Alan and I attended our first Ghanaian wedding this weekend and it fulfilled our expectations that it would be a spectacle. The wedding was of Alan's British colleague and her Ghanaian counterpart that she has met since being in Ghana. Her now husband is a street dance performer who specializes in acrobatics and is also rastafarian. You may have seen previous blogs of him and his friends performing for us. So this wedding was to be a blend of British and Ghanaian/rastafarian cultures. We were not just guests but were asked to wear specially made outfits (see previous blog) as part of the wedding party and I made her wedding cake. This blog will hopefully give you a feel for what we experienced throughout the day as I think we learned a lot.
The day began at the house of one of the bride's and Alan's colleague. They offered to host the traditional ceremony that just close friends and family were invited to. The ceremony was to begin at 9:15am and thankfully I called the woman hosting the ceremony the previous day and was told the start time was switched to 10:30am because the bride and groom had to be at the marriage registrar's office waiting in line at 7am. It made me so thankful that Alan and I did not have to do that on our wedding day!. As we arrived we saw our Ghanaian counterparts all dressed in the same outfits we had on but somehow it looked much better on them! The women all wore these bright silver headdresses and I suddenly felt I didn't get the memo about those.
The drummers began and the ceremony was officially underway. But, there was no bride or groom! Apparently, the ceremony is not really about the bride and groom but instead about the families and gift giving so they only came out at the very end. As the drummers played, the groom's family entered the tent bearing many many gifts that were laid on the center table.
And it became clear the officiant was this woman, although we don't know who she is or why she was officiating.
After she introduced herself as presiding over the traditional ceremony, she began to describe the gifts on the table and presented them to the bride's mother.
Typically in Ghanaian weddings, the groom's family gives a dowry for the bride and her family. I've heard that often the bride's family makes a list of what they expect to be given and only when the list is completed will the bride's family accept the marriage. I don't think that's what happened here but there were plenty of gifts! The gifts included 4 pieces of traditional Ghanaian fabric (this basically entails 6 yards in each piece from which a typical Ghanaian dress can be made), special liquor, traditional Ghanaian beads, and a suitcase.
Now I'm thinking, "oh, it's like American weddings and they give luggage for travels the couple might take together." Wrong. The suitcase, as we understood it, is given to the bride's family as a way to ensure that the husband cannot kick the bride out and divorce her because normally, if he were to do that, he'd hand her a suitcase and send her off on her way but if the bride's family has the suitcase already, the husband cannot do this. The suitcase was apparently filled with odds and ends for the kitchen like a microwave and a broom. Oh and panties! This part all got a little confusing but the officiant then described the old fashioned panties that Ghanaian women used to wear which was basically cloth attached to a beaded belt which was introduced by the white woman.
Then the bride was brought out with her bridesmaids - her sister and best friend.
And then the groom was brought out do more drumming and dancing and he was accompanied by his best men, King and Easy Man, who we've met before.
And after they got seated, the ceremony was basically over and the drummers and dancers began their performance. The men were dressed in black tights, mesh shirts, and quite colorful socks and as you can see, they had to be ridiculously hot as they performed.
Occasionally the women would interact with us by sitting in our laps or dancing with us and we later found out that when they did this, they were asking for us to give them money...we didn't know.
This concludes the first part of the wedding. Alan and I went back to the apartment to change out of our outfits which were now drenched in sweat, take the second shower of the day, and get our more comfortable clothes on for the reception. We managed to get the cake in the car in one piece and made it to the venue which was a hotel on the beach. The reception was supposed to begin at 2:30 and we arrived at 2 and almost nothing had been set up yet! The tent was up and the tables and chairs were out but that was literally it! So the few friends and family of the bride who were there quickly began organizing and setting the place up. This, unfortunately, was not surprising for Ghana. So I got to working on the cake while they carried crates of plates and glasses to get the tables set up. The cake went up without a hitch and then we could relax and take in the ocean breeze which barely kept us from melting.
The cocktail hour was when we took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the guests as we sipped warm champagne. These are some of our favorites.
Finally the bride and groom arrived at about 3:30 and made their grand entrance and took their seats at the head table as the drummers and dancers performed more for them. We ate a buffet of mixed continental/Ghanaian food which was pretty good. The cake was cut and the event moved from reception to party...
...complete dancers and musicians who performed as the sky darkened.
We really enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime event that we were lucky to witness and be part of and it certainly makes for a good story from our time in Ghana.
The day began at the house of one of the bride's and Alan's colleague. They offered to host the traditional ceremony that just close friends and family were invited to. The ceremony was to begin at 9:15am and thankfully I called the woman hosting the ceremony the previous day and was told the start time was switched to 10:30am because the bride and groom had to be at the marriage registrar's office waiting in line at 7am. It made me so thankful that Alan and I did not have to do that on our wedding day!. As we arrived we saw our Ghanaian counterparts all dressed in the same outfits we had on but somehow it looked much better on them! The women all wore these bright silver headdresses and I suddenly felt I didn't get the memo about those.
The drummers began and the ceremony was officially underway. But, there was no bride or groom! Apparently, the ceremony is not really about the bride and groom but instead about the families and gift giving so they only came out at the very end. As the drummers played, the groom's family entered the tent bearing many many gifts that were laid on the center table.
And it became clear the officiant was this woman, although we don't know who she is or why she was officiating.
After she introduced herself as presiding over the traditional ceremony, she began to describe the gifts on the table and presented them to the bride's mother.
Typically in Ghanaian weddings, the groom's family gives a dowry for the bride and her family. I've heard that often the bride's family makes a list of what they expect to be given and only when the list is completed will the bride's family accept the marriage. I don't think that's what happened here but there were plenty of gifts! The gifts included 4 pieces of traditional Ghanaian fabric (this basically entails 6 yards in each piece from which a typical Ghanaian dress can be made), special liquor, traditional Ghanaian beads, and a suitcase.
Now I'm thinking, "oh, it's like American weddings and they give luggage for travels the couple might take together." Wrong. The suitcase, as we understood it, is given to the bride's family as a way to ensure that the husband cannot kick the bride out and divorce her because normally, if he were to do that, he'd hand her a suitcase and send her off on her way but if the bride's family has the suitcase already, the husband cannot do this. The suitcase was apparently filled with odds and ends for the kitchen like a microwave and a broom. Oh and panties! This part all got a little confusing but the officiant then described the old fashioned panties that Ghanaian women used to wear which was basically cloth attached to a beaded belt which was introduced by the white woman.
Then the bride was brought out with her bridesmaids - her sister and best friend.
And then the groom was brought out do more drumming and dancing and he was accompanied by his best men, King and Easy Man, who we've met before.
And after they got seated, the ceremony was basically over and the drummers and dancers began their performance. The men were dressed in black tights, mesh shirts, and quite colorful socks and as you can see, they had to be ridiculously hot as they performed.
Occasionally the women would interact with us by sitting in our laps or dancing with us and we later found out that when they did this, they were asking for us to give them money...we didn't know.
This concludes the first part of the wedding. Alan and I went back to the apartment to change out of our outfits which were now drenched in sweat, take the second shower of the day, and get our more comfortable clothes on for the reception. We managed to get the cake in the car in one piece and made it to the venue which was a hotel on the beach. The reception was supposed to begin at 2:30 and we arrived at 2 and almost nothing had been set up yet! The tent was up and the tables and chairs were out but that was literally it! So the few friends and family of the bride who were there quickly began organizing and setting the place up. This, unfortunately, was not surprising for Ghana. So I got to working on the cake while they carried crates of plates and glasses to get the tables set up. The cake went up without a hitch and then we could relax and take in the ocean breeze which barely kept us from melting.
The cocktail hour was when we took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the guests as we sipped warm champagne. These are some of our favorites.
Finally the bride and groom arrived at about 3:30 and made their grand entrance and took their seats at the head table as the drummers and dancers performed more for them. We ate a buffet of mixed continental/Ghanaian food which was pretty good. The cake was cut and the event moved from reception to party...
...complete dancers and musicians who performed as the sky darkened.
We really enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime event that we were lucky to witness and be part of and it certainly makes for a good story from our time in Ghana.
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