Sami & Sekou: A Hip Jamaican Wedding

Sami & Sekou - New York

"I love Sekou’s kindness, patience, nurturing, and sense of humour."
"I love Sami’s wacky view of the world and her general unpredictability which spices up my life."

About the couple
Sami, 34, Designer & Stylist
Sekou, 30, Architect

How we met: Through Sami’s roommate, Susan, who worked at the same firm as Sekou. She told Sekou about Sami for months before setting up a meeting at a play where Susan did her first set design. Sami felt tricked since she didn’t know that she was being set up.
Living together: 4 years, minus 8 months living apart in LA & NY

The Proposal
Sekou proposed to Sami when they drove across country for their move from NY to SF. As soon as they crossed the California border from Oregon, they went swimming at a nearby river and Sekou pulled out the engagement ring that he designed with Kim Lyons. We announced our engagement on our road trip blog.


Photos by Chrystel Garipuy

Favorite thing about our wedding:
The total vibe capped off by buckets of rain!! We couldn’t have picked a better place to have our wedding, Jake’s took such good care of us.

Also Sami and Sekou were so touched by the two Jamaican Folk songs (“Under the Coconut Tree” and “Fi mi Love have Lion Heart”) that Cynthia and Leroy (Sekou’s parents) during the ceremony. The only teary eyed moment of the entire ceremony.


Wedding date: June 14 2008
Ceremony type: Beach / Cliff side
Where: Jake’s Hotel, Treasure Beach, Jamaica (in the rain)
Number of guests: 60
Planning: Ourselves with Adina of Jake’s
Wedding planning time: 8 months
Photographer: Chrystel Garipuy
Invitations: Sami and Sekou / S2
Wedding websites: samiandsekou.com and road trip blog

Sami wore: Marchesa Dress, above the knee and lovely gold Gucci heels
Sekou wore: Custom made shirt with a Marc by Marc Jacobs suit and Cydwoq slides
Wedding bands: Custom design by Kim Lyons. We had baby*luv engraved inside our rings
Honeymoon: 10 days in Cuba!



Wedding advice:
Take a breath and enjoy all the challenges of planning your wedding. We had so much fun and did our best not to get stressed on the little things. Sami had her wish list (beautiful wedding bands and a honeymoon in Cuba) and Sekou’s had his (family filled celebration in Jamaica). We managed to achieved all the things on our wish list. I love how we became creative in cutting costs. Thankful to Sekou’s organization, we are not in debt from our wedding.

We worked out how to avoid a huge expenditure on champagne. Any imported liquors entering into Jamaica carries a 160% duty. The cheapest champagne was $40 a bottle and not good quality. We thought about ordering champagne from Napa Valley and shipping it directly to Jamaica to save costs. But we came across the same issues of paying duty. So we asked our wedding guests to pack 1 to 2 bottles in their luggage for our wedding. It is legal to carry three 40 ml liquor bottles into other countries as presents. Twelve friends and family participated in “Operation Champagne”. We saved so much money!