‘‘
When we came out in the Nigerian clothing it was so
much fun because everyone, both my side and his side,
joined in on the ‘money dance’ and blessed us. It was
just great seeing everyone come together” – Sade
L
O V E A N D B A S K E T B A L L A LWAY S S E E M T O G O
hand in hand (we’ve all seen the fi lm, right?), but for Sade and Nick,
the story didn’t begin quite like you might expect. Mutual friends
introduced the two one night at a party — she a senior at Loyola
University and he a senior in the Naval Academy — and within minutes of
meeting, they were sparring. “Nick’s from Ohio so he loves Lebron James,
but I hate him,” Sade laughs. “We ended up getting into a heated argument
the fi rst night we ever met.” But rather than hold a grudge against his future
wife for insulting his hero, Nick found her intriguing. They ran into each
other again the following night and he purposefully brought the subject up
again to spur another conversation. “He kept calling me after and I didn’t
understand why… We’d just end up arguing! But I guess he appreciated
that I challenged him,” Sade muses.
Their playful relationship continued through the rest of undergrad and
then fl ourished despite becoming long distance. Sade’s med school path kept
her in Baltimore and later Philadelphia, while Nick’s career as a submarine
offi cer brought him to several different states. Still, they were committed
to seeing each other, and so when Sade had time off for the holiday season
in 2014 she chose to spend it with Nick in Georgia.
“He came home from work early Christmas morning and we ended
up opening presents at the crack of dawn,” Sade recalls. There had been
a large wrapped box under the tree but it didn’t contain a puppy like she
guessed (read: hoped), nor was it a gag — something Sade assumed when
she saw it was fi lled with packing peanuts. “He was recording my reaction,
so I fi gured a snake was going to pop out at me or something,” she laughs.
“When I pulled out a little box it didn’t even occur to me that he might be
proposing.” But indeed he was.
While saying “yes” may have come naturally to Sade, planning did not.
Because of their busy schedules, the two opted for a longer engagement.
“I dragged my feet a bit… It was overwhelming! I didn’t know what I
wanted,” she says. But then Sade, a lover of all things fashion, fell head over
heels for a lilac Hayley Paige gown and everything just fell into place: “I
fi nally had a concept: San Trope-themed on the water. Classy but not over
the top.” The intended aesthetic led the Portsmouth Abbey alum to return
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