SACHA AND AKEEM // LISA VIGLIOTTA PHOTOGRAPHY

Feb 6

In honour and celebration of Black History Month, we are focusing all of our blog sharing for the month of February on the beauty of BIPOC couples and weddings! We are so lucky to have a beautiful selection of inspiration to share with our readers and our hope is to pair that inspiration along with Black History messaging in order to use our Vineyard Bride platform positively and responsibly.

The first feature in our Black History Month series is this gorgeous 5-year anniversary session from Lisa Vigliotta Photography.

We were able to chat with Sacha and Akeem a little bit more about their love story and why we should be having important conversations around Black History Month, and they provided the most beautiful insight with us! Read on to learn more about Sacha and Akeem.

How did you meet? We met at a backyard party. The funny thing was neither of us wanted to be there but decided to go because of our respective mothers. Akeem walked in and saw me and claimed it was love at first sight and told himself he was going to marry me. We've been together ever since that night.

How long have you been together? Since August 17th, 2013.

Tell us about your engagement story. It was her birthday and I was nervous because I knew I wanted to propose that day but I was not sure if I would receive the ring in time. She never wanted a big public display for her engagement so we went to dinner where I asked her to marry me.

Tell us about your wedding day plans. We were planning a destination wedding but I started to feel overwhelmed since both of our families were not here in Canada and it seemed like too many moving parts to make it work. We ended up getting married at Toronto music gardens on August 17th, 2018. Exactly 5 years after meeting. It was just us and our witnesses.

What would you like to communicate to this platform as we continue our conversations about black history month and interracial marriages? I never realized how much other black couples root for other couples. There are a few times older black couples stopped us with our son and express how happy it makes them to see another black family together. It seems as though people think that the black family is dying and whenever they see a young family it gives them hope.

Did you experience any discrimination because you are an interracial or black couple while you were wedding planning? None.