The first step into forever

HELLO HIVE

On this wonderful day, I'm delighted to welcome you to my blog because my friend @joyman just got married to the love of his life. It's been fantastic to see a relationship that lasted over 12 years end in marriage, which, in my opinion, shows how devoted and patient the couple was.

It's a lovely experience and more like a fairytale love story than anything else, but I got to see the start of this real relationship because I still clearly remember how we were all complete strangers when we got accepted to college.

And after our first few weeks of college 12 years ago, we all tried to make friends to expand our networks, and I believe that was the beginning of this relationship. Theirs was more or like love at first sight because they seemed to connect so instantly, as if they had known each other their entire lives before college.

That was the beginning of their relationship, and just like any other relationship, there were undoubtedly some misunderstandings. However, their tenacious qualities helped them overcome all of those obstacles, just as a proverb in my mother tongue yoruba states that the teeth and the tongue can't do without fighting, but that doesn't make one leave for the other, which means they still try to accommodate each other.

Today was a wonderful but stressful day for me because I had to coordinate with everyone to make sure everything went as planned. This included getting up as early as 4am to call the driver who would take us to the event and reminding everyone to get up and get ready early so we could avoid the traffic congestion that is typical of that route.

We leave epe at 5:30am for ikoyi, but despite how early we left, we encountered some traffic, and we weren't able to arrive at the venue until around 9am. Once there, we still had to look for a parking spot because the venue's parking lot was already occupied by cars belonging to other people who also wanted to conduct their court wedding.

After searching for a few minutes without finding a parking space, some men come up to us and offer to show us where to park our car so that it will be secure and won't be taken away by law enforcement, but they charge us ₦1,000. We try to haggle, but they won't accept less, so we are forced to agree and follow them to the location.

Soon after, the bride and her family arrived. After finding a parking area for their cars, we all entered the registry. When we did, we learned that we(Michael and Felicia) were the 68th couple waiting to get married that day, with more couples still to come.

We were somewhat disappointed with that number, so a member of the registry staff approached us and suggested that if we wanted to expedite the process and pay a fee of ₦10,000, we would be given a lower number and taken to the VIP area. We negotiated and eventually paid just ₦5,000, and our number was changed from 68 to 5.

We then discovered that there is no VIP area because we were required to wait in line with other people. This means that we just paid a bribe to change our number and how quickly we would be attended to. It's sort of strange, but I suppose that's one of their customary practices there.

I'm not thrilled about that circumstance, but I suppose they misled us with the VIP spot area price. Regardless, we finished the registration, signing, and professing of oath by the couples, following which they were issued a marriage certificate.

While that was going on, and I had to leave the area during that time to haggle with photographers and choose a closer number, so by the time they returned, it was our turn, The couples took several pictures together, separately, and with friends and family Despite the fact that I was stressed out from rushing around and it was clearly visible in my face and attire, I joined in with the couples in taking several pictures.

After the images were taken, the groom went to choose the ones he wanted and was informed that they wouldn't be accessible until later in the day, but that they would send us a soft copy via WhatsApp and the hard copy will be sent to us the following day via waybill.

Since they already had a traditional wedding a few months prior, they didn't feel the need to do anything grandiose like we are accustomed to seeing at Nigerian weddings. Instead, a very simple wedding was held at the court register simply.

After the ceremony, everyone left for their own homes after finding a place to sit and eat the meal that had been prepared, but this time, the bride and her groom came along to start their journey into eternity.

On the way home, we encountered an extremely stressful jam that made the journey that started by 1pm from Ikoyi last until nearly 7pm before we arrived in Epe, It was an amazing experience, and now everyone is looking at me as the next contender to be married, even if I'm not ready for such 🤣.

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/vickoly/23t76oRc3zjSnyfgC6F2V79yxUuq7CDvbvCH72sfweFTqZLzbJH6hBHqwKC3TkJ7GPGAs.png

That pretty much sums up my experience at my friend's wedding today; I had a great time, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed too while reading this post; have a good night's sleep.