Traditionally Married in Douala, Cameroun

Special thank you to Ultime Photography Events for capturing these amazing moments 

In February 2023, my husband and I along with a few closest friend traveled from  the DMV to Douala, Cameroon. This was my first time traveling to the continent of Africa and I just so happened to be marrying the love of my life. After 12+ hours of flying, we landed at Douala International. Airport. We stayed in Cameroon for about 10 days and it happened to be one of the most magical trips I've ever taken. I was so honored to have met my husbands family, eat delicious food and explore his country.  Here are a few pictures from our wedding day. 

The morning of the wedding, my husband presented me with this beautiful Emerald ring from James Allen. 

I love this ring so much. Not only does this ring symbolize his love. especially being presented in his home country, but Emerald is also the focal color for our American wedding in 2024. 

I made custom goodie bags for our American friends who traveled with us on this journey.

I filled the bags with Emergen-C, Wet Ones (hand wipes), Purrell Sanitizer Singles, Mouthwash from Go Mouthwash, Shout wipe & Go, Liquid IV Hydration Multipliers and a keep change in the shape of Cameroon with the Cameroon flag.

                                                                                   Gown#1

                                                                                Gown#2

So. thankful for these girls. They all came with us from the DMV. I'm so honored to have shared this special moment with them. 

Gown#3

Fittings for Gown#1 which was designed by Shasha

My husband was sworn in as a Nobleman for his village in Cameroon.

Bridesmaids Proposal - 2024 Bride

Disclaimer: In February 2023, I married my husband in Douala, Cameroon in front of his family and friends.  Unfortunately, all of my family and loved ones were unable to make it, so here we are, getting married in in America in 2024. Hence I'm also a 2024 bride. The American or "white wedding" will be happening in Baltimore, MD and I decided to formally ask my close friends (new and old) to be apart of the 2024 wedding. 

Bridesmaids Proposal: Thanks to PINTEREST, Tiktok and Youtube, I was able to find so much inspiration for the bridesmaids proposal boxes. I decided to have the brunch at a Perennial which is a beautiful restaurant with an outdoor terrace located in Towson, MD.  Unfortunately due to the rain, and the humidity, I decided to move the brunch to their private room.   

I told each of the girls that I was having a bridal brunch, but I really wanted them to be surprised when they realized it was a bridesmaids proposal

                                                       

BRIDE TRIBE 2024

Cake was made by Blue Crab Cupcakes located in Annapolis, MD

    

                                                    

                                                        We hope to see you in 2024 

- xo Nat 

#marryingmba

Rome, Italy in 24 Hours

Rome, Italy. The first stop on our mini World Tour. Let me preface this by saying that we missed our first flight, so in order to get back on track for our itinerary, Marius quickly found another flight leaving the very next day. 

Travel Dates: Saturday, September 18th- Monday, September 20th.

Airline: We flew Turkish Airlines from Washington, DC (Dulles). We left around 10:30pm, September 16th and pretty much spent 24 hours traveling. There were plenty of movies to watch on the plane, however I slept the entire way (plane engines put me to sleep) lol. We had a transfer in Istanbul and ended up having to run to the connecting flight because our inbound flight left a late. We ended up arrived to Rome in the evening of September 18th around 7pm

Pandemic Travel Requirements: If you're planning to visit Italy be sure to check out the Entry & Exit Requirements. We traveled with our Covid Vaccination Cards, Passports and completed Passenger Locator Forms before arriving to each country  

Italy's Currency: EURO (1euro ~.86USD )

Hotel: We stayed a the Marriott’s St. Regis Rome Hotel and our room was stunning. The location of the hotel was perfect walking distance for both the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum. 

Night 1

After getting settled and refreshed, we hit the town. Since it was Saturday night, our Uber driver from the airport suggested that we visit Trastevere. We hit the town and went to a little restaurant called Pasta e Vino Osteria which was located in a very busy alley (Rome has tons of alley's everywhere so it was totally normal). If you're looking for a restaurant surrounded by great night life, this is it. The pasta was authentic and delicious. After having dinner we walked around for a bit and I couldn't believe the amount of people we saw just hanging out. It was so crowded in some areas that I felt like I was in a concert or at the end of a sporting event.  

Day 1

• Breakfast:We started our first day by having complimentary breakfast that was offered to us by  the hotel. The breakfast at the St. Regis was phenomenal and i was shocked to see that it was buffet style given the current Pandemic times. 
• Activities: We walked to the Trevi Fountain which was only a 16 minute walk from the St.Regis Hotel. The Spanish Steps were only 8 minutes walking from the Trevi Fountain. We visited the Roman Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill which were all about a 25-30 minute walk from the St. Regis ( everything was so close I couldn't believe it)
• Lunch: Head to Magia e Travi. Its a cute restaurant very close to the Trevi Fountain. We ordered Italian Margherita Pizza, Mozzarella Balls and Pasta with Red Sauce. Our server was an older Italian woman who was the sweetest. 
• We skipped dinner as we were still full from lunch, so we ended up visiting a very popular icecream place called Giolitti where we had the most delicious gelati's.
• We rented  Bird Scooters (which is another nice way to explore the city) and went to Piazza Venezia 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Day 2

Because our flight was at 11:20am, we woke up at 5am, got dressed and headed to the Trevi Fountain. 

Pro-Tip

We heard from numerous people that the Trevi Fountain is usually a ghost town early in the morning which is better for photos. We we go to the Trevi Fountain, it was maybe less than 10 people there (mostly photographers and their clients) looking the get great shots with less background noise.

• Breakfast: The St. Regis Hotel 
•  Taxi from our hotel to the Airport which was probably less than 50 euros (a flat rate)

Final Thoughts on Rome

I would definitely love to return to Rome. We missed seeing the Sistine Chapel, The Pantheon, Piazza Navona and a few other sites. I would say the maximum time to spend in Rome would be about 3 full days - because of how walkable the city is. All in all, I loved our Rome itinerary and feel like we did a lot in just one full day. 

Highlight of our Trip to Rome:

Actually walking inside of the Colosseum (especially the upper level) and visiting the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Those places are filled with History!

Five Countries, 15 Days (Pandemic Travel)

 Recently my boyfriend and I went on a mini World Tour and traveled to Italy, Turkey, Greece, Egypt and France. We originally planned to take this trip in 2020, however due to the Pandemic a lot of International Countries closed its borders to US travelers. So this year, we crossed our fingers, did plenty of research and waited for restrictions to lift. This trip was not the easiest to plan, and required hours of research. WE looked at Embassy sites to make sure that US travelers were welcomed into these countries and found so much travel inspo on sites like Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube. We were faced with flight cancellations  - one of the airlines we booked even went out of business: Alitalia. 

In each country, we already had an idea of where we wanted to visit and knew exactly what we wanted to do, so with much of our information gathered from our 2020 pre-pandemic research, we decided now would be the best time to travel as restrictions started to lift. We confirmed a lot of our flights this year and a few flights were repurchased with the vouchers we were given when we booked the original trip in 2020. 

To share the beauty of each country, I decided to split them up in five separate post and create a travel guide with tips for you because it would be too much to share five countries in one post. We took so many photos and we also decided to document the trip and create a vlog which will be posted to either my youtube channel or the Marius and Nat youtube page ( I'll keep you updated on this). So I hope you're excited for what's to come, and I look forward to sharing this journey with you. 

-Nat. Scott

Perfectionist Paralysis

 Omg I haven’t written on this blog in a little over six months.  But I am happy to say that I am back. So much has happened (within the six months) that I’ve been gone, but to tell you the truth, I had to find my inspiration for this and my overall why. Another truthful moment, but I also had come to a point where I actually liked my blog and to be honest I didn’t. I didn’t like the layout and how it looked via mobile. To me it wasn’t easy and when it comes to sharing my life online, I wanted it to be less complicated as possible. I wanted my site to be easy and user friendly, I hated the way my header looked, it wasn’t authentically me, it didn’t resonate with me. I basically copied a format that I saw someone else do, but what works for the goose doesn’t always work for the gander - or however the saying goes. 

So in true Virgo fashion, I didn’t post anything to my site because it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t me. Over the past six months I discovered that I have something called  “Perfectionist Paralysis” meaning that if it isn’t perfect, it won’t get done. I realized that the fear of presenting something that just wasn’t true to myself, had kept me from actually performing. 

So over the last few days, I researched, made thousands of keystrokes online, and purchased a few different templates from SKYANDSTARS.CO on Etsy.com before I actually found something close to what I was looking for. Also to be honest, this template isn’t perfect either but it’s close, and I don’t have another six months to waste. Not to mention Etsy suspended my account *rolls eyes*  so I had checkout using the guest feature.

On a more positive note, I like how my site looks now. Although it isn’t as perfect as I would like it to be, it’s better than what it was and it’s done. And maybe I’ll tweak some things in the future, but for now, I just wanted this project to be done because I felt stuck for six months. I even missed my one year blog-iversary So from here I hope you enjoy this content that I’m rolling out. I’m excited again for my blog and I hope that you will be too. 

If there’s something that I learned from this experience, it is that done is better than perfect, unless you’re a Virgo, than it may take 6 months or it will never get done lol.

 In all honesty, don’t get stuck on something for too long, figure out what works for you so that you can live your best authentic life. 

-Nat. 

The Path of Fulfillment

"If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten." - Tony Robbins

Hi guys, in my quirky YouTube girl voice lol. We have officially made it to the final day of 2020 and I think it’s fair to breathe a huge DEEP BREATH and SIGH of relief as the year comes to an end.