Weddingbee boards

So after much hemming and hawing about whether I want to put all my pics on the interwebz or not, I have finally decided to bite the bullet and do recaps. I have all my discs in from the photographer and I am dying to share everything with you guys!

There are tons and tons of photos, and they are soo amazing, it is really hard to just choose a few so I won't. I'll share lots and lots and lots of photos.

We had our rehearsal on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Mystic, Connecticut. Our photographer wasn't around yet so we didn't have him at the actual rehearsal, but because he is such a great guy he agreed to come along to the rehearsal dinner and capture it all on film for us. DH's father threw the rehearsal dinner on the grounds of his house for us. He is an organic farmer so it was a really wonderful setting and a great way to kick off the wedding weekend.

Because we didn't have time to honour my Nigerian culture properly by having a traditional wedding, we decided that it would be a nice touch to have us wearing some Nigerian traditional attire. We didn't go all out, we kept it fairly casual (well casual for Nigerians) in order to be comfortable in the setting we were in but it made for some really great pictures. The ohotos were enormous and would take for ever to upload so I resized them all quite a lot. The quality is compromised but at least you get to see lots of piccies this way.

All photos by Jide Alakija http://www.alakija.com/weddings.html

After the rehearsal we went over to DH's father's farm where my aunts took me into the main house to put on my traditional headtie. This is made from a stiff piece of fabric and is called a gele. It takes a number of tries to get it tied on properly, and often requires more than one person to get it right. Tying the headtie is a real art form, and I was really glad to share that with my aunts, it made me feel more like we were having a real traditional wedding. My mother gave me some pink coral jewellry which is traditionally worn by the bride to wear to the dinner.

WOW!

You look beautiful and that headpiece is fabulous! Congratulations!

So now that my headtie was on, I was fully outfitted and ready to join the celebration. I heade downstairs to find DH who was in traditional Nigerian garb for the first time in his life. He looked really great in the outfit, pulled it off quite well. We took each other in and the reality if the fact that we were getting married the next day began to sink in as we joined all our family, bridal party and OOT guests in enjoying the event. 

Because we had over 40 people, we chose to make our rehearsal dinner a minireception of sorts. We thought it would be best that way because people could mingle and get to know each other. This was especially important as it was the first time we got to meet most of each others extended family. We also wanted the two cultures to have time to meld before teh main event the next day.

DH's dad really went above and beyond with the food and decor. He incorporated our primary wedding colour (teal) into the decor and had an organic farm-to-table/locally sourced theme going for all the food. It was great.

How beautiful!  You looked absolutely gorgeous!

We also had time to have a wee photo session with just the two of us, just as the sun started to go down.A fabulous end to an amazing day.

Stunning!  Colors are gorgeous.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments. I'm obsessed with bright colours:)

Gosh thanks everyone, I'm blushing hardcore over here now

Wow, and this is just your rehearsal!  These are lovely pics - I can't wait to see the wedding itself too :)

wow. that last picture of you in your OP? it gave me chills you look so beautiful.

@bRooklynRocks:

can you believe I had never heard of Segungele before? Wow, Houston is amazing! As for the picture where he was going to dobale, do you mean this one where my brother showed him how it is done? :)

@elliestan:

Woohoo, thanks. I love that picture too.

Everyone was impressed. Plus he unleashed his Yoruba Arsenal of two entire words and had everyone in stitches. It was great!