A picture is a thousand words.

Finding Photography and Videography is a huge portion of the wedding I think because it will be what you take away with you to remember for lifetime besides your own memories.  I have found that a lot of people call themselves photographers and videographers but when you look into their portfolio its not the case and you ask yourself you are really charging people $1000 plus.  Our cousin took this pic and I love it too bad he cant be in the wedding and clone himself to be taking pictures at the same time.  I keep searching and The Knot has a load of vendures for me to start searching for. I want the videography portion of the wedding to really tell a story. We are both actors so we want that artistic side to be reflected in the retelling of our day.  There is a company that I am interested in but they are very expensive. What do you hold the dollars on and what do you splurge on? That is the question when you are on a tight budget. Its fun looking through all the options and seeing what other real couples have done with their weddings.

Flowers

    
     So of course our wedding has to be during love month when flowers go up in price for vendures ugh. Also I just happen to love the peony flower which is not the cheapest flower around. I meet with the florist next week. My plan is to lay out my dream look and then work my way backward to see how to acheive the look for less. I have seen a few sites where they play around with baby breath and other greenery that can add as fillers for less flowers so I will see how that will go over with the florist in terms of lowering the money count.  I have also seen fabric added to the equation for outside weddings. We have a gazebo for the ceremony and I think some fabric along with greenery and a few flowers will do the job of creating my country chic theme. A little country a little city chic!

Here are 10 helpful hints I found on Bridal Guide related to saving money with flowers:

1. Use in-season or locally grown flowers. They're a much better value than the flown-in, hothouse varieties.
2. Holidays can affect prices. Around Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, general demand for flowers increases, as do their costs. On the other hand, if your wedding is held on a holiday, the church or reception site may already be festively decorated with flowers and lights and you'll need less adornment.
3. Add greenery — such as ivory or ferns — to a bouquet or the chuppah. Greenery looks lush, and you'll find it's less expensive than flowers.
4. Choose larger blooms for your bouquets, like orchids and calla lilies. You'll need fewer of them.
5. Add ribbon or tulle to an arrangement — this sweet, romantic detail will make the arrangement look larger and helps keep your expenditures down.
6. Rent trees to decorate the ceremony and reception sites; they look especially romantic when the branches are woven with masses of tiny white lights.
7. Fill in empty table spots with votives or small potted plants that can also be used as wedding favors.
8. Split the cost of decorating a ceremony site with another couple getting married in your church/synagogue on the same day.
9. Let your ceremony bouquets do double-duty. Most florists can creatively repurpose them into centerpieces on reception tables.
10. Elaborate arrangements mean more of your money is going for the florist's labor than for the flowers themselves.

Money does not grow on trees

This wedding planning is a big business. Flowers to cake to officiant to food to appetizers to lighting to music to Dj to rings to licence to dress to tux to photography to videography.
As soon as a venue hears wedding their eyes get big and the smile stretches from ear to ear. They are all thinking I got her let the games begin. One thing I have found is nothing is concrete there is always room for negotiation. I was able to get $2000 off my venue by negotiation and this was after they told me I missed the promotion this and the last day has come that.
It is important to have a team around you that is full of positive energy and support so you don't go insane. Also I am finding it is good to put planning to the side and enjoy being engaged every now and then.

My Girls

Being the planner I am (can't help it I am my mothers child) I came home and immediately alerted my already chosen wedding party and asked them to by my bridesmaids. Briana Cartwright my friend of over 20 years is my maid of honor. We met in performing arts school and later was in a girls group on MCA records back in the day on the label with Chante Moore, Aaron Hall and Damion Hall to name a few. She has gone on to have quite a music career. She is Jack of JDavey. They say there are the love child of prince and erika badu.  My matron of honor is Samara Brown. We met modeling in our early teens. Found out that our moms not only knew each other and went to the same college but my mom had pledged her mom in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.  We have been friends ever since.  My two first cousins are bridesmaids Arlene Davis and Tunai Anderson. They both have a few years of marriage under their belt and both have two kids. Tunai just had her little daughter Christmas eve perfect present for the family.  Nedra Mcclyde is another bridesmaid. We met in Grad School at the Actors Studio Drama School in New York. We quickly became friends and roll dogs from the first week of school. Awe the memories of class, 40/40 club, walking blocks after block , avenue after avenue to get to whatever dance adventure and auditions.  Malaika Billups, Morgan Cox and Saunrica London had been my girls since high school. We have had many memories of families in alliance, a group our parents but together to make sure their children did well in school, drivers ed, prom, dance shows, dance performances at parent functions. Now two are married we went our seperate ways for college but always were able to come back to each other through Los Angeles.

Love my ladies in waiting! They will really help me on this journey and most of them are already married and have kids so they have much knowledge.  So happy they are sharing this moment in time with me. So happy they are going to be by my side when I walk down that aisle to say I Do and become Mrs. Harris.

How We Began

This man right here is exactly who I prayed to God to send me. God does answer prayers. The funny thing about the one finding you is sometimes they are right there under your nose and it just takes you a minute for your eyes to focus. Once your vision clears it hits you like "oh you, you have been there its always been you". From the moment we met we had a chemistry. We were cast as leads in a play and on the first day of rehearsal we were the first actors to arrive so we started talking to each other. Those regular get to know you chit chat "where are you from" "how long have you been acting" "how did you hear about this play" yada yada yada lol. We just clicked as friends and were each other help mates during the process of the play. We were both talking to people not in committed relationships but entertaining the thought with other people.
My mother was very sick and in and out of the hospital at the time and he was there for me during my mourning or "this is so hard" moments. He watched as I took on the new responsibility of caregiver, nurse, phycologist and doctor in 2009. My mothers old house had major water damage that put us in residents inn. I had a diabetic epidsode one day when I was by myself and for some reason I just called him to take me to the hospital. It was then that I was really starting to think "I like this guy". But I waited on him to pursue.  I waited on him to see if he liked me back. Turns out he did and we have been best of friends ever since. The friendship first is what really makes our growing relationship strong.  Fast foward 2 years from 2011 when we became boyfriend and girlfriend feb 25th 2011 to be exact and he has decided to ask for my hand in marriage.

November 8, 2013 in Santa Cruz, California Donovan Harris asked for me Niketa Calame to be his wife. He asked me to marry him and I said yes. We were in Santa Cruz for an UCSC alumni event where I was teaching a drama class and it happened to be my bday weekend. We did a roadtrip instead of flying down which was fun. When we arrived in Santa Cruz we checked into our hotel that overlooked the ocean and the wheather was beautiful.  I thought this is the beginnign of the perfect bday weekend little did I know what was in store.  He had been talking about Natural Bridges a state beach I had told him about that had these natural rock formations that looked like bridges on the water. So we changed and headed out to the beach. When we got there he was a little taken back by the amount of sand he had to walk through to get  to the rock he wanted us to climb. My country boy was acting all city and my city girl instincts left me and I took off my shoes and dove into the sandy beach. We made it to the beach and climbed the rock. I was taking pictures and when I turned round he was on his knee. I was in shock I started laughing and said "are you serious" afterward i was thinking "no he is just playing on his knee has a ring out in front  of you face for nothing"  I then realized what was happening and I said yes. We kissed he put the ring on and it was official, I was know his fiance.

WHICH LEADS US TO THIS BLOG HEADING DOWN THE ROAD TO MARRIAGE!