Wedding Diaries: The First Introduction

Every family has its own rituals when it comes to weddings in Nigeria, even though a great part of it is motivated by tradition and culture. This also applies to tribes- with each tribe it’s a different ceremony or ritual. Though, the common language is love and unity-the coming together of two families…Amazing right!

Well, it is pretty much same for us- I mean Demola and I, we are from the same tribe and share the same culture and traditional beliefs. We both come from very large families with DIFFERENT wedding rituals. However, it is common that the bride and her family decide the pattern at which the ceremony takes abi…

My family…my goodness places a lot of value on the introduction and traditional {otherwise known as Engagement} ceremonies. Now for the introduction, it is usually small and very private right….in my family, we have somewhat two introduction ceremonies…{am sure you are laughing now and wondering what the heck for} It beats me too…anyhow, the first introduction is for the immediate family alone, no relations and the other one is for both immediate and extended family.

It was our first introduction the other day. Like I have said before DM and I have met the other person’s family, but now it was time for the immediate families to meet. I never realised how much of a big deal it was until about a week to the day…I panicked, had cold feet…prayed …fasted…then prayed some more. My dad is a pretty cool person but one of his strongest qualities is that he is so unpredictable. This made me very nervous. My older sister got married 4years ago and the nostalgia of how very unpredictable my dad was then came flushing through my head.

Both our mums were already acquainted on phone, they chatted every other day, but honestly in times like this, that fact just seems to vanish. So the day finally came, I prayed so hard that day and just give up my nerves to God. I left the house in the morning to go meet Demola, because we were all going to meet over lunch somewhere in Surulere. Demola and I got there, then His mum and Siblings {his dad is late} then my parents and sibling.

I remember my heart pounding so hard, when Demola whispered into my ears, ‘they are here’ I looked back, saw my dad and immediately he started smiling…we got up to usher them in and instantly our families exchanged greetings and hugs. I tell you it was so beautiful, how two strangers become one and unite two families together.

It was indeed beautiful, I sat back and took a deep breathe…smiling! We had lunch, just chatting away. I stopped and look around my family and soon to be in laws and there were no boundaries. All of a sudden we were all not strangers any more. My dad hardly, I mean never takes pictures and if you see any of him, it was taken without his knowledge, or it was work related or we had begged him for days, sometimes weeks…lol, but that day, he took with everybody and even posed…lol!

Two hours later, my mum called me and whispered into my ears…’THANK GOD, YOUR DAD REALLY LIKES DEMOLA’S FAMILY’…I smiled and couldn’t stop for the rest of the day. The date for the second introduction was chosen, don’t worry I will let you in on it.

Smiley thots

Dunni
xoxo