by Katie Rogers via nytimes.com
Few love stories resemble a fairy tale as much as the courtship and marriage of Ariana Austin and Joel Makonnen. Of course, it helped that the groom is an actual prince and the bride has a prominent lineage of her own. Mr. Makonnen, known as Prince Yoel, is the 35-year-old great-grandson of Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia. And Ms. Austin, 33, is of African-American and Guyanese descent; her maternal grandfather was a lord mayor of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana.
As the couple noted on their wedding website, their union happened when “Old World aristocracy met New World charm.” The old and new combined on Sept. 9, in a marathon day of events that lasted from 11 a.m. until late in the evening, and took place within two states.
The festivities began with a ceremony at the Debre Genet Medhane Alem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Temple Hills, Md. In an incense-filled sanctuary, guests in stockinged feet watched as at least 13 priests and clergymen helped officiate the Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony between Mr. Makonnen and Ms. Austin, who just days before had converted to the religion.
Hours after the ceremony, the pair celebrated with a formal reception at Foxchase Manor in Manassas, Va., with 307 guests, amid gold sequins, platters of Ethiopian food and preboxed slices of Guyanese black cake for people to take home. Their marriage had been more than a decade in the making. In the nearly 12 years since they first met on a dance floor at the Washington nightclub Pearl, in December 2005, Mr. Makonnen and Ms. Austin have pursued degrees, jobs and, at times, each other. Eventually, planning a wedding just became the next item on this ambitious couple’s to-do list. “I think we both had this feeling that this was our destiny,” Ms. Austin said. “But I felt like I had things that I had to do.”
When the two met, Mr. Makonnen didn’t tell Ms. Austin about his royal background, and Ms. Austin, who was 21 at the time, wasn’t necessarily looking to meet her future husband. She was in the middle of a time in her life she fondly referred to as “the summer that never ended.” Mr. Makonnen, himself in bachelor mode, approached Ms. Austin and her friend Jami Ramberan, and told the two women that they looked like models for a brand of alcohol. “I said, ‘You guys look like an ad for Bombay Sapphire,’ or whatever the gin was,” Mr. Makonnen recalled of the pickup line, one now infamous with Ms. Austin’s family. (At the wedding, even Ms. Ramberan, a bridesmaid, recalled the strangeness of that evening: “You don’t expect to meet the person you’re going to marry at Pearl.”) Mr. Makonnen quickly focused on Ms. Austin: “Not even five minutes later I said, ‘You’re going to be my girlfriend.’ ”
To read full article, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/fashion/weddings/she-met-her-prince-the-great-grandson-of-haile-selassie.html
Posts tagged as “weddings”
Rapper Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose have finally become Mr. and Mrs. after deciding to get married in a courthouse on Monday, and they are planning to hold a ceremony later this year. “Me and Amber got married today. Wedding’s this fall. Thought I’d let y’all know,” the new dad tweeted on Monday.
Rose gave fans a hint on Instagram last week that their marriage was near when she posted a photo of Wiz with the caption, “My soon to be husband…. I Love his crazy hair @mistercap :-)”
However, many wondered whether or not they held secret nuptials without anyone ever knowing back in January when the then-pregnant Rose used the H-word after a videographer in Los Angeles gave her a Ninja Turtles ice cream bar.
“My husband loves Ninja Turtles! That’s really cute, thank you,” she told him. Wiz popped the question back in March 2012, and announced the happy news on Twitter. “She Said Yes!!!” the rapper wrote, and included a pic of his fiancée’s hand flashing a gorgeous and blinding engagement ring.
Shortly after, Rose tweeted, “He has made me the Happiest Woman in the World!!!!”
The couple welcomed their first child together, a son named Sebastian ‘The Bash’ Taylor Thomaz, in February. “He’s a good boy,” Rose gushed with a smile.
article by Bruna Nessif via eonline.com
Visionary “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas wed Ariel Investments president Mellody Hobson before an intimate gathering at Skywalker Ranch, in Marin County, California, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 22.
This is the first marriage for Hobson, 44, who wore a white dress by Peter Soronen and changed skirts between the ceremony and the party. Lucas, 69, has been married once before, to film editor Marcia Griffin. They adopted a daughter together, and Lucas adopted two more children after they divorced, in 1983. Lucas’ son, Jett, was his best man, and his daughters, Katie and Amanda, served as bridesmaids.
In addition to serving as president of Ariel Investments, Hobson is chairman of Dreamworks Animation and a financial contributor with CBS.