Mariah McAlpin Bride to Be

My fiancé’s name is Gal. He was born in South Africa, his parents are Israeli, and he spent half of his life in the U.S.

We actually met through his dad. His dad does business seminars in the U.S., and I would skip school (11th and 12th grade) to go to his seminars (my dad and I started a business together so that is why we originally started going).

After 4 years of going to the seminars his dad told me he had a son in South Africa a few years older than me and he thought we’d be perfect together. Of course, in the back of my mind I thought parent set ups usually don’t go so well haha but I wanted to travel internationally so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to see the world and have a friendly face while doing so.

So we got into contact and chatted for 6 months straight over FaceTime before ever meeting. Then I visited him with my best friend in Cape Town, SA and we just hit it off - and the rest is history! 

We are getting married March 1, 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. 

My best piece of advice is to decide on one person to make the final decision on things because (at least in my case) waiting for your fiancé to help make decisions on things will just prolong the process haha. 

I feel like no matter how many excel sheets, Pinterest boards, notes, etc. I will continue to feel unorganized and a tad bit overwhelmed. But embrace and enjoy the process, it will be over in the blink of an eye. 

I had no idea what to expect going into picking a dress. I just shopped online and had my ideas on Pinterest. But I was shocked when actually trying on all these “dream” pinned dresses that it was actually not what I wanted at all. I think when you start putting on dresses it becomes more real to you that you are dressing to be a bride, not just wearing any white dress, and when that realization hits I think your vision of what you want to wear on that day changes.

So my tip would be: keep an open mind and try on as many styles as possible!

Follow Mariah's journey

IG: @mariahmcalpin

YouTube: Mariah McAlpin