Right from childhood, she had dreamt of a fairy tale wedding. The type she saw on television. In fact, she had expected it to be similar to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s. Wearing a white flowing gown on glass shoes, she would have an up do hairdo covered by her veil. The pianist would play the wedding anthem in the church-‘Here comes the bride‘. She would hold onto her Daddy as he walked her down the aisle. Blown by the sight of her beauty, Chris would be weeping uncontrollably. For the day has come when he would finally marry his best friend. This is the same Chris that is saying they don’t need a white wedding.
“It’s a Western tradition. Must we follow?” He tried to convince her as they made planned for their upcoming wedding.
Nobody has believed they would end up together. From university fellowship, they had nurtured their friendship. It was during NYSC that they made it official. Chris was scared of leaving her to the hands of other male youth corp members.
She was the kind of girl any man would like to have as a wife, not just a girlfriend. Well- brought up, God-fearing, pretty and hard-working. Her kind heart was a virtue, very rare. The day he saw her defend a teenager from bullies, he knew she was not just pretending. Besides he had seen the way she reacted to situations. Instead of instigating trouble, like a dove, she was a peacemaker. That made him love her more.
When they were several kilometres apart, he made effort to bridge the gap with constant communication. He was serving in Cross River state while she was in Nasarawa state. Still trying to find his feet, he could hardly travel to meet her. So they invested more in free late nights call. It was on festive breaks, that they got to reunite.
Fresh after NYSC, they were able to secure jobs luckily. The next thing was to plan their wedding. No time to waste. The wedding type was now the issue. Chris wanted to cut costs and just go the traditional way with the court wedding. But she wanted all three- the white wedding, court wedding, and traditional wedding. The more he tried to convince her, the more she felt hurt.
Trying to back his judgment with biblical references, Chris said that there was nowhere in the bible a couple had a white wedding. The marriage rites were traditional. According to him, colonisation made up adopt the white man’s style of wedding.
It was not like he disliked the white wedding. It was more about accumulating expenses. He did not mention that the ‘list’ her father provided for their engagement ceremony has scared the living daylight out of him. But he took up the challenge, for she was worth more.
He had almost emptied his life savings. The last thing he wanted to do was to be a people pleaser or do what was beyond him. Would she see reason? All her friends had white weddings, why should hers be different?
“There you go again” Chris cut her “Now you’re making comparisons. I told you that every relationship is different.”
He tried to reassure her. ” Look at it this way. The most important thing is that we legally married. The whole paparazzi and ceremony do not count. And we have to obey our custom and law”
He kissed her forehead and rested her head on his shoulder. “Rather than spending money on a white wedding, let’s use to plan our home”