THE NIGERIAN WEDDING PHENOMENOM

THE NIGERIAN WEDDING PHENOMENON

THE NIGERIAN WEDDING PHENOMENON

In the whole of Africa it is safe to say that Nigerians are the most over the top, loud, boisterous, energetic, in-your-face inhabitants of the whole continent. This classic characteristic of ours is evident in our music, in our day to day interactions even in our wars on Twitter but it is never as pronounced or as obvious or as evident ( I dey check dictionary well well o!) as it during a Nigerian wedding.

OMG!! From the décor to the brides make up to the cake to the ever present Aso-ebi everything is always over the top.  And with the rise of so many fashion vendors I really don’t think the trend is going to die down anytime soon. We are going to see more and more extravagance in the near future.   This is a joke that went viral on social media according to the writer of the joke; the groom in his appreciation at one of such extravagant weddings went like this:

 “I want to first of all thank the Lord Almighty for creating my wife and to also thank the pastor and his wife for lending us their wedding rings. Special appreciation goes to my landlord who lent us his car and my friend who drove us. I am most grateful to my boss for approving the loan I used for the wedding.

“Big thanks to the committee of friends for the appeal fund they raised on my behalf; to my brother’s wife; for lending us her wedding gown and to the cake designer for the lending us this cake to display here. As agreed, I shall return it tomorrow morning.
“Special thanks to my friends who brought food from their homes to help me feed you all. To those who were served food, good luck and those who didn’t, we will make it up to you during our first child’s dedication next year.
“Very big thanks to my parents for bringing the village cultural band to entertain us all here today. I won’t forget to mention the marriage committee of the Church; thank you for persuading my wife to marry me. I also appreciate the married men in the church for rushing me into this marriage. The women are not left out, thanks a lot for teaching my wife how to dance”.

A Nigerian Ibo bride on her Traditional wedding day.

LOL right?! But sadly that is the case with so many Nigerian marriages. Another Crazy thing about Nigerian weddings is the fact that you don’t do only one wedding…………..YOU DO THREE!!!  (Hahn… Naija our own too much). Yes oh!! Not one, not two but three weddings and they are:

·         The traditional wedding

·         The court wedding

·         The white or church wedding

When I asked my pastor why we do three weddings in Nigeria he said that it’s because Nigerians are so jobless we don’t know what to do with our time and money.
And then again the annoying thing is that each of the weddings costs an arm and a leg (I’m not so sure about the court wedding) they are ridiculously expensive for no sensible reason oh Na just how the thing dey be.
Out of the three I’m sure we can all agree on the fact that the traditional wedding is the most expensive. Especially if you are from the eastern part of Nigeria. Boy oh Boy that bride price and Marriage list is the stuff of nightmares to many Nigerian men. Many guys borrow or sometimes even owe the village just so that can be able to marry a lady from the town. There is so much to talk about on the issue of the Nigerian wedding please checkout my next post: 
THE NIGERIAN WEDDING PHENOMENON pt2 or more on the spectacle that is the Nigerian wedding.