Meron + Michael: High School Sweethearts Say 'I Do'

Her Big Day Team
Mar 9, 2017
5 min read

Name: Meron & Michael

Wedding location: Hangar 30

Date: September 10 and 11, 2016

Number of guests: 800

Culture Represented: Ethiopian

Description of theme of wedding:

There wasn't necessarily an overall theme to our wedding, rather every aspect of the wedding from the gift bags to our clothing was a representation of who we are. We are high school sweethearts, so every detail of our wedding had a meaning behind it.

The most memorable part of your wedding:

There were so many memorable events that occurred at our wedding, I honestly couldn't narrow it down. Every moment was remarkable and beautiful. Our fondest memory is when Mike and I used the same song that our parents did, the iconic Tilahun Gessesse Yehiwote Hiwot for our first dance.

Did you do anything unique, crazy, and fun?

Our wedding took place on Ethiopian New Year's Eve, making it very unique. All of our guests counted down to welcome the new year. The countdown was epic! Champagne was popped, everyone was cheering with excitement and anticipation. If I may, I want to give a shout-out to our amazing bridal party, it was LIT!

Another unique factor we incorporated into every detail, from the invitations all the way down to Snapchat filters and name tags, was our Tilet design. I loved our signature treats. M&Ms with our picture, and names on them. Also, we included Chapstick with our wedding date and "thank you" written in Amharic letters. Our Tej & Tela bottles had our prom picture on them bringing a big part of us and our history into the wedding.

For the 2nd day, Melse, the women of our family wore matching traditional Ethiopian dresses. We had over 70 dresses made in Ethiopia and they were beautiful, When we walked in we were greeted by all these women who had candles and they stood all in a line to make a walkway for us; it was a beautiful scene!

Difficult part of planning your wedding:

The most difficult part of planning the wedding was finding the venue that would accommodate the amount of guests we had and uphold our standards at the same time. Another struggle we came across, our invitations specifically stated, this event would be an adult only wedding. I've heard of other brides struggling with the issue of having some guests bring children. It's a touchy topic because of our culture. I personally am still not sure of a solution for this sticky situation, but I'd advise future brides to tread lightly.

Easiest part about planning your wedding:

The easiest part of planning my wedding was finding my dress. I loved every dress I tried on, every dress felt like the ONE! Ultimately it came down to eany-meany-miney-mo...just kidding it was Comfort!

Word of Wisdom:

Planning a habesha wedding can get overwhelming at times, trust me. The one piece of advise I can give, please try not to loose yourself over it. I felt that brides that planned habesha weddings had the most advise and understood the stresses of planning more than anyone else in my life! Having someone with common ground definitely put me at ease. Trust me when I tell you to talk to brides who have experienced this, you don't want to burn any bridges with other people in your life who simply don't get it! If you are a Seattle bride holler at me!

Also, don't let anyone tell you something is too far out of reach, girl this is YOUR wedding, if you have a vision then you can make it happen, don't let anyone tell you different! Lastly, something I found incredibly helpful was delegating one person specifically to be my "wing woman" - it can be anyone from a family member to a wedding planner...She made sure everything went smoothly and kept us on a schedule, I can't thank her more!

Vendors:

Bride Attire: The White Dress Designer: Kitty Chen

Since I went all the way to Portland, Oregon to shop it was great that I only had to go to one store where I found both of my dresses. They were both made by the same designer. The people at the store were extremely helpful. Also, I didn't bother with the traditional and painful dread of trying to make it through the day in heels. Comfort was everything to me, I had custom, hand-made converse with our wedding date on it...and of course studded with pearls and rhinestones because I'm such a diva☺️😂 They are forever keepsake I will always have to remember my special day.

Makeup: Hilra Preston

I want to bow down to my makeup artist. He is a long time friend of mine and truly a miracle worker. He will bring out the best you there is.

Hair:

I had two hair styles. My morning ceremony hair style was done by Hilra. And the reception style was done by Colina Barlow who is also amazing!!!

Groom's Attire:

Mike's attire was all custom made- I mean Custom! He had two suits and we chose everything from the stitching, the thread, buttons, style and cut. The detailing on both of his suits were incredible. He had our names and wedding date stitched to his coat. Both of his suits were made at Indochino and we were very happy to find this place. Indochino is located in Vancouver Canada even though we had to leave a country for it it was all worth the trip.

Photographer:

Ron Espina was awesome and easy to work with. I strongly recommend him.

Videographer: Sunset Video Production

Zelalem was easy to work with, he incorporated some of our creativity extended our Telte logo and writing sup text in our video. We're very happy how our video turned out!

Wedding planner: Myself

Wedding Decorator: Decor N' Design

Lena knows the habesha culture and she's with it!!!! I love love, Love everything she did. She went above and beyond to make my day what it was. I strongly recommend her!

Invitation: Perfect Press

Cake: Morfey's cakes

I hate doing this but I must say, my wedding cake was a nightmare. All I'm trying to do is save future brides from this disaster! It was missing two whole layers, due to being held up by straws instead of cake pillars. It looked NOTHING like the cake I originally ordered and paid for. Thankfully nobody noticed. After the fact, I tried to reach out to the owner who ended up being super dismissive and unreasonable about the whole situation. My cake was the first thing I noticed when I walked in the room, I was so disappointed and embarrassed. I would strongly NOT recommend!

Catering: Felege (206) 788-6873

Lighting: Hollywood lights

Transpiration: A's limo

Entertainment: Wedding singer: Mesfin Zeberga Band: Lucy Band

Traditional clothes: From Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Henna: Neha's Mehandi Art

Traditional decorator: Bluch Touch Wedding and Decor

Read Meron+Michael's Engagement Feature HERE and find out how they met and how he proposed!!