I love what I do. As a photographer, there is so much joy in making images of folks who love each other in a way that's just palpable — you feel it every time you are around them. This couple, Mareena and Reggie, are like that. They sort of glow with love, and their wedding day was certainly lit up by that glow.
I asked Mareena to write a narrative about their day and the relationship that lead up to it, to go along with some photos we chose. Here's what she had to say:
Reggie and I met my freshman year at Florida A&M University. He was a junior, newly minted frat guy, and I was newcomer on the FAMU yard. We were friends for 7 months before we started dating; the friendship stage was largely due to me playing hard to get, according to Reggie.
We became a solid unit over the four years we dated, mainly because in the very beginning of our relationship we agreed to allow our relationship to grow at its own pace, without any outside pressure. Being older than me, Reggie decided to pursue his master’s degree in Tallahassee, which allowed us to stay together and keep building our relationship. After four years together, it was time for me to graduate and go off to graduate school in Boston, and it was then that Reggie asked me to marry him. Since day one, Reggie has always made our relationship a priority, and never shied away from stepping up to the plate to be the man that I want, so saying ‘yes’ was an absolute no brainer. I knew I found ‘my one’.
As fiancés, we moved to Boston so I could start my doctoral program in nuclear engineering at MIT. Needless to say, we both had a lot on our plate, me getting oriented in my new school setting and Reggie working tirelessly to get his marketing start-up, Ghost Note Agency, off the ground. We decided to wait to get married until I passed my doctoral qualifying exam. Secretly, as the bride, I wasn’t looking forward to the wedding planning process, but once I passed my exam, Reggie and I agreed we would plan the wedding as a team. Really, I would be the captain and Reggie would be the coach, providing me the much-needed pep talks and context for those more stressful moments.
Going into the planning, we firmly decided that we would have the wedding we wanted. Neither of us are high maintenance, so we wanted a wedding that felt effortlessly fabulous, and focused on sharing this special occasion with those who are dearest to us. We knew we wanted to party, and highlight the big city personality of Boston, and we focused our planning on those elements at each step. Luckily our ‘effortlessly fabulous’ wedding aesthetic lent to our desire to keep a responsible budget. Since we are both in our mid-twenties, and currently building our lives, we wanted to be as clever as possible in achieving the looks that we wanted without breaking the bank.
