Party Like It’s 1999…

April 10, 2010
On Saturday afternoon, we attended a wedding reception for Aunty Bose’s son’s best friend. As I stated previously, you don’t have to know the couple to go to the wedding. No invitation required. The church ceremony started at 11, but we did not attend. Instead, we arrived at the reception at University of Lagos (UniLag) at 2pm thinking that we would get there a little after it started factoring in African Time. As we were walking into the hall, we learned that the church ceremony had just ended. I could not imagine a 3-hour wedding. They told me that the norm is usually around 1-1.5 hours for the Catholic ceremony, but this one doubled because of all the dignitaries present who had to be acknowledged. The bride’s father was a government official. Bode told us to keep our purses and cameras close to us because of pickpockets and thieves. A wedding is a prime target for criminals because there are so many unsuspecting people with money in one place. In fact, sometimes the families hire police to escort them to their homes to prevent armed robbers from attacking when they see all the gifts and money given to the couple at the wedding.

There were so many beautifully dressed people around me. The primary color for the Aso Oke (ah-sho oh-kay) and decorations was gold with woven sand-colored gele’ (gay-lay). Even those who did not wear the aso oke were dressed impeccably. We were escorted to the front after the militant ushers heard that we were friends of the bride and groom from abroad, which was only half true. Those of us who were from abroad did not even know the couple, but we went along with the rouse to get a good seat. There were probably 2000 people there. We also participated in the processional for the bridal party. All the friends danced down the aisle in twos and then separated to form 2 lines for the bridal party to dance in between us (Soul Train line). The governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, attended the reception along with many other dignitaries. The emcee told all the bride’s friends from abroad to come to the front to take a picture with the governor. Renny and I were prompted to get up again since we were “friends from abroad”.
After the food (that never ran out), speeches from the couple as well as family and friends, and the cake cutting, the real party began. The bride seemed to dance tirelessly. Many people joined the couple on the dance floor and “sprayed” them with money (made it rain). The bride and groom took a break from dancing to take more photos. The people who remained on the dance floor sprayed other dancers. Even Jite, Renny’s 3-yr old, danced with another little girl and was sprayed.
It was a fun event for all of us and it somewhat prepared me for the wedding to follow on Thursday. Onome told me his sister’s wedding wouldn’t be as big, but it was sure to be spectacular.

Wedding for government official's daughter...millions of naira

Amount of money most guests spent on gifts for the couple...zero naira

Seeing Jite getting sprayed and stuffing the money in her "breast"...Priceless!