Our #GLBride of the week is the gorgeous Bijon Vaughn, who married her best friend and love of her life in our Thelma gown. The two made it official with a luxuriously themed wedding in scenic Mexico. In the following interview, Bijon shares with us what she loved most about her special day, and the moment she realized our Thelma was the ONE. As told by Bijon:
How did you meet your husband? Tell us a little bit about your relationship.
We met through my cousin Joss. They played football together in college and the three of us had all moved to LA around the same time. We instantly became platonic best friends and stayed that way for about 5 years until I invited him to my sisters’ wedding as my date and my family fell in love with him. The rest is history.
How did he propose?
He proposed in Boston at the Elizabeth Stewart Gardner museum in their infamous and gorgeous courtyard. He told me to crouch down low to the ground because he wanted me to get a selfie of us with the gorgeous background – he later told me he just needed an excuse to get the ring box out of his sock where he was hiding it! We stood up and he started saying some of the most beautiful things to me and then he got down on one knee. I completely burst into tears, it was beautifully shocking to me. I had no idea what he had up his sleeve!
How did you start planning your wedding? What were the first steps?
We love to travel and knew instantly we wanted a destination wedding. One of the biggest tools was using the website venuererport.com you can search by country, state, or city, and it’s basically a database for venues with all the detailed info you need to get started! Once we chose our destination we started interviewing wedding planners via Skype.
Did you do any beauty or fitness prep for your big day?
I’ve always been active but I did enlist my trainer and friend to help us get into tip-top shape! Rob and I did couples sessions with him 3x/wk and we even went vegan a month before the wedding. I also made sure to get a super luxurious facial two weeks before the wedding.
What was your wedding theme?
Luxe jungle oasis (definitely made it up myself lol).
How did you choose your location?
After we decided to have it in Mexico and had booked our wedding planners. We then decided to take a trip to visit venues. We saved our first choice to visit last because we wanted to be unbiased when seeing all the other options. I must say that was the best choice we made!
How did you decide on your bridesmaid style?
I love to be different and stand out and I knew that I wanted to play with different tones of dresses within the same color scheme. It turned out beautifully! Definitely worth the headache.
How did you find your perfect dress?
I have always followed Galia and have always loved Beyonce and loved her dress she wore for her vow renewal. I also knew that I wanted something glam but classy and figure-hugging, which is exactly what Galia is known for! After a couple of failed attempts and poor customer service at a bridal salon in LA, I decided to make an appointment at Galia’s flagship in LA. Anthony took amazing care of listening to what I wanted and after two appointments and trying on many dresses I was like “I’m sure this is out my budget but can I just try the “Beyonce” dress? I had no idea how much I would fall in love with it once I put it on. It was as if it was made for me!
How was your experience with the Galia Lahav brand?
Absolutely wonderful! Again, I can’t speak highly enough about Anthony and how he handled my experience. When I was worried he was helpful and when things were great he kept me on track to find the dress of my dreams!
What was the most important thing for you and your husband when planning your wedding?
Honestly, everything was important to us because we really got specific when it came to details. But overall we wanted every aspect of our wedding to reflect our personal styles, to give our friends and family a glimpse into the way we live, travel, and enjoy life.
What was your first wedding song?
Our first dance song was a duet by Tamia and Eric Benet called, “Spend my life”.
What did you enjoy the most about planning your wedding?
DETAILS. DETAILS. DETAILS. I’m a person that notices everything so I fully enjoyed personalizing everything from the name plates for dinner, to the colours of the flowers, to the signature his and her cocktails we had.
What advice would you give to all our future brides?
I would say to go big or go home. It’s your big day, do exactly what you want and don’t ask others for input on things until you’ve whittled things down to maybe two options. By asking for advice before you’ve honed in yourself, you will just confuse the heck out of yourself. Also for any destination brides, hire your wedding planners before you go to visit the venue! This way you only need to visit the location hopefully once before the big day. By doing this, when you do go to visit your planners they are already under contract and you can get more done by visiting vendors and multiple venues. Instead of wasting a trip there just to choose a planner.
What moment from your wedding will you never forget?
I will never forget the feeling of accomplishment that my husband and I shared when we first walked into our reception.
