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

In the beginning...

Malta is the location we've chosen for our destination wedding for the summer of 2011. 

The journey to Malta un-officially began earlier this year in Rome when we took a trip there for my birthday. Here's how it began: 

Pretty much all my friends were convinced he would propose. I have to admit it, the thought did cross my mind but I refused to entertain it as I didn't want to get all excited and expectant only to be disappointed.

Anyway one of my friends E said to make sure that I should eat my birthday dinner dessert carefully in the event he had the restaurant put the ring in there - to which I responded that's too cliché.

Well to humor all my friends, I didn't say anything to him and I decided to wait through my birthday trip and dinner to let him know. 

So after I carefully ate my dessert I was like oh well I guess there's not a ring in here - I then told him of the various people who were convinced he would propose.
We both started laughing and he said, " I did think about it but couldn't find the perfect size ring :) "

So I guess my friends were half right. The rest of the conversation went like this:
K - but you do know we're getting married next July right ?
Me - oh really? nope I didn't
K - so feel free to start planning :)
Me - ok .....

Over the past several months, we had begun to actively work towards planning our future together, we purchased our first home together (details will follow later) and discussed our intentions with our parents. 

A few weeks ago, his mom called my dad to officially initiate the discussions and we can now officially begin to plan for Malta. My father has declared himself the CEO of all wedding planning activities!
However, I am yet to officially receive my ring ;) I'm going to London to visit for a while at the end of this week, so stay tuned...