Wedding Wednesday - Traditional Wedding Recap 1

I posted the link to view pictures from our traditional wedding earlier this week. Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing a recap of the events of the day.  


Today, I'll start with the first outfit I wore. First off, I did not see the outfit until the morning of the event. Among the Yoruba people, apparently, the grooms family is responsible for providing all that the bride wears that day. I use the word apparently because during the course of our traditional wedding coming together, there were many different opinions and some of my family felt it was their responsibility to dress me as I should come out in my own clothes as I was not married yet. The issues were resolved, and I wore the clothes provided by the K's family.
Since I hadn't seen the outfit, I had to rely on my sis-in-laws to describe the colours to me so I could pick the shoes and bag I would carry.  


Jewellery - Coral beads known as Iyun Yoruba. The jewellery was custom made by Cephas Jewelers in Lagos - Touche Plaza, 25B Admiralty Way, Lekki, Lagos - 08029050775, 0818216655. My mom together with the owner of the store came up with the design and I didn't see until the week of the ceremony when I arrived in Lagos. 

My make-up was done by the fabulous Banke Meshida Lawal; This was one of non-negotiable's. She also tied my head-tie and iro as well. I always knew I wanted her to do my make-up so when the traditional wedding was being planned, I left everything to my mom except make-up and my photographer. She did ask for my input on other stuff but I did not actively make the decisions. 

                     

My outfit was made up of a yellowish-cream aso-oke buba (the top of the outfit) , a fuschia pink gele (my head-tie) hand designed with touches of coral coloured designs and the iro (wrapper around my waist) is actually a single piece, the same fabric used in the buba was sewn on to the bottom of the alaari.The alaari cloth is mostly worn by the Ondo people in Nigeria (where K is from) and so it came into play in my outfit. For some reason, I do not have a close up of my shoes or clutch;  will add when I get the CD of pictures from Enimien - our photographer. 

Kola and I got our shoes from a shop in London called Ivory, they are located on Bond Street down the street from Pronovias shop there, and my clutch was from a friend - Yuwa who sells accessories - Sorrela. 

complete outfit

another view of our outfits

 Kola's outfit was sort of a tribute to his dad. His father passed away in January of 2006 and to honour him, Kola wore his fathers own clothes and the alaari cloth I had was actually custom designed to match. The only new items Kola wore was the white buba (his top) and his shoes. He also wore coral beads as well... 

I love this picture of KOK

Complete Attire

All the photographs are by Enimien Etomi Inegbedion, our fantastic photographer. My other non-negotiable vendor for my wedding. She was amazing !! She will be doing a photo-booth  at the wedding in Malta - I can't wait :)  She was assisted by Lanre Balogun of Libran Eye. 

All photographs by Enimien Etomi Photography

Traditional Wedding...

After a long hiatus, I am finally back! So many different things of gone on in the past few months. More about later: For now.. We had our traditional engagement on April 30, 2011.. Here is a slideshow of pictures from our wonderful photographer - Enimien Etomi Inegbedion 

http://loveart.eetomi.com/#/wedding-slideshows/korede-and-kola/IMG1-223


Photo by EEtomi Photography

Meet the Parents Part I

So barely a month after K and I started dating, my parents decided they were coming to visit in Pittsburgh. K decided he wanted to meet them and my parents obliged. 


My dad is a pastor, so the pastor of my church requested that he preach at the mid-week Wednesday service. So K and I decided that he would come over to my apartment after the service to officially meet the parents. 
So the Wednesday service rolled around and my dad preached, the message was great and everyone seemed to love it. After the service, I took K up to greet my parents. Now my parents are more on the non-traditional side and my dad had his hand out for a handshake but K was nowhere to be found. We looked around and K was flat on the ground prostrating to greet my parents as is the most formal greeting a man does in the Yoruba culture!


Later on that evening, K came over for dinner bearing gifts for my mom. She was thrilled ! He excused himself briefly and as soon as K stepped out, my dad starts cracking up and his says "E ni to ba fe tele tutu, a da mi si waju", which translates literally "one who wants to walk on cold ground will pour water ahead" but the actual meaning is that "one who had a goal in mind will prepare the way ahead of him". Apparently as far as my dad was concerned, with the prostrating and the gifts for my mom, K was preparing the way to ask my dad for my hand. 


Anyway, it was a really short visit and two days later, my parents were leaving and K offered to take them to the airport in his car. K was in business school at the time and had recently been interviewed and featured in the recruiting brochure. K decided to make himself look good and strategically placed a few copies on the back seat of his car. 
Of course my parents opened up the brochures, and my mom started oohing and aahing about K being in the brochure. My dad on the other hand was very business like and started quizzing K about his choice to go to b-school, his concentrations etc. It was like an interview and K of course had all his answers ready. 


It was a great visit and of course, K charmed his way into my parents hearts :)