Donna-Marie and Monne's Modern and Sophisticated Gallery Wedding in Atlanta -Munaluchi Bride

Donna-Marie and Monne’s love story first began on OKCupid when Donnie-Marie, knowing she had just found her future wife, sent Monne a message. After exchanging a few messages they decided to take the leap into a first date, meeting up at Cafe Intermezzo for drinks and dessert. A connection was clear from the beginning, growing over time until they were both certain they had truly met the love of their lives…

Read all about Donna-Marie & Monne’s love story, proposal, and experiences in their modern and sophisticated gallery wedding in Atlanta – featuring a gorgeous cake by MunaLuchi Coterie member For Goodness Cakes.

Wedding Couple: Donna-Marie & Monne
Occupations: Law Firm Partner & Harvard Business School Graduate/Management Consultant
Wedding date: March 31, 2018
Wedding location: Atlanta, GA

Tell us how you met. Monne: We both moved to Atlanta after grad school. Donna sent a (long) message to me on OKCupid, and I responded with a shorter very typical Monne reply. Despite this, we agreed to meet up for drinks and dessert at Cafe Intermezzo. I was pretty sure this was it and told my friend Danielle the same.

Donna-Marie: A few weeks after I moved to Atlanta, I was texting with my best friend (and Maid of Honor) one night while casually browsing dating profiles on this site, OkCupid. I came across Monne’s profile, and I was like hayyy *insert smirking emoji*. I took a screenshot and sent it to my best friend with a message like “look at my future wife” (True story! There are receipts!). I sent Monne an admittedly long and obnoxious message on the dating site, trying to sound way more worldly and cool than I actually am (“Ohh your name is like Monet the painter? He was an impressionist, right?” as I googled Monet). We exchanged a few messages back and forth – mine were overly eager, Monne’s were short and direct with no exclamation points or emoji – and then agreed to meet up for drinks and dessert at Cafe Intermezzo. That first date went really well, despite Monne aggressively friend-zoning me (which she still denies five years later). Eventually I wore her down, and the rest is history.

Tell us all about the proposal. Apparently, we were both ring designing and proposal planning at the same time! Donna-Marie proposed to Monne on February 25, 2017, at Arrington Vineyards in Nashville, TN. It’s where we took our first “real” vacation together. Monne surprised Donna-Marie and proposed to her on February 27, 2017, at Bacchanalia, one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta, GA!

How did you know they were “the one”? Probably about two years in – we both realized this was the person we wanted to build a life with. We still genuinely like each other, we laugh more now than we did when we met five years ago, and she is my absolute favorite person in the world. We were never pressed to be married, but very clear on the fact that we wanted to be with the other forever.

Describe your wedding style. Our wedding style was modern and sophisticated. The wedding took place in an art gallery that had concrete floors and exposed piping. We like clean lines, so the floral arrangements were defined shapes with greenery, all white flowers, and gold accents. We also had candles incorporated into the decor. We had a large bridal party – 21 total plus a flower girl and ring bearer. The entire bridal party wore black. Bridal party included women in dresses, women in suits, and men in suits. Our cake was four tiers, square shaped, and art-inspired.

What was wedding shopping like for you? We both have very demanding careers, so wedding planning was intense! We had a full service wedding planner who is fantastic, and did our best to schedule around my court hearings and Monne’s travel schedule. Wedding dress shopping was fun – we didn’t see each other’s dresses until the day of the wedding. We went to Bridals by Lori which is the bridal salon used in TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta. We went separately, but used the same consultants so that they could ensure the dresses complimented each other. Our favorite parts of wedding planning were the cake tasting and menu tastings.

Did you incorporate any culture into your wedding? Donna-Marie’s family is Jamaican, so we incorporated some Jamaican elements in the food and music. All of the passed appetizers were plays on Jamaican dishes – cocktail vegetable and beef patties, jerk shrimp skewers, jerk chicken lollipops. Donna-Marie’s mother also baked Jamaican rum cakes which were served with the traditional wedding cake and given to guests to take home in custom to-go cake boxes. The DJ incorporated both old school and current Jamaican songs throughout the evening.

Wedding Party gifts: Personalized flasks that fit into their dress and suit pockets.
Favorite item on the menu: Chicken and waffles bar.
First dance song: “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green

What is your best memory from your wedding? Our best memory from the wedding is our first dance. The song was “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. The energy was so high and the room was filled with love. Also, about a minute into the dance, our entire bridal party surrounded us in a circle and danced with us.

What is the best wedding advice you can give to engaged couples? Constantly take time away from the wedding planning to remind each other of why you’re doing it. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, we scheduled lots of dates together – seeing a movie, we took a cooking class, massages, mani/pedis, facials, etc. – so that we could stay connected and spend time talking about what we wanted our marriage to look like.