On the 15th of each month we feature a new and magnificent wedding! This is more than just a weekly "best site" contest with a link to the couple's wed-site. We will take you through the entire wedding process...from the planning, to the actual event, and everything in between...including every detail which made each big day special, as told by the newlyweds.

I'm truly inspired finding my soul there in your eyes...
The couple describes themselves and how they met: "Utica was born in Carbondale, Illinois. She moved to the Chicago area when she was 7-years-old, and has lived there ever since. She attended Northwestern University majoring in sociology with a concentration in business and minoring in history with a concentration in the United States. She graduated from Northwestern in June 2002, and is currently enrolled in the Master of Science in Human Services Administration program at Spertus College.

Jameel was born in Los Angeles, California. He moved to Chicago twelve years ago. He always felt like a stranger to Chicago until he met Tica. He received my BA in criminal justice from UIC and will receive his MA from SIU in December 2003.

The courtship began over the internet in May 2000. Utica was bored at work one Saturday afternoon and decided to surf the web. She stumbled across DATING.COM and decided to fill out a profile to entertain herself. She surfed through the profiles and immediately became enthralled by Jameel's description of himself and what he was looking for in a soulmate. She decided to leave a message in Jameel's DATING.COM mailbox, which was the beginning of their electronic correspondence. They met face-to-face for their first date about two weeks later on May 28th, and the rest is history! Coincidentally, they later discovered that Jameel played baseball in high school with a college friend of Utica's."

You have opened my heart and lifted me inside...
Utica describes their engagement: "We had discussed the topic of marriage throughout our relationship, but we began to discuss it more and more after Christmas 2001 when Jameel blatantly told me that he wanted to marry me. For months we discussed what type of engagement ring I would like and where we would get married.

On the morning of Monday, May 13, 2002 I was watching Jameel and his best friend, Mike, play basketball at a park. Jameel had tried to get me to play basketball with them all morning, but I told him I had to do some reading for my Business Institutions class. After playing basketball for awhile, Jameel and Mike took a break. Jameel came over to me and said, "If you make a free-throw, I will take you to the mall today, you can pick out any ring you want, and I will give you a romantic proposal tonight." Since I am a pretty good basketball player, I decided to take him up on his offer. Jameel allowed me to take two practice shots, which I missed. The important thing, though, was that I made the shot that counted.

Mike, Lydia (Mike's girlfriend), Jameel, and I went to a jewelry store in a mall that afternoon. I immediately found a ring that I fell in love with. Jameel and Mike sent Lydia and me away from the jewelry store for about twenty minutes. When Jameel came out of the store, he had a sad look on his face. He said the ring I had chosen was too expensive and that I would have to wait a couple of weeks more so that he could save more money. I pouted all of the way back to Mike's house, and Jameel could tell that I was extremely disappointed.

Jameel and Mike dropped Lydia and me off at Mike's house while the two of them took Mike's motorcycle to an autoshop. Before Jameel left, I told him that I wanted him to take me back to my dorm when he returned. Unbeknownst to me, Jameel and Mike really went to the florist to get roses for me. About twenty minutes later, Jameel and Mike returned. After Jameel and I left Mike's house, I asked Jameel to drive me to a restaurant because I was starving. Meanwhile, Mike and Lydia were at Jameel's house setting things up for my surprise. After Jameel and I ate, we went to his house to pick up my things so he could take me back to my dorm. When Jameel opened the door to his house I noticed that there was music playing. I cluelessly told Jameel that I didn't remember leaving the radio on when we left the house that morning. As I walked through the door, I noticed that the living room was lit by votive candles, Brian McKnight's music was playing, and that a vase was on the coffee table with two white long-stemmed roses and one red long-stemmed rose. Tears started streaming down my cheeks as Jameel took my hands in his and he got down on both knees. He looked into my eyes as he said a romantic speech (I don't remember a single word of it).

When he finally asked, 'Will you marry me?' I replied, 'Yes!'. He got off of his knees, and we hugged each other. He took me by the hand and led me to the couch to sit down because I was crying so much. He reached toward the red rose as he told me to close my eyes. He slipped the ring on my finger. I opened my eyes, and I saw the ring I had picked out sitting on my finger. Still crying, I told Jameel that I loved him and that I was sorry for behaving so stubbornly earlier. I was glowing and ecstatic!"

By showing me yourself undisguised...
The bride discusses their 'big day': "Our wedding was far from traditional! Neither my husband nor I have been married before. We had our ceremony and reception aboard a yacht in Newport Harbor. We decided to have the wedding in the Los Angeles area because that is where my husband's family lives (he is from L.A.), and he doesn't get the chance to see his family very often. A lot of the people in my family had never been to L.A. before, so our wedding gave them the chance to have a mini-vacation.

Our invitations were ecru with black print. The verse said the following:

And I will breathe for you each day...
The bride describes the reception: "We used 'Spend My Life' by Eric Benet and Tamia for our first dance. We didn't do a bouquet toss, a garter toss, a money dance, a mother-son dance, or a father-daughter dance. A disc jockey provided the music for dancing.

We had a two-tiered marble wedding cake with whipped cream filling and whipped cream icing; the floral cake topper consisted of yellow and orange roses, white daisies, and baby's breath. The cake was decorated with a basket-weave design. The centerpieces consisted of one large white lily, white daisies, and gold filler. We had black linens and the broom favors were placed on the tables. My mom/maid of honor gave the libation toast after dinner, and the groom's father/best man gave a traditional wedding toast. The reception menu consisted of the following: chicken piccata with capers, dry sherry wine, and lemon; carved roast beef with horseradish and dijon mustard; bow tie pasta with tomato, virgin olive oil, basil, and fresh parmesan; baby carrots with ginger, lemon honey, and saffron; green salad with raspberry vinaigrette dressing; and rolls with butter."

Comfort you through all the pain...
Utica describes their wedding attire: "I wore a sheath wedding gown with spaghetti straps in the color 'spun gold' (creamish gold), and it had an attached chapel-length train. The gown had beading and embroidery on the neckline and a beaded appliqué on the back of the gown. I wore shimmery gold strappy sandals. I designed my gold headpiece that had ankhs on it and had it custom made for me. I wore gold ankh earrings and an ankh necklace. The cream garter I wore had an ankh on it. My hair was cornrowed into a style at the crown of my head. A few people (including my mother) voiced negative opinions before the wedding when they found out that I planned on getting my hair braided for the wedding because they didn't think that braids were 'dressy enough'. Those were the same people who gave me the most compliments on my hair at the wedding because it turned out so well!

My wedding gift to my husband was a pair of cufflinks with Egyptian hieroglyphs that meant 'May you live, be prosperous, and healthy'. My husband wore a cream suit with a white shirt and gold tie. My hand-tied bouquet consisted of yellow, orange, and red roses with a touch of baby's breath. I never wanted a traditional white bouquet. My husband wore a boutonniere that consisted of one yellow rose, one white daisy (his favorite flower), and a little baby's breath. His father/best man wore a black suit, a white shirt, and a black and white tie along with a boutonniere of cream and gold African fabric. My mother/maid of honor wore a black dress with spaghetti straps and a sheer black jacket. Instead of carrying flowers she carried a fan that was decorated with a gold ankh in the center and gold and cream cowry shells bordered the outside. My mother and the groom's father were the only people in our wedding party."

Gently kiss your fears away...you can turn to me and cry...
When asked if there was anything they would do differently, the bride replied: "We would make sure the photographer took photos of the tables and centerpieces."

When asked what they would do the same: "We would definitely incorporate the cultural elements into the wedding again because our culture is meaningful to us and we wanted to share that with our guests. We also wanted our guests to leave the wedding feeling that they had experienced something unique and memorable. We would also use the vows we wrote again because they added a personal, romantic touch to our wedding."

Always understand that I give you all I am inside...
To sum up what made their wedding day special, the couple answered: "The vows and love we shared with each other were things that traditional vows just could not capture."

For more information about Utica and Jameel's April wedding visit their their website.
And check out the September 2003 Fifteen Minutes of Fame with Amelia and Stephen.

Want to submit your own website for its Fifteen Minutes of Fame? Just click here.

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