Therese and Ja'Marr's Intimate Church Wedding in North Carolina -Munaluchi Bride

When Therese’s mother announced one day after work, “I found my son-in-law,” Therese responded with dismissive skepticism, not really paying the comment any mind. But as the saying goes, “mother knows best.” Soon enough Therese would find herself in complete agreement, and on the path to fulfilling her mother’s prophecy…

Read all about Therese & Ja’Marr’s love story, romantic surprise proposal, and ceremony & reception experiences in their intimate traditional church wedding and beautiful ballroom reception – perfectly captured by North Carolina MunaLuchi Coterie Ambassador Dajuan Jones of In His Image Photography, and event planning, design & decor by MunaLuchi Coterie member Sabrina Seymore of Sabrina Seymore Events. See the entire vendor list below, and the complete selected image gallery here.

Bride & Groom: Therese & Ja’Marr
Wedding Date: October 1st 2016
Wedding Location: Union Baptist Church. Durham, North Carolina
Reception Location: Grand Marquis Ballroom. Garner, North Carolina

Tell us how you met and all about the proposal.
One day my mom came home from work and said “I found my son-in law!” She explained that he was handsome and shared the same birthday as my oldest brother. I did not pay much attention to her comment as I responded by saying “Oh okay,” as if I was not interested. The following week, I went to eat lunch with her and this fine guy walked through the break room. I asked who he was and she said, “That’s the guy I was telling you about!” She said I’ll introduce you to him when he comes back through. I begged her not to and explained that I will come back the following day prepared to meet him. This particular day my hair was back in a pony tail and I had on an ugly set of scrubs. She agreed with my plan, but as soon as he walked through the break room she yelled, “Ja’Marr, let me introduce you to my daughter!” I was so embarrassed and could not believe that she ignored my request. After learning each others’ names we shook hands, smiled at each other, and the rest is history. I guess I did not look bad after all because he stayed around and now we are married!

The proposal: As we waited for the server to take our drink orders Ja’Marr became impatient, so he left the table looking for our server. It seemed like he was away from the table for a LONG time. I sat there patiently as I listened to relaxing music and viewed the ocean from afar. When Ja’Marr returned with the waiter he asked me to stand to take a picture. I was a little reluctant at first because I still had on my chill clothes from the flight. I love to take pictures, so I stood beside him and began to smile and pose. After the last picture, I went closer to the server to view all the photos. To my surprise all the pictures were dark and blurry! As I turned around to show Ja’Marr how terrible the pictures were, he was down on one knee! My eyes lit up in excitement as tears of joy rolled down my cheeks. I was surprised and could not believe that I was standing in the very moment that I had always dreamt of. It was the PERFECT proposal and I can not imagine a more beautiful setting for something so romantic. It was truly a picture perfect “DAYE!”

Where did your wedding take place? We chose to have our ceremony in the church because I always wanted to have a church wedding, so we reached out to our Pastor. Since our church was smaller, he advised us to have our wedding ceremony at his mentor’s church. We took his advice and had a marvelous ceremony at a bigger church that allowed us to invite more people.
For the reception we chose the Grand Marquise Ballroom because there was no other venue that compared. The staircase and the chandeliers took our breath away immediately. Everything about the Grand Marquise complimented our style and we could not pass up a perfect venue.

Describe your wedding style. I like to take pictures and he loves to be my photographer, so we came up with the hashtag “PicturePerfectDAYE.” We really wanted to play off that hashtag. So we kept everything simple yet elegant as we included pictures of ourselves throughout the reception. We had our engagement pictures at the entrance of the venue, an edible engagement picture on our cake, and our chairs at the head table had Mr & Mrs in a picture frame.
The flowers were put together by Embellished Blooms. We had Fuchsia Orchids to compliment the colors of the wedding.
My bridal party consisted of 6 Bridesmaids, 1 Matron of Honor, and 1 Maid of Honor. The girls participated in Bridal Bootcamp, which was a fun way for all of us to connect and have a great time while getting in shape for the big day. They helped me plan a beautiful Southern Belle brunch for my bridal shower. Last, but not least we flew to Vegas for the Bachelorette weekend!
There was 6 groomsmen and two best men. The groomsmen were dapper in their tailored tuxedos. The guys enjoyed a bachelor trip in Miami.

What was wedding shopping like for you? My wedding dress was ivory with a taupe underlay and it was created by Monique Lhuillier. I had a sweetheart neckline with lace detail. The dress was fitted to my knees with more lace detail along one side of the dress. My shoes were gold with a brooch at the toes made by Jimmy Choo. My earrings and bracelet was by Givenchy and it was gold to match my wedding ring.

Favorite item on the menu: We loved all of our food that was cooked by Unforgettable Food Affairs. The food was definitely unforgettable, our friends and family are still talking about how good everything tasted!

Did you do anything special for the honeymoon? We went to St.Lucia, which is in the East Caribbean. It was our first time together going to the Caribbean. We stayed at one of Sandals’ all exclusive resorts that was beyond beautiful, and we really enjoyed the different cultures plus how friendly the people were on the island. Furthermore, we stayed in the honeymoon suite which came with a butler that we really took advantage of, by the end of the trip we wanted to bring the butler back to the States with us!

What is your best memory from your wedding? The Bride – My best memory is being walked down the aisle with my brother and father by my side.
The Groom -My best memory is being introduced at the reception.
Bride & Groom – We both really enjoyed our first dance too!

What is the best wedding advice you can give to engaged couples? We will tell engaged couples to follow your heart when it comes to making decisions for your special day. Do not make decisions based off of others. Think about what is best for you and your significant other. We followed our hearts and we had the best time ever! My advice for future brides is, “Don’t worry about a thing because every little thing is going to be alright.” -Bob Marley