Wedding Inspiration: Black Love Matters Styled Shoot

Well this one was certainly a month-long week, wasn’t it? We lost RGB, we saw another justice system disturbingly fail another Black person (and their family), we hit a terrifying death count milestone with COVID, our Health Care (and the safety net of pre-existing conditions) seems to be on the chopping block … and yeah, well it was a heavy one.

I spent a lot of the week donating, ensuring I talked to some White family members that might be on the voting fence, and sharing as many resources as possible on my Instagram platform. But I also continually come back to this blog, and why Kara and I are still spending energy sharing these posts and images. And I’ll maintain, that seeing love, seeing Black love, seeing diverse love, and same-sex love, and all identities of love, is a poignant antidote to the unending awful that is being forced upon us.

We must still make art, sing songs, drink wine with friends (from an outdoor distance), march, and take time to find Joy. We have to – it’s the only way we will survive, to be able to keep fighting the systems and politics that have gotten us to this point.

So for today, I am honored that we get to publish and share a styled shoot that was 100% dedicated and centered on Black Lives. Black Joy, Black Love, Black Couples, Black Lives. They matter and we must continue to say that, spread that, and stand-up for that.

From the photographer: An interesting thing happened in 2020 besides the global pandemic, the quarantine lockdown, and the BLM movement. Due to those three decisive factors, a spotlight was shown on the inequality that has perpetuated the wedding industry. Couples and wedding vendors were beginning to notice, and speak up about the discrepancy of who was being featured in mainstream wedding media. Everyone gets married, but it was common for black couples to be overlooked in major wedding publications. It was shown that not only couples of color were not being represented by many publications, but also black wedding professionals were not being featured.

This was one of the main reasons my husband and I started our wedding photography business, Megapixels Media. When we were engaged and looking for wedding inspiration on Pinterest, Google, and Instagram we couldn’t find any couples who looked like us. You don’t realize how discouraging that is until you’re in the midst of the planning process. That was over six years ago, and although the representation of black couples is improving, there is still a lot of work to be done!

Which brings us to this shoot! When Fayola, of Creative Motion Events, reached out and expressed interest in this idea, we agreed to do it only if the vendors that we worked with are behind the notion that Black Love Matters, and that they are willing to graciously serve and promote all couples despite skin tone, ethnic background, and sexual orientation. We were thrilled with the diverse team that came together! Not only were these vendors diverse, but they were all genuinely excited about the message, and willing to do any and everything to make this couple’s shoot unique, and inspiring to other engaged couples.

This couple was supposed to get married in Kenya this past August, but due to COVID, they eloped earlier this year in Maryland. We wanted Haven Street Ballroom to have some Motherland charm, so we adorned the space with earthy tones and furniture. There were also African details on the stationary, and Africa shaped cookies. We chose a warm color palette of orange, red, and green, with an accent of blue to decorate their shoot. The florist used tiger lilies, red sunflowers and roses together to create the perfect bouquet and table spread. She even created an armband so our bride could have a bouquet, even when she didn’t feel like holding it. Warm florals were also used on their hand painted cake with matching macarons.

Our couple completed this look with two very unique wedding attire choices. Jordan, our bride, wore a desert sand colored dress that clung to her curves, and made her feel like a queen, while Pierre, our groom, wore a powder blue suit, and camel toned beret. Jordan was dripping gold, literally, from head to toe, while Pierre exemplified rose gold details in his outfit. The two exemplified Black Power and the way they spoke to one another let us know that they were all for the message that BLACK LOVE MATTERS.