Atlanta Sangria and Cobalt Garden Wedding by Sophia Barrett Studios: Kenya + Kareem

Kenya and Kareem met in college through a mutual friend and they have been inseparable ever since. During their eight year courtship, the couple carried on a long distance relationship for four years! However, their love and dedication to each other paid off. Kareem pulled off a clever engagement. Instead of giving Kenya an engagement ring, he initially gave her an engagement watch. She accepted, and Kareem followed with another gift- a new pair of shoes. As Kareem was placing the shoes on her feet, she noticed something shiny roll out the shoe box—a ring!

The couple wanted a wedding that was colorful and simple, to match their personalities. You are going to love Kenya’s sangria shoes and Kareem’s matching sangria and cobalt bow tie! Their wedding was captured by the fantastic Sophia Barrett Studios and also shared with our friends over at Ebony. Read on as Kenya describes her perfect day!

• Bride: Kenya Engram- Activity Therapist for Budd Terrace Wesley Woods, a long term care and rehabilitation facility for the geriatric population
• Groom: Kareem Engram- IT technician for Fidelity Bank
• Wedding Date: July 15, 2012
• Location: Little Gardens Lilburn, GA

How They Met

From the Bride: We actually meet in college at Oakwood University in 2005, almost 8 years ago! It was in the cafeteria of the school, which Kareem never went into, but for some reason that day he did. That day he decided to eat lunch with a mutual friend of ours, and ended up at my table right next to me. I was in a heated conversation with our mutual friend and needed someone to agree with me. Putting my hand on his arm, I turned to him, looked straight into his eyes, smiled, and asked him did he agree. He says when he looked into my eyes and I touched him, he felt something and from that moment he knew I was the one. From that day, we were inseparable and the rest is history:-)

The Proposal 

I had gone to visit him for the 4th of July in 2011 after not seeing him for a while (we had been long distance for about 4 years by this point.) It was the day before the 4th of July and we had gotten back to his dad’s house after a day of hanging out. We were just sitting in the living room watching TV with his dad and I noticed Kareem was sweating but just figured he was just hot. All of a sudden his dad went and got his camera, which I didn’t think anything of it until Kareem started talking to me. Kareem started his speech about how much we’ve been through and how much he loved me and also started to apologize for not having money to do “this” the right way with a ring. Before I knew it, he was on one knee holding up this kind of old ladies target watch, asking me to marry him! I think I asked him if he was serious about five times before I said YES, lol! After putting the watch on my wrist, he told me he got something else for me since he couldn’t afford my ring and brought out these gorgeous BCBG shoes we had just seen earlier that day! I literally screamed at seeing them, and I was definitely more excited about the shoes than the watch. He sat down beside me and put on one shoe and I immediately pranced around until he made me sit down to put the other one on. When he took the second shoe out of the box, something shiny rolled out onto the floor, and it happened to be my ring. He then took off the watch, laughing at my shock and finally put the ring on my finger!

 Wedding Inspiration

For our wedding, we knew we wanted it to be full of life, color, and fun, but also simple. I guess you can say a lot like us. The most important to us for our wedding day was to be surrounded with our loved ones that knew us and supported us and for our love ones to thoroughly enjoy themselves celebrating with us. We were adamant about great food and great music!

Wedding Challenges

Probably the most challenging at least for me was trying to plan a wedding being the only one in town and on an extremely tight budget! It wasn’t until Kareem moved to Atlanta that the process seemed much easier to handle. And thankfully we have the most amazing family and friends that pitched right in the nick of time to make our day wonderful! To save money, we, including friends and family did a lot of things on our own like our invitations, table numbers and our bridal party flowers. Keeping it simple, we didn’t do too much for wedding decor because we purposely chose Little Gardens for its natural beauty. It is a small manor that is nestled in the most amazing greenery and gardens. Our ceremony was behind the manor in their garden right in front of a gorgeous small waterfall that puddled into a pond and the reception inside in their intimate banquet hall. Our cobalt and sangria colors with various peacock accents just blended so well with the already vibrant scenery!

 Most Memorable Part of the Wedding

The most memorable part of the wedding was holding Kareem’s hands while facing each other during our ceremony. It seemed as if time stood still and the only thing that mattered at that moment was me and him, and our sacred commitment to each other.

 You Make Loving You so Easy

From the Bride:

Kareem says he loves my eyes the most, because that is what drew him to me. He says whenever he looks into my eyes he get the most peaceful feeling.

I absolutely love how on the worst possible days, he can make me laugh and brighten my day. It’s his way of letting me know that everything will always be okay because things won’t be bad always.

• Wedding Dress: Bride Beautiful, Sandy Springs, GA (www.bridebeautifulinc.com)
• Wedding Shoes: Macy’s (www.macys.com)
• Bridal Alterations: Lace Alterations Atlanta, GA (http://www.bridalalterationsatlanta.com
• Hair: Danielle Carrington, Hair Stylist Like the River Salon (www.liketheriver.com)
• Makeup: Ingra Knight
• Photographer: Sophia Barrett Studios (sophia-barrett.com)
• Ceremony and Reception Location: Little Gardens Lilburn, GA (littlegardens.com)
• Ceremony and Reception Decor: A Divine Event (adivineevent.com)
• Reception Music: Sim Stevens and Friends (http://www.reverbnation.com/simstevenson)
• Photo Booth: Red Eye Photo Booths (www.redeyephotobooths.com
• Wedding cake and cupcakes: Bliss- McDonough, GA (www.blissmcdonough.com
• Wedding Programs: Creating Paper A Memory (http://www.etsy.com/shop/creatingapapermemory)