A Wedding Story: Jaléssa Mungin and MonElan Savage

On Saturday May 29, 2021, Jaléssa Mungin, Director of Operations of local hair care company NaturAll Club tied the knot with IT Analyst MonElan Savage. Their ceremony was held in West Oak Lane at a close friend’s home. The wedding party and décor was dressed in navy, teal, plum, and gold. The flower arrangements were by florist Sandra Cameron of Holistic Arrangements.

“Our wedding was home grown and DIY thanks to some amazing help from the bride’s auntie tribe. We were even more blown away because we had to adjust last minute to the weather (52 degrees in late May!) by adding tents, lights and changing the floor layout.”, says Mrs. Savage.

The captivating photos were captured by Tonjanika Smith.

Bride

Jaléssa was raised in West Oak Lane and Germantown by her Mother Alison Mungin-Pugh and Father Richard Pugh. Her and MonElan currently reside in West Philadelphia. In addition to being the Director of Operation at NaturAll Club, Jaléssa is a producer for a poetry-based podcast called Love Jawns: A Mixtape in collaboration with a local museum called Philadelphia Contemporary. She is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania Class of 2014 and Germantown Friends School Class of 2010. Outside of her work, she enjoys brunching, exploring new restaurants, and taking hikes along the Wissahickon.

The Gown

The day of the ceremony, Jaléssa wore a champagne colored gown with a beautiful floral beading overlay. It was floor length with a sweetheart neckline and sleeves. Her reception dress was a custom ankara print gown that had a blue and yellow, lined pattern that almost resembled petals or peacock feathers. It was a deep V-neck, A-lined gown with a thigh high split. She paired the reception dress with custom Nike sneakers in our wedding colors.

Groom

MonElan was raised in West Philadelphia by mother Monique Savage. Aside from work, Monique Savage, also known as Monty enjoys playing video games, cooking new food & experimenting with cocktail creation. “I’m the main chef in the house & the experiments run wild but it’s always fun.”, says Monty. A graduate of World Communications Charter School and Cheyney University, Monty sported a three-piece custom suit with custom inlays and cufflink detail.

The Bridal Party

For the Bridal Party, Jaléssa and MonElan went the non-traditional route and asked their best friends Chantias Ford and Jonathan Brown to be the witnesses on their self-uniting wedding license. They also asked their close friend and poet laureate emeritus Yolanda Wisher to be the officiant. Wisher wrote and performed a poem for us that was one of the highlights of the day.

How They Met

The Bride and Groom are no stranger when it comes to taking the less conventional approach. They met on an online dating site before the days of Tinder in late 2011 and began officially dating in February 2012. Jaléssa slid into Monty’s DMs and was actually ignored the first time before Monty circled back and sparked a conversation. (She has not forgiven him yet.)

The Proposal

In April 2019, they shared a pretty traumatic experience that set the stage for our proposal. After a long 6 months of recovery, both spiritually and physically, they came to realize how short and precious life really can be. They found themselves waiting for the perfect situation to solidify their union. After being together for 7 years at that point, they decided to stop waiting and make it official on October 25, 2019. Their original plan was to get married in October of 2020, but given the pandemic they postponed it to May 2021 in hopes that vaccines would be widely available.

Reflections in Their Words

“I would describe our big day as beautifully designed! Even though we had a micro-wedding, we were very intentional about making sure that the day was still a reflection of us and our journey. For example, it was critical to me that we utilized Black-woman vendors whenever possible. Working at a Black hair care firm, it’s critical that my money returns back to our community. As a lover of poetry and arts, there was poetry and music. But most importantly, our wedding was about energy and vibes! A hidden beauty in going micro is the ability to truly curate the energy in the room and there was love everywhere. My community truly showed up and showed out for us which is the highest reflection of our love for each other. I married my best friend and life can’t get much sweeter than that.” — Jaléssa

“Our wedding experience was a lot like our relationship: fun, crazy and filled with unexpected moments. But most importantly, it was filled with love and ended with me marrying my bestie.” — Monty

The Honeymoon

The newlyweds had a mini-honeymoon at Kimpton Hotel Monaco the first two nights after the wedding. Then spent a week in the Catskills at Stickett Inn. We went rafting along the Delaware and floating in lakes. We also visited the local farmer’s markets and made some amazing dinners! It was the perfect COVID-safe honeymoon.