It is common in Nigeria for weddings to be grand and over the top affairs, according to the recently married Lisa-Leigh Aladekomo, who married husband Tomiwa Aladekomo in a traditional ceremony with 2,000 guests in attendance.
She said in an interview with Vogue that her own wedding is considered small by Naija standards, with typical weddings boasting 5,000 guests, performances and gift bags worthy of an award show.
One look at the hashtag #nigerianwedding on Instagram confirms this, showcasing brides posing in a multitude of traditional Nigerian and white wedding dresses, lavishly decorated reception halls and just married couples arriving in Rolls-Royces.
For her own wedding, Lisa-Leigh had a traditional ceremony combining traditions from her and her husband’s tribes, a white wedding the following day, two event planners and a grand total of six outfit changes. She said, “I wanted people to have fun. I wanted there to be enough food, enough space for my friends to dance, and something to make the parents feel happy and proud. It tends to take over and you can get upset—but I had two goals and I accomplished them, and I was happy.”
Lisa-Leigh’s white wedding ceremony might be what Westerners are more familiar with. She only invited 150 close friends and family to the event, which took place at Lagos’ Federal Palace Hotel. While her in-laws wanted to hold the ceremony in a church, the couple convinced them that an outdoor wedding would be fine.
The bride’s dress was from London’s Pronovias, made of white lace with a sweetheart neckline. She said, “It was the exact dress I had told them not to let me wear! But I wore it and I didn’t want to take it off!” To make the dress less traditional, Lisa-Leigh added a white lace cape designed by Nigerian designer Lanre Da Silva Ajayi, referencing the wedding cape worn by Solange Knowles.
For the guests, the dress code was strictly stylish, as the couple asked their friends and family to wear “Sunday best.” Lisa-Leigh said,
“It was kind of a challenge like, ‘You want our best? We’ll give you the best!’ For the white wedding we just had full-on gloriousness. We wanted people to really go there! Come in jewel tones, come in stilettos, whatever you is your best.”
The bride finished off the evening in her own distinct style, wearing a white suit from local fashion line Clan for the reception.
The wedding combining Esan and Yoruba traditions the day before, however; was a lavish, beautiful affair. Lisa-Leigh said, “I’m Esan and my husband is Yoruba and they do things differently. They are a lot flashier!” Indeed, the event was fit for royalty, as the event hall was swathed in gold and white fabric. The wedding began with the two families introducing themselves to one another as if they had never met. Elders broke kola nut, drank and exchanged gifts, while speeches were made by uncles from each couple’s family. Then, Tomiwa was led into the hall and joined by his friends, who then bowed to the bride and groom’s parents. Finally, the bride made her entrance.
Lisa-Leigh’s dress was made of deep green George, a fabric popular among African royalty. Her mother’s coral jewelry covered her neck, a stone that denotes royalty among the Esan. The bride also paid respects to her in-laws and parents. Following several prayers, the couple was officially married by Lisa-Leigh sitting on Tomiwa’s lap seven times.
She explained,
“You sit on your husband’s lap and the guests yell, ‘One!’ and then on the seventh count, the husband holds the wife and they’re married!” After the ceremony, Lisa-Leigh left for her first outfit change of the night, into a gorgeous blue aso-oke embroidered with gold. Aso-oke is a Yoruba fabric woven by men. The garment was a gift from the bride’s mother-in-law, representing Lisa-Leigh embracing her new husband’s Yoruba culture. She said, “The blue wrap shows that I am now married and I’m on my husband’s side, and I am dressing like how my husband’s people dress.”
Lisa-Leigh’s third outfit of the evening was a garment she had dreamed of wearing since childhood: an entirely white lace George design by Violet Hecksher. She said,
“When I was younger, it was how I saw women dressed. That’s what my mother wore to parties, so to me it meant that I was one of those women…the reason I had to change again, though, is because you can’t dance in it!”
Her final dress for the evening was made by the designer of her wedding cape and was made of gray lace. Overall, Lisa-Leigh had two evenings filled with style and flair, the perfect ending to a Nigerian wedding.
