Nkechi is a Spelman woman and Mitch is a Morehouse man. They were just one week into freshman year when they met at a college networking event and got to talking (and talking!), and never stopped. Share their love!
Bride: Nkechi Olisemeka Mitchell, 29
Groom: Kevin B. Mitchell, 28
Occupations: Nkechi: Full time graduate student at New York University and Special Events/Conference Manager; Mitch: Global management consultant.
Hometown: New York, NY
Wedding Date: March 19, 2011
Wedding Location: Savannah, GA
Keeping With Tradition
Nkechi and Mitch met at the start of their freshman year of college in Atlanta back in 2001. Nkechi was a new Spelman College student while Mitch was right across the yard just getting started at Morehouse College. It’s tradition for the two schools to host a networking event for Spelman women and Morehouse men to meet and greet during the first week of school.
Nkechi had originally planned to skip it in favor of enjoying the sunny day, but then decided to keep with tradition and show up. It’s a good thing she did.
“When Mitch and I first met, our conversation came easily and naturally to us,” Nkechi recalls. “Almost as though we had been friends before, but also filled with the newness of discovery.”
The two hit it off famously and immediately made plans to reconnect that night. When they met up later, they sat on the grass for hours, sharing stories of friends and family. Both of them knew that moment was very special.
“When we first met, I didn’t say ‘This woman is going to be my wife’,” Mitch remembers. “But from that very first day I thought, whoa, I know that this woman is going to have a profound effect on my life.”
The Perfect Day
With the eight-year anniversary of the day they met fast approaching, Nkechi suggested that she and Mitch celebrate “a day of friends” in honor of the beautiful friendship their relationship is built on. Little did Nkechi know, Mitch had decided to ask for her hand in marriage, so she’d inadvertently given him the perfect way to do it.
During the days leading up to it, Mitch pulled out all of the stops to make sure the proposal was 100 percent perfect. He hired a photographer friend to sneak and follow them to take photos, he walked the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for four hours scoping out the perfect route, and planned a lovely lunch to kick things off.
On August 26, 2009, Nkechi and Mitch played hooky from work and spent the day together. Mitch talked his lovely lady into wearing a stunning Catherine Malandrino dress she’d been saving “for something special” (since he knew there would be pictures). He watched her smile and laugh along the way as they had lunch and strolled through the garden. He knew she didn’t have a single clue what was coming next.
Even when their photographer friend “just happened” to be walking by and Mitch turned to face her with a wooden box in hand, Nkechi still wasn’t sure what was really happening.
Mitch handed his love a note written on the back of a very special photo; it was one they took of the calendar they had in college with the day they met circled on it. After she read the letter, he dropped down on one knee and reread each word to her.
“My mind went blank and I thought, ‘Is he going to ask me now?’,” Nkechi recalls. “I was laughing, crying, and laughing some more, because I was truly surprised. It was kind of an out of body experience.”
The Road to Happily Ever After
With their engagement fully under way, the blissful couple began planning a traditional wine carrying ceremony in the bride’s family home in Abuja, Nigeria that would be held a few months before their church ceremony and cocktail reception in the city of Savannah.
The bride had two ceremonies to plan. She wanted a classic wedding with whimsical twists for the American ceremony, and the pair felt Georgia, the state where they met, would be the perfect place.
Visit The Bride’s Cafe to see more lovely photos from Nkechi and Mitch’s wedding day. Photography by: Jen Huang Photography.