Meron + Tim: A One Day Culture Fusion Wedding

Her Big Day Team
May 10, 2017
3 min read

Bride: Meron Tekle

Groom: Timothy Ortega

Location: Houston, TX

Wedding Date: January 7th, 2017

Venue: Ayva Center

Number of Guests: 450

Cultures Represented: Eritrean-American

Description or Theme of wedding: We did a one day wedding that blended the church ceremony, American reception and Melsi (traditional Eritrean wedding) into one event.

The most memorable part of your wedding: The entrance into the reception was amazing! I love how Habesha wedding entrances make you feel like a King and Queen when walking in! I also loved the drums, the flowers, and decor.

Did you do anything unique, crazy or fun: We had the first half of the reception at Dave and Busters. I went in my white wedding dress straight from church and we drank, played games and had a blast!

What was the most difficult part about planning your wedding: My Eritrean family. Trying to get them to understand that they could not just take over the wedding and exclude the other culture was very difficult. Especially when dealing with African men, it can be difficult to get them to be open minded.

What was the easiest part about planning your wedding: My husband; he was so laid back. Every time there was an issue, he reminded me what really mattered was that we were getting married, and all the other stuff was just extra.

Any words of wisdom to the couple planning their wedding: Think about one or two things that really matter to you and make sure those things happen. Don’t try to stress about every little thing! Also, if you are having a mixed cultural wedding, try to always include elements of both cultures and make sure the in-laws aren’t left out.

What would be your major Dos & Don'ts of a planning and executing a ONE day Habesha wedding:

A definite Don't is thinking you can travel to your vendors. I planned on travelling to the makeup artist and henna artist and it resulted in me being two hours late to the reception/melsi. Definitely know that you will be in a time crunch so have every vendor come to you, pack snacks and water to have food for yourself throughout the day and schedule everything.

A definite Do is to plan to take pictures the day or week after the wedding day. Realistically, with the one day wedding and wardrobe change, you won't have that 2 - 3 hour window between the ceremony and reception/melsi to take bridal party pictures. We just accepted that and instead took pictures the following afternoon. My hair at that point was curly and natural and the dress slightly wrinkled, so we just did a graffiti wall photo shoot to make it all look like it was on purpose.

You have to go into the one day wedding knowing that there will be some sacrifices, there just isn't time to do it all. That was the sacrifice I planned for, having my bridal photos be a more casual photo shoot the next day. Pre-plan what you are going to cut out, don't try to cram it all into one day.