I was so blessed to be present to photograph Ikenna and Lola’s wedding.
The wedding not only consisted of a church wedding at the Orita Mefa Baptist Church but also consisted of performing at the Ibadan Civic Center (pictured above) a traditional Yoruba engagement and marriage along with a reception.
Yoruba marriage is centered around family more than it is centered on the new found love of the bride and the groom. I highly recommend reading the The Yoruba Traditional wedding and engagement to get a more recent sense of the marriage process in Yoruba land! Please keep in mind that the variations are as many as there are families.
For Ikenna and Lola’s wedding there was just a flurry of activity due in part to the fact that the wedding was held in the bride’s family church in Ibadan, one state away from the groom’s family. The day started early with everyone getting dressed excitedly in the outfits that had been chosen for their wedding day.
The groom’s family showed up at the engagement and reception site with the things on the engagement list and groom anxious to be married.
However due to circumstances beyond their control the traditional marriage needed to be postponed until after the church wedding ceremony. The bride and groom were great sports and calmly headed out to the church to get married.
On arriving at the church there was some more waiting to do which both bride and groom did extremely patiently.
How fun to capture the moment of the bride’s joy at signing her marriage certificate as her dad looked over her, he signed, and then her joy dancing off with her husband!
The groom really savored the moments after they were pronounced husband and wife and at the reception prayer time!
The details were so gorgeous with the lilac, purple, and gold.
As a part of the Yoruba engagement and marriage process the groom had to submit to the Alaga Ijoko (seating MC representing the bride’s family) and in humility prostrate as part of his request for the bride’s hand in marriage. As you can see this groom was happy to do anything it took to get married. He over did and exaggerated his request so much so that the bride’s family erupted in laughter. Then he went over and prostrated to receive his parents blessing over his marriage.
After her received his blessing the groom enjoyed the company of he and his bride’s parents just overjoyed at the acceptance of both families. Then the bride was blessed by her parents (representing her extended family) and his parents. What a precious blessing from the Lord to behold and witness the prayers of Christian parents over this new family unit. There was much joy and celebrating of the joining of the two families.
It was so cool to see a very calm father of the groom and a very happy couple at the end of the traditional ceremonies.
As part of the reception there was a groom’s cake and bride’s cake!
At the end of the day the couple collapsed exhausted at the day’s activities into the back of the couple’s (formerly the groom’s) car as husband and wife heading for the groom’s home town.
