Atlanta Couple Heads to the Beach for Dreamy E-Session

When Kern Aaron and Edidiong Essienumoh first saw each other, they felt an immediate connection. The two were walking by each other on the campus of their alma mater – University of West Georgia – when their paths first crossed. Kern greeted Edidiong in the smoothest tone and she replied in the daintiest voice she could muster up. It’s been a love story ever since.

Kern proposed to his soon-to-be wife in Miami Beach, Florida and brought friends along to celebrate the surprise. The couple are huge fans of the show Martin, so Kern put together a reenactment of one of their favorite scenes. They sat on the back deck of their hotel, and as he professed his love, the skit started. Friends began popping out left and right, until Edidiong realized what was going on. Kern then began to sing John Legend’s “All of Me” right before getting down on his knees to ask for Edidiong to marry him. In sheer delight, she said “Yes!”

The two took their romance to the shore of Jekyll island, Georgia in a dreamy engagement session shot by Inje Photography. View the gallery to see all of their gorgeous pictures.

Wedding Date:06/07/2015
Wedding Venue: Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta Georgia
E-Session Location: Jekyll Island, Georgia

The first date
Our first date was back in 2004. He took me to Red Lobster.

Favorite Thing to Do as a Couple
We like to watch re-runs of the sitcom Martin and recite all of the lines. We travel often and love trying out new restaurants! We are currently on our sushi binge, trying out all different types of sushi and Thai restaurants.

The Engagement Session
My fiancé loves the water, so I knew we had to have a beach scene. Then my crazy imaginary and artistic juices started flowing and I decided I wanted a horse! I began the process of looking for beaches near us that would allow us to use their horse on the beach. After tirelessly being rejected about using the horse solely as a prop, I found a stable on Jekyll Island Georgia that would oblige my wishes. I wanted us in all white, so I got a custom white gown made and my fiancé wore a classic seersucker fitted suit.

We had two other wardrobe changes, a dressy/sexy scene and a casual/fun scene. For the dressy scene, I wanted it to be sultry and he wanted to have a James Bond feel—he loves James Bond! To pull the look off, I had another custom dress made from a beautiful rouge matte jersey fabric. He wore a three-piece chocolate suite and bowtie accented with velvet trimmings. I also envisioned us having a piano in this scene, so I found a hotel in Jekyll Island that had a grand piano. We showed up to the hotel and flooded their grand dining room with pictures! Our casual/fun scene consisted of us wearing a heart printed Ankara wax fabric, which we contrasted one another with acid-wash denim. These shots were taken on a little quaint sidewalk that had the cutest light posts throughout. We used this location to capture the scene where we first met each other. Last but certainly not the least was our photographer, Mr. Charlton Inije. He is an amazingly talented young artist. He captured our vision perfectly!

Wedding Planning
Wedding planning has been going well. Since we are having two weddings, a Nigerian ceremony and a white Wedding, it has been quite a task of getting things together. I truly thank my bridesmaids and aso ebi (Nigerian wedding bridesmaids) for putting up with me so early on as I have had them learning dance routines and the works; all in an effort to ensure that we experience the most magical day of our life—the day I will marry my dream guy. Nevertheless, we have gotten a lot of the big things out of the way, such as venues for both locations, food, décor, cake, floral, wedding stationary, and attire, whew!

Looking Forward to Most on the Wedding Day
Succumbing to God’s wishes and marrying my fiancé … okay, okay and eating the cake!

Vendor
Photography: Inije Photography

View more images in the gallery!