HAVING A FABULOUS WEDDING IN NIGERIA.

Weddings, weddings and more weddings. Weddings will never end. Big weddings, small ones, lavish weddings and not so lavish ones. Nigerians are big on weddings - every weekend there are several weddings going on in different parts of the country.

Chances are your friend, relative or you are getting married sometime in the future. Because of how important weddings are, I researched and now present to you the steps to follow and things to do when organizing a wedding in Nigeria:

  Start early to plan the wedding (at least 6 months before the wedding day);

Make a list of people to help you with different planning work. I call this your ‘personal wedding planning team’. This can be made up of your bridesmaids, close friends and family and/ or a wedding planner. If you have a wedding planner, she (or he) will do everything about planning and coordinating your wedding – so you can go to sleep and show up pretty on your wedding day, sure that everything is in control.  Even if you have engaged a wedding planner, it’s a good idea to follow up with your wedding planner or helpers every week – it’s easier following up with one person than all the many vendors involved in a wedding.

    Contact those people in your list, that you want to assist you in the wedding planning process;

Don’t assume they should know. Ask if they can find the time, and let them know you’ll be delegating some tasks to them. Ask your mom and her friends, aunties, family members and friends. Choose bridesmaids and maid of honour (chief bridesmaids), and ask them to help out in your wedding plans.

   Make a wedding checklist and timeline for your team to work with;

After you’ve told a couple of people that you’ll need their help, next is to tell them what to help out with, so write down a wedding planning  to-do list, of things to do from now to your wedding day. After doing that, assign one or more work from that list to each person you’ve asked for help. You know these people’s abilities so use that knowledge to assign your wedding tasks to them.

   Involve your fiance too; Assign him some things on your checklist. Generally, men love helping out with setting the wedding budget, planning for drinks, hiring the DJ and planning the wedding music playlist, making arrangements for the sound system for the day, negotiating the venue price, planning what the groomsmen will wear and planning the honeymoon trip.

  Make a budget list and a budget;

Make a list of the things you need to buy or rent for the wedding. Find out how much each one costs, and then total up the costs.

Write down the list of things that you will need to hire people to do for you. Also make a list of the things your family members and friends will do for you for free. Search and interview vendors and venue managers: Start asking around and compiling names of possible vendors who will help you put things together for your wedding.

Plan for Coordination of the main Wedding Day: Assign a few people to oversee/ coordinate things on your wedding day (when you’ll be on the stage). These people will have to be at the wedding venues very early and leave after everyone else. They’ll be making calls early to followup with vendors to be early to do the decoration, to set the cake, to bring the food and drinks, and so on.

When your wedding is in high gear, these are the people that’ll be in the background quenching any fires or show-stoppers that may come up. Plan this team ahead of time, tell the people you select to do this, and spell out what you expect them to do.

      Record every wedding expense; 

Make a list of what you spent on and how much, making sure you stick to the budget you started with.

       Have an engagement shoot (e-shoot);

Schedule a day with your photographer, and your fiance, to get glam shots of the two of you – these are the photos that will go into several of your wedding things such as your wedding website, facebook, printed on your souvenirs, your wedding stationery and more. Give your photographer your list of must-take wedding day shots.

       4 to 8 weeks before the wedding stop all involvement with anything wedding planning;Hand over the remaining things-to-do to your able personal wedding planning team or wedding planner to finish it up and coordinate the wedding day. Most brides start feeling overwhelmed and totally stressed up a few weeks before their wedding, and so it’s best to hands off any time you feel that way. You can find a wedding planner who is ready to finish stuff up for you – it even costs less than having them start from the beginning of the planning process.

Spend the last days to your wedding getting routine beauty fixes, makeup and hair trials.

      Pack a wedding day emergency kit;

Do this alone or together with your chief bridesmaid and let her take custody of the kit on the wedding day.

       Treat and bond with your girls (bridesmaids); 

From a few days and up to a day before your wedding, spend more time with your bridesmaids and groomsmen. Go through the wedding day itinerary and make sure there’s nothing left out.

       Do a last-minute check on things; A few days to the wedding day: Confirm things with your venues (reception and Church/ worship house), the rentals suppliers and your wedding service suppliers (vendors). Make sure they are finished or almost – and monitor them closely up to the wedding day. Note that you don’t have to do this yourself, assign the task to a trusty friend or family member.

      Relax and get married;If you get those two things right, you can be sure that you’ll have a great wedding without stress.

Weddings are generally an extravagant affair and do get expensive but like the old saying goes, you can always cut your coat according to your cloth. I have added a workable budget for a small wedding as an encore. Take a look;

Go to your wedding ready to be a guest, knowing that you setup an able team to take care of everything behind the scenes as you party.

Remember our two keys to successful weddings – planning (pre-wedding) and coordination (wedding day/ reception). "PLANNING A SMALL WEDDING IN NIGERIA?"

Perhaps your own wedding is on the cards and you don’t want to break the bank even though you want a memorable occasion. The fact is whether big or small, a successful wedding depends on careful planning.

Recently I’ve been asked by a number of people, “how do I make my wedding event work with the limited finances at my disposal?” One thing you should know is that no matter how much you have, you can still have a great wedding if you are realistic on your expectations. You can't have it all but you can have it great.

First thing firsts, you must come up with a budget. Below I have put together a budget for a five hundred thousand naira wedding.

THE N500,000 BUDGET WEDDING IN NIGERIA
The first thing is to have a realistic guest list. You can't have five hundred thousand naira and want to host five hundred people unless you don't want to cater for them. 

For the five hundred thousand naira wedding, the bride must prioritize what is important to her, which most times is her makeup and the feeding. The couple should agree on not more than one hundred guests.

Here is a possible breakdown for the five hundred thousand naira wedding.

WEDDING DRESS AND BRIDAL ACCESSORIES - N15,000.

WEDDING SHOES- the bride can wear a shoe she already has. (She doesn't have to change into a reception dress either)

WEDDING RINGS (bride and groom)- N6,500. (You can always buy more expensive rings after the wedding when you have more money)

GROOM'S OUTFIT- 5,000 (he can buy only a new shirt and tie to wear with a suit and shoe he already has)

BRIDAL HAIR AND NAILS- N3,500 (hair permed and styled into a tight bun works well)

MAKEUP (just bride)- N30,000

INVITATION CARDS (BULK SMS) - N1,000

RECEPTION VENUE - N50, 000 (An open field can be found for about this range)

RENTALS OF TABLES, CHAIRS AND CANOPIES - N20,000

DECORATION OF VENUE - N40,000

DJ - N30,000 (Don’t use a live band. The DJ can play all kinds of songs even for the older generation)

CAKE - N30,000 – (3 tiers of cake)

FOOD - N85,000 (N850 per plate, jollof and fried rice, amala, moin-moin and 2 pieces of meat; with 5 servers, chaffing dishes, plates and cutlery. A caterer suggestion that can work on this budget is Incredible Edibles)

DRINKS- N30,000 (water and soft drinks in drums with ice blocks)

PHOTOGRAPHY- N80,000 (you can find photographers who can provide full event coverage, one photobook, pre-wedding shoot and one DVD of all the pictures for this amount)

MC- N0.00 (there’s always a friend of the groom who can step up at no cost to the couple)

SOUVENIRS - N25,000 (plastic items or other unique but cheap options)

5 USHERS - N32,500 (at N6500 per usher)

EVENT COORDINATION - N7,000 (a wedding planner can train two of the bride's sisters or friends on what needs to done a few weeks to the wedding and on the wedding day)

LOGISTICS - N9,500

TOTAL COST- N490,500

Of course getting the wedding cost to fit within this budget is going to be a challenging chore but it is achievable.

Now you’ve got your wedding checklist and your budget for a small wedding, what’s next is to get your man and get married!