The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings

Bride Dola Olutoye poses with her bridesmaids in traditional Nigerian attire and matching geles, a scarf or fabric folded into an ornate shape atop a woman’s head.Olu Ogundeyin of IMG Artistry

(By Adenike Olanrewaju) - The Fabric of Nigerian Weddings. The color and flair of traditional ceremonies give brides and grooms a way to express a vibrant cultural heritage.

Dola Fatunbi Olutoye, 25, was ecstatic after becoming engaged last November to Dr. Yinka Olutoye, 26. She knew she wanted a traditional Nigerian wedding, but needed help executing the cultural elements of the ceremony, which took place on May 25 in Houston. 

Mrs. Olutoye, a pharmacy student from Houston, and Dr. Olutoye, a recent medical school graduate, are both Nigerian-Americans who are part of the Yoruba ethnic group, which is heavily concentrated in the Southwest region of Nigeria.

Weddings and (Pre)-Pre-wedding Photo Shoots

(By Olubunmi Familoni) – The Nigerian Wedding: Shaming the Devil and Unrelenting Exes

The big social event known as ‘The Nigerian Wedding’ has attained Olympic status, in size; one only wishes the status could also apply to frequency of occurrence — once every four years — and like the athletes, all the participating couples would gather and get the pageantry over with within the space of those 16 days, and we wouldn’t have to endure the frenzy of any more bridal gymnastics for another four years.

Not being a spoilsport, but one begins to get rather bored with seeing the same matches (most of them not ‘made in heaven’, or even anywhere close to the skies) every weekend — even the bloody Premier League goes on break sometimes.

I don’t even mind the weddings very much — you can choose not to go, or to look away; but they don’t even wait for the wedding ceremony before the photographic assault begins. And throughout the months leading up to the Big Wedding, the pictures turn up everywhere, everywhere you turn they’re there — turn your phone on, they’re crawling up your nose; turn the phone off, they’re all over the papers, magazines, on the news, and billboards!

Now there’s a photo-proposal trend in which the ring is no longer king, the photos are.