Bride: Jocelyn Mitnaul

Occupation:Attorney

Groom: Harold Mallette

Occupation: Architect

My sweet Harold TOTALLY caught me off guard, which is really hard to do because I’m a type A planner. We had been considering purchasing a home for several months. Our good friends, Vershae and Jason, found a townhouse they loved here in Raleigh and they invited us to check it out. Two days after that, on December 7, 2018, Harold and I set up a tour of another available unit in the same neighborhood. We toured the townhouse at 10am and signed the contract around 2pm that same day. Harold and I each went back to work, but Harold only lasted an hour. He was so excited about our future home purchase that he decided he was going to scrap his previous proposal plan and propose to me that evening. He suggested that we go to dinner to celebrate the signing of the house contract. I was totally oblivious that he chose our first date location for dinner that night: Fiction Kitchen. At dinner, I excitedly exclaimed, “I know we’ve been talking about getting engaged, but I am SO excited about our townhouse that I don’t even care when we get engaged anymore!” Little did I know, the ring was in Harold’s pocket. After dinner, he proposed on the Boylan Street Bridge and I cried like the bucket of water that I am.

Jocelyn and I met for the first time in 2010 at her sister’s house in Greensboro, NC. We laughed, talked and flirted in Janiya’s living room for about 3 hours. Before we parted ways that evening, we exchanged numbers and set plans for a future date — I thought I was in there! Fast forward to 2015. After a lot of ignored text messages from Jocelyn and never received “tell Jocelyn I said what’s up” messages through our sisters — we met again when my sister, Hershey, asked us to co-emcee her wedding reception. Being the planner Jocelyn is, she would call me the weeks leading up to the wedding. She had spreadsheets, diagrams, and detailed visuals about how this reception was supposed to happen. But my main goal when she would call me about the wedding was to make her smile and laugh as much as I could. Honestly, it had been so long since we last saw each other I couldn’t even remember what she looked like. And I did not care. The thing I could remember most vividly over all the years was how she made me feel the first time we met in Greensboro. The wedding came and we successfully hosted the reception and have been successfully hanging out every weekend since.

It was fabulous! Our shoot with Donnell was so wonderful and relaxed. Harold and I went to Brewery Bhavana a bit early for drinks and appetizers. When Donnell joined us, he didn’t rush us; in fact, he ordered an appetizer too! It was so much fun to sit and chat and get to know our photographer even better. We hung out at Brewery Bhavana — in all of its fabulous sections — and Donnell made us feel like we were the only ones in the restaurant. We actually forgot he was there a couple of times! We then went to a couple of places downtown and then to Wilmington St for a few skyline shots. The day was perfect: the rain held out and our photographer was fun, creative, and easygoing.

I think the theme of our engagement session was just to be lighthearted and fun and also true to who we are as a couple. We enjoy Brewery Bhavana — the beer, the books, the food, the flowers — and Donnell captured all of that. We love Raleigh and wanted to be photographed in the downtown area and with a skyline view in the background. Donnell captured all of that and the day was easygoing and fun — just like our relationship.

Our love is special because it took ten years to fully develop, but when we finally “re-met” we were each at a place where we were ready for each other.

Jocelyn and I have had some crazy adventures together:  job changes, watching the Panthers lose the Super Bowl in Charlotte while Jocelyn was the only Broncos fan in the bar, power outages in Jamaica, but buying a home beats them all out. I remember telling myself, I can not buy a home with my girlfriend! If we had all these adventures in just 3 short years then I could not wait to see what a lifetime would bring.

Yup. Done and done. Lol We decided to plan a surprise wedding for our guests (only our parents and siblings knew). We both agreed that most weddings are overplanned and eventually grow out of control. For me, I didn’t think I would have the energy to get up early, get dressed with my girlfriends, get my hair and make-up done, have the ceremony, take pictures during the cocktail hour, and finally, dance the night away at a reception that lasted for several hours. Whew! No, thanks. Lol For Harold, he explains that he just wanted to show that marriage isn’t “scary” or “elusive” and that once you’re with your person, you could just get married. Instead of delaying it or having a 18 month + engagement, for example.

Jocelyn and I met for the first time in 2010 at her sister’s house in Greensboro, NC. We laughed, talked and flirted in Janiya’s living room for about 3 hours. Before we parted ways that evening, we exchanged numbers and set plans for a future date — I thought I was in there! Fast forward to 2015. After a lot of ignored text messages from Jocelyn and never received “tell Jocelyn I said what’s up” messages through our sisters — we met again when my sister, Hershey, asked us to co-emcee her wedding reception. Being the planner Jocelyn is, she would call me the weeks leading up to the wedding. She had spreadsheets, diagrams, and detailed visuals about how this reception was supposed to happen. But my main goal when she would call me about the wedding was to make her smile and laugh as much as I could. Honestly, it had been so long since we last saw each other I couldn’t even remember what she looked like. And I did not care. The thing I could remember most vividly over all the years was how she made me feel the first time we met in Greensboro. The wedding came and we successfully hosted the reception and have been successfully hanging out every weekend sinc