My name is Feven. I’m 29 years old. I was born and raised in Eritrea. I moved to the U.S. When I was 14 years old. I’m a financial analysis. As of right now Columbia, MO is our summer home, but during basketball season my husband and I live overseas due to his career. My husband is a professional basketball player. Laurence and I met on April 21st, 2009 at a local bar.  We started dating on August of 2009. We were college sweethearts. We dated 4 years before he proposed on 7.26.2013 and got married 7.25.2015. My husband (so weird using the term husband lol) is from Memphis, Tennessee but attended the University of Missouri  in Columbia, MO, which is where I grew up from the age 14 and on. Laurence popped the question on 7.26.13. It’s weird because, I am really good at sensing when Laurence is up to something, but this day I had no clue. It all started off with a surprise visit from Laurence, because at the time he was training in Florida in preparation for his rookie season.  He came into town and took me out for an early dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Columbia, MO named CC City Broiler. During our dinner He excused himself for an important “fake” phone call from an ex teammate asking him to come play basketball at Mizzou Arena. He agreed on the spot without hesitation which irritated me.

So here I am with my friend walking into the arena, when I noticed that there was a red carpet leading into the main floor of the arena. I couldn’t see anything past the carpet because the tunnel was covered with huge black curtains. That’s when I expressed to my friend that we shouldn’t be here because it seems as if there isn’t anyone playing basketball.  Although we knew that there was an event, I wanted to be nosy and see what was going on. As soon as I peeked through those black curtains, and saw my family and friends to my left and Laurence seating at center court. That’s when I knew I was in trouble and I literally couldn’t move! It was then that my friend pushed me through the curtains onto the red carpet traced with candles and lilies that led me to Laurence. Actually, before saying YES, I kept asking “can we afford this” repeatedly because we didn’t have that kind of money at the time. To top it off, “THE RING” was extremely gorgeous. After a million questions, I eventually said yes!! And after I said YES, the first thought that went through my mind was how sweet and thoughtful my soon to be husband is and I fell in love all over again. It kind of made me feel bad for being so mad at him earlier that evening.

On the day of my wedding It had stormed all night with a 70 percent chance of continuing throughout our wedding day. Raining on our wedding would have been bad because our ceremony was outside. All signs led to me being nervous and stress, but I woke up very calm and happy. I was so excited about marrying my best friend regardless of how the weather turned out. Having my girls next to me that day made me feel like the luckiest bride ever! My girls are everything to me. I picked out my dress because It was simple and elegant which is my taste.  When selecting my colors I decided to go with many combinations. My colors were petunia, purple, white, and gold. My bridesmaids dresses were petunia, which is the perfect summer color and looked so good on their skin tones. The flowers on my cake were lilac purple and that is because purple is my favorite color. All my ceremony and reception flowers were white hydrangeas and white tulips, which you just can’t go wrong with white flowers as wedding decor. It all came together perfectly because when we walked into the venue I thought “Yes!! It’s exactly how I envisioned and now it’s time to party.” Our first dance was to Whitney Houston’s “I Believe In You And Me”. There is nothing that I would change about that day!! Matter of fact I want to re-live that whole weekend all over again.

For the Melsi my family planned the entire thing. The only thing that I asked for was Habesha food, music, attire, Mes, Sewa and Boon. My mom even surprised by bringing me a zuria from Eritrea and I loved every bit of it. For my girls I wanted them to get a taste of my culture and its fashion so I let them pick out zurias to wear. The only thing I wish a Habeshabride would have told me is how bad it hurts to have your hair traditionally braided. It was torture!! The highlights of the night for us was when they played my favorite song “Tium Dimxi” by Alganesh Yehdego. For my husband it was “Ruhus Gama.”  One piece of Melsi advice I would give is to enjoy the moments… it truly does go by so fast! Good Luck 🙂

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