Nigerians–particularly Yorubas–love to celebrate. Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, naming ceremonies, funerals are all occasions for huge parties complete with plenty of food, deafening music, matching decorations that extend to the smallest details and all sorts of fanfare. An intimate dinner or cocktail party among friends doesn’t align with Nigerian culture. The bigger the better for the Nigerian party. Lucky for the sociable type these parties happen often, maybe too often. The average Nigerian adult has attended hundreds of weddings. While each of the aforementioned celebrations have qualities that make it unique, they all share a common order of events. They all start with an opening prayer. The MC then introduces the important guests seated at the high table. Caterers pass out a plethora of drinks (juice, minerals, malt beverages, bottles of wine, beer and everyone gets a bottle of water) and plates of food (usually rice with moinmoin and meat, or iyan egusi, or amala) to each guest. Then the celebrant dances while family and friends spray him or her with money. The celebrant’s friends stand around to pick up the 50, 100, 200, 500 Naira notes that fall by the celebrant’s feet. Then the MC or someone else gives a closing prayer, guests collect their gifts and go home with full stomachs and poorer hearing than they arrived with.

An example of a brown and orange color scheme at a wedding party I attended. Bottles of minerals, boxes of juice abundant on every table.
So it went at the traditional Yoruba wedding I attended last weekend. People call this wedding the engagement. The church ceremony followed by a big party is the wedding party. So I celebrated the marriage of Esther and ‘Tosin in the traditional Yoruba style that has been a bit modernized by the imposing presence of microphones and photographers. While studying Yorùbá at University of Wisconsin, I happened to choose marriage among the Yoruba as a research paper topic and I am posting the 20-page paper I wrote, all in Yoruba of course, for any Yoruba readers to see if they are interested. I think the wedding will be best described by the photos I took.
Marriage among the Yorubas (part 1 of 2)
Marriage among the Yorubas (part 2 of 2)

Guests at the engagement sit under tents out of the hot sun, chatting, eating and drinking. Everyone is dressed in native Yoruba attire, iro, buba and gele around the head for the woman, and buba with sokoto for the man. The guests at the engagement will be fewer than the guests at the wedding party.

As the bride walks down the aisle with her friends, the husband sits under the beautifully decorated canopy waiting for his wife to greet him.

Photographers don't miss any facial expression at Nigerian parties. They are always in the celebrants faces taking way more pictures than needed. Here the bride and her entourage walks her down the aisle. The women dressed in cream and red are in her bridal party.

The bride and groom, oko and iyawo, pose with the groom's family. At a Yoruba wedding, everyone in the groom's family wears the same color cloth. The same goes for the bride's family. These colors are different to differentiate the two families that are coming together through marriage. According to Yoruba beliefs, marriage is not just between two people, but two families.

Women playing a traditional Yoruba instrument called the Shekere as the bride dances her way to greet her husband.

The dowry displayed for all the guests to see. The groom's family gives the bride and her family many gifts for the marriage. Here we see yams, bananas, other food stuffs and oil. The bride's family is seated on the right. The bride and groom's family sit on opposite sides of the aisle.

Esther, the bride, dancing with her new husband, 'Tosin. Fifty Naira notes fall in her arms from the Nigerian tradition of spraying money on the celebrants.

Member's of the groom's party dressed in aso ebi (see earlier post for description). They are wearing a buba (the shirt), iro (the wrapper skirt) and a gele (head wrapper).
l love yoruba culture
Hum hum!!! I’am really happy for this new couples as both of you hooks up each other and legalized your marriage pull out alot of crowd from both side and friends like this may the creator of Heaven and Earth grant you all your desire and good fruit of marriage in your lifetime. Happy married life.
Lovly piece.
Yoruba culture is d best
What a lvly colour…….
I luv dis its a gud job well down pls can i get d contact or address of those who sells or make yoruba engagement attire?
Títílayõ õwön,
Mo ÿêÿê ka bébà tí ç kô nípa ìgbéyàwó láàrin àwôn Yorùbá. Mo gbádù rê gidi gaa-an ni. Pàápàá jùlö, mo gbádù àwôn orin çgbë ìyàwó ti ç kô síbê.
Ê jõwö, níbo ni mo ti lè rí irú àwôn bébà yìí síi? Bóyá ç ti kô àwôn bébà míràn tí ç lè fún wa ní ànfàní à ti kà? Inú mi á dùn púpõ.
Çkú iÿë o. Olódùmarè á fi èrè sí iÿë o.
Alákõwé
Titilayo, o ku ise opolo. Igbeyawo se pataki pupo. Ojo igbeyawo je ojo mani gbagbe fun toko taya nitori wipe ojo naa se oju awon mejeji. A ko mo oun ti o sele lojo taa bi wa saye ;bakanaa ni a ko mo oun ti yio sele lojo ti a ba pa ipo da. Sugbon ojo igbeyawo waa yio ma wa titi lae ni iranti wa ati awon tio soju won.
Nija is really blessed- Good Weather, No mortgage, no community tax, property tax,etc
This is one of Nija’s summer babecue enjoyment ,once there is plenty of sunshine – No snow shoveling +Babasuwe dressing to keep warm, no tsunami or hurricane – >>O wa mbe can follow>> you have to let out the heat.
It’s unfortunate that our lifestyle has done more damage to us than good, we no longer cut our coat according to our fabric or pocket
It’s more of a competition now>> There has to be family support to be able to finance party with no RSVP>.Na only for nija we fit do this kind party >Lot of Mo gbo mo ya(Uninvited guest). open space party hen >.E don tey wey I go this kind one>. Na only Calgary stampede chukwagon +horse riding be the outdoor for summer here in Canada
Apprecaite your consistent update from Nija. I hardly have time to read news- Yours is enough for me
O see gan
[…] have a bucket with their picture printed on it to do all sorts of things? When I attended my first wedding here, I found it odd to be walking away from the chapel hall with a ceramic bowl, especially since […]
Oops! I forgot this is the thread I want to link it to http://naijapositive.myfastforum.org/about1469.html
Thanks in advance. 🙂
Titilayo,
Oshe gani fun awon foto tio share pelu wa. Nigerian weddings are the bumm! I’m sure it was a totally different experience for you.
They are always so colourful and joyous, no wonder people enjoy attending them, and as you rightly stated some people have attended over 100 in their lifetime.
Naijas by now, you know love to party, and there’s always a party every weekend. Ku igbadun jare.
I’d love to share your wedding and mayube other portions of your blog on my site if it’s okay with you. I have a thread on Nigerian weddings, so this will fit right in.
OMG…this is so random. That is my friend’s engagement ceremony. I missed it cos I had to catch my flight back to New York. This is awesome. I saw your yoruba video too. You speak yoruba better than most people I know…haha, I speak “lagos” yoruba. 🙂
Nice pictures and illustrations.Wishing you a fruitful new year.
Thanks Olufemi, you too!
Beautiful photos Cara! Great post!
Wow! Fabulous! Oh, what experiences you are having, Cara! I cannot get over the beautiful colors and the cloth. Fabulous!
Loves,
Michele