Spiritually Sealed

 

Part 3 of the wedding trilogy continues…dan…dan…da dan….

So our whirlwind year continues and the weeks following the traditional wedding have been absolutely amazing. We’ve been in bliss at how well we pulled it off and start concentrating on the final leg : The Church or white wedding.

Once again, all credit to my beautiful wife who’s a bit of an organizing freak….we move!

Now recall that we’ve been attending “marriage classes” starting around January this year at a lovely church in VGC -Catholic Church of the Transfiguration and trust me..that one is a whole different story… if you know anything about me by now, it’d be very obvious that this was something I would detest attending and if it wasn’t a requirement by the church and Chinky’s arm twisting, I’d have gladly found a way to skip through it all. Anyway, as with all new realizations, it turned out not to be as horrible as I thought it was going to be and some of the classes were actually fun. We had mostly good teachers who made the classes entertaining enough so I didn’t have to hang myself. Even though COVID put a halt at some point during the year, we managed to finish it up and get “church certified” for marriage.

We also had some pre-wedding counseling sessions with our spiritual counselor Rev Fr Matthew (who, my minions assured me and I suspected had a very colorful life before joining the vineyard). Very nice guy though…didn’t put too much pressure on us and took his time to arrange everything properly.

So things are moving in gear….we had managed to uproot Mom from her mourning period and sent her a flight ticket to come down to lagos. Lolo* was very happy to do so and came down with Confidence (yaay!) who I had picked earlier from the bus park. Emeka is also still around for the period and wonder of all wonders, Kelechi makes a spur of the minute decision to also come in from the US for my wedding. WOW. It's great to have him around and the whole family is feeling really chuffed at the time. We had worried over locations for the reception and finally(after offers from Kathy and Ugo to host it) decided to use a very lovely hotel ballroom close by. Chioma and I met with the managers and managed to get very good deals on the room rates, reception venue rates as well as drinks and service for the day. Other things were taken care of….I got our office caterer to handle food for the day (even though Mom still prepared her own occasion food later as usual).

One thing I really have to give thanks for was the support we received from family and friends everywhere. One decision we made, was to keep the number of guests at a minimum due to church requirements, COVID(fucking Wuhan virus) regulations, financial prudence, and the general wish on both parts to have a small wedding. So invitations were selectively sent(let me just report here that Chioma threatened me if I went outside the list) and people really understood and still lent their full support.

October 3^rd finally dawned, but first, let me gist a bit about the bachelor’s eve…lol…

The previous day, without my knowledge, the guys had all planned something to celebrate my “retirement”. I was just given instructions to present myself at Uche’s place at a certain time and be ready to have fun. Kelechi and I had done a lot of running around earlier and in between bouts of driving me crazy with his financial recklessness, me trying my hardest not to forget anything important, answering tons of calls and coordinating several things at once, the day quickly breezed away. We got to Uche’s place later that evening and there’s an expectant atmosphere. The guys are all there…Emeka, Kelechi, Chigozie, Oge, Uche, IK(Chioma’s brother), and a couple of other guys….We start pre-gaming on bottles of Patron and I’m given one bottle all to myself (See pic inserted below) (with hindsight, big mistake!). We play video games till it’s suitably late enough and then head out to….you guessed right….the strip club!

Of course, any discerning gentleman in Lagos knows that there’s only one very correct Men’s club to head to, and being the premium guys that we are, we set off for Silver Fox. By this time, seeing as I had hardly had anything serious to eat before getting to Uche’s place, I’m pretty much happily buzzed on Patron and therefore will discreetly draw a veil on all further activities for the night since I can’t even remember anything anyway….lol.

The next morning, we’re up bright and early in the hotel room (Chioma at least anyway. I was still zonked out) and the big day gets in gear. We had a suite so Chioma’s make up artist and other attendants had slept over in the adjoining room and they started their preparations on her on time (thank God). Our fantastic photographer came as well and started off with all his gimmickry. After all the usual drama of wedding mornings, we are set to go and head off to the church in Jesse’s car.

You know something, I’ve had lots of thoughts about how my wedding day would go and really, the universe just seemed to align and accede to my unspoken wishes.

Chioma was amazingly beautiful. Her gown was a work of art and being the beauty that she is, she made the dress come alive. The church building and the location was very well situated, the weather bent to our will and was all beautiful sunshine, people were happy and it just promised to be an all-round great day. Fortunately, everything went according to plan.

I watched her dad walk Chioma down the church aisle and at that moment, I’m not sure why I started having nostalgic thoughts of how I wished Nze could have been here as well. Sigh.

The mass was beautifully short and sweet, Chioma and I recited all the famous words when asked and Fr Matthew pronounced us Man and Wife in the eyes of the church and everywhere else!!! YAAAAAAYYYY!!

The rest of the church ceremony went by in a haze of songs, signings and so many pictures! Bidemi , our photographer really outdid himself (self reminder to send him a bonus) and then we headed to the reception venue.

The reception also goes as planned. We had not wanted the usual wedding reception so we had themed ours a “wedding lunch” which was what it turned out exactly. Our guests showed up and had lots to eat and drink. Chioma and I were going round the venue, gisting, laughing and interacting with everyone. Asides some fuck up with the power going off for a while, everything else was just perfect.

Everyone was expecting us to turn up on the dance floor and trust your people, we did not disappoint. At a point, the whole thing just turned into a free for all party and even though I say so myself, it was a fucking great wedding party.

The highlight was also when Chioma’s parent’s and their guests all made a very special presentation to us and gifted us so many items. Absolutely amazing.

All good things have to come to an end though and ladies and gentlemen, the end of this party wraps up this special period in my life where I get to start the rest of my life with this amazing woman beside me.

To Chinky, my beautiful wife, Thank you for loving and accepting me. I promise to always love you and treat you right. You are literally the best thing that has happened to me

To my amazing family here and in diaspora, thanks for the prayers, love and support. You all rock.

To the Nwokorokus, thanks for accepting me and gifting me with this whole new amazing family. God bless you guys.

 

That’s it folks. Cheers!

 

*Lolo – Mummy’s official traditional title.