Real Bride Spotlight: Ericka

Updated: Mar 13, 2020

After Brandon pulled off one of the most incredible and clever proposals of all time, Real Bride Ericka and her husband celebrated their love on a beautiful, sunny day in Norcross, GA. Their wedding ceremony was fun and vibrant with a special focus on utilizing bright colors! Read more about their amazing day below.

Brandon and I were introduced to one another through a mutual friend the week before my 20th birthday when we were in undergrad at Georgia Southern University. He was the first guy that I had ever met that I could talk to for hours. Although he wasn't interested in me from the beginning, after we hung out for a few weeks, I began to think that the feelings were mutual. I wrote him a letter (that he still has) asking if he liked me and, luckily, he told me "yes." We’ve been together now for 6 years!

I had been hoping we'd get engaged for a while and we even went ring shopping, but Brandon told me he couldn’t afford one. Unbeknownst to me, the very day we went and picked out my ring, he had bought it. For months, he was showing everyone in my family and all my close friends...and I had no clue.

One of my best friends was graduating from her Master’s program around the same time of our five year anniversary. Brandon told me we were helping her father plan a surprise celebratory party for her and had to go pick a venue spot at the park in downtown Norcross. And, without knowing it, I had just picked the spot at which we would be engaged just a few hours later. While I thought I was the decoy for my best friend, little did I know she was actually the decoy for me. When we arrived at the park and walked down the stairs, I immediately started bawling because I saw my friends and realized that it wasn’t a party for my friend, but Brandon was asking me to marry him. He had asked all our closest friends and his family (mine couldn’t be there) to attend. They all helped him decorate the gazebo with lights, flowers, and even had music playing in the background. It was more than anything I could’ve dreamed of and the best part of it was I didn’t see it coming.

The theme for my wedding for my wedding was bohemian chic. I wanted brightly colored flowers, lace, lanterns, and anything whimsical. The colors were jade, navy, and ivory. My bridesmaids wore the color jade, my husband, his groomsmen, and my mom wore navy, I wore ivory of course, and so did my husband. I wanted to have bright flowers for my bouquets and decorations. We also had a memorial table for my father and other close loved ones. Brandon and I just wanted to make sure the day was about our families coming together, the merging of two cultures (my husband is Nigerian), and having a good time.

My favorite memory of the day was getting to dance with my husband. I was super uptight before then because the day wasn’t going as planned but when I looked into his eyes while we were dancing every worry just melted away.

My favorite part of the dress was everything, really. I loved the shape and how it made me look. I loved all the details on the dress: the flowers, the lace, the color, and the jewels on the midsection. It was breathtaking. Every time I saw it I just knew, hands-down, I had to wear it for my wedding. I also loved everyone’s reactions to me in the dress. They were always in awe of how great I looked in it.

Finding Wedding Angels was one of the first things that I did. I knew that it would take a while for the dress to come in and wanted to make sure that the experience wasn't stressful. I found Wedding Angels when I was searching online for boutiques to go to.

My Wedding Angels experience was amazing. My family and I had already been to another bridal shop and the experience was night and day! My family had enough room to sit down and relax, we didn’t have to share the room with three other brides, and they were able to take pictures of me in the dress. I really got a chance to focus on myself so that I could make a great decision. Leslie was an amazing stylist and she made the entire experience a lot less stressful and fun!