

These military lovebirds had a Houston wedding that was full of joy, love, and vibrant colors. Let’s get into it!

Izzie (Axihah) and Joshua are both in the Airforce and planned their dream wedding all the way from Japan. They were stationed there throughout the process and were only able to visit America twice during their engagement. Needless to say, communication was KEY. While our beautiful couple was coming from Japan, his family mostly lived in Jersey and a lot of her family lived in Houston however they are both African, his side from Cape Verde and hers from Tanzania, so they had over 200 guests and some of them coming all the way from Tanzania. Luckily The Farmhouse is a large venue and this wasn’t our first time at the rodeo.

All of their personal touches are what made the day that much more memorable. We found a tailor to line the inside of the men’s suit jackets with the flags of the countries each groomsman was from. They turned out better than we expected and the idea has been praised by guests and onlookers alike. For the bridesmaids, I took the bride's favorite colors in the color palette and created a custom roster of dresses for them to choose from. This way, I could establish the right color mix and avoid the bride having to stress over what each person wore - that’s the last thing she needed to be worried about from the other side of the world. The colorful ombre of gowns with the mix of styles came together beautifully, effortlessly complimenting each other. The bride loved fall vibes but wanted it elegant, so we chose The Farmhouse for a clean look and created dark, vibrant decor, flowers, and details. It came together in perfect harmony.

A wedding of this size comes with its fair share of challenges but that’s exactly why a planner is such an essential vendor to hire. Organizing the reception was one of the biggest hurdles when managing that many guests. During the planning process, we made a custom seating chart but after adding and changing guests so many times, it was irrelevant once the wedding came around. To fix this issue, I stationed my team members at the doors with tablets or phones, distributed the updated table plan, and had them search for the person's name and tell them their table assignments. I also created table numbers and place cards so that when they got to their table, they knew which seat was theirs. We also found a hotel 20 minutes away with a shuttle deal but we convinced them to contract the shuttle for free after a certain number of rooms were booked at our group rate. When we say we treat your wedding like our own, we mean it!

We hand-cut all of the napkins from cheesecloth, did all of the setup, design, decor, and flowers, hired all vendors, created the invitation, and everything else that falls under our scope. We even scheduled all of their appointments, mailed their invitations all over the world, and tracked their RSVPs. There were many adventures when planning this wedding but we made it happen and it turned out magical.

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