When the Forest Meets The Water- Traditional Ijaw Wedding Ceremony in Nigeria

Nigerian weddings are always a  huge fave #onPerfete for so many reasons; I mean do you see this traditional Ijaw wedding? For starters, there’s such vibrance in our cultures that it’s hard not to swoon. For another, the meaning behind these cultural ceremonies run root-deep and it’s always beautiful to see the co-mingling of love and culture. Today’s featured fête is the traditional Ijaw wedding ceremony of Ebitimi and Ifeanyi. Themed, “When Forest Meets Water,” the multicultural event featured so much we can be inspired from. We’ll let Bride Ebitimi do the sharing…

When Anambra (Forest) meets Bayelsa (Water)! My husband is from Anambra and I’m from Bayelsa and since we couldn’t have the ceremonies in our respective hometowns we decided to have the theme represent that. Lots of blues and greens yet it was traditional and fresh! Our planner Gozie of Coker Creative, did an amazing job bringing it to life along with help from the super talented @saraoevents. They went all out and delivered on their interpretation of our Forest meets Water theme and the pictures don’t even do it justice.

About the Outfits:

One of our favorite aspects of traditional Nigerian Ijaw wedding ceremonies is the fashion! I honestly feel couples look even better in their cultural wear. We especially love the fabrics at this wedding because of the meaning behind them. Ebitimi shares:

All fabrics used (except the green matching outfit which was a gift from my new family) were fabrics that used to belong to my late mother. During the wedding prep, I discovered she had so many fabrics which I felt were like a gift to me! It was quite emotional to know she bought them herself and kept them maybe thinking about her daughters. Using them for my outfits was a special way of keeping her with me on the day. Also Odio Mimonet used to make all my late mums outfits so all my wedding looks were truly rooted and made with love.