I nearly gave up on his proposal

BRIDE: Elizabeth Salayio

GROOM NAME: Ronald Lang'at        

DATE:  July 18, 2015

GUESTS:  300

CEREMONY: Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic church, Ridgeways

RECEPTION: Wonderjoy Gardens-Ridgeways.

BUDGET: Sh3.1m

FIRST DATE

It was in January 2012. We agreed to meet at a restaurant in Mombasa, it was tense in the beginning since we had never sat down for a conversation before. She came in a sexy purple-white dress that made the rest of the afternoon even harder for me. We did drinks but because I was so tensed I forgot to order lunch.

I poured my heart out to her and prayed she would accept to be mine. It turned out that she was from another relationship and she asked for some time to think about it all but her body language said otherwise, I knew she was in for it before we parted ways.  

THE PROPOSAL

It was on December 31, 2014, he took me to Enashipai Resort in Naivasha. I thought it was a normal outing to usher in the new year. As time went by, I started to wish this was the night he would finally propose. The night was almost over and I was getting frustrated but I kept it to myself. Some few minutes to midnight, he excused himself and disappeared then came back.

Out of nowhere I saw the chef and the hotel manager approaching with a cup cake. The whole place was quiet. I didn't realise immediately what was going on, but I was handed over the cake and saw him going down on his knee. On top of the cake was the glittering ring, the stones shining! He proposed but I was in tears and excited I forgot to say yes! He asked again, and I said Yes.

THE DRAMA

 We were planning to invite 200 people for our wedding but the final list had more than 300 people. So we decided to have a traditional ceremony at our rural home at Iseuri in Kajiado so as to limit the number of people who would attend the Saturday event. This hit our financial plans hard.

Another challenge was that many friends and family members wanted to be in the bridal team but we had to limit the number to 14.

Also, the best man was not very sure of his availability, because he works outside the country and we didn't have an alternative.

Up to the eve of the wedding day we had not found a vehicle to be used by the bride and her parents.

On the wedding day, we realised we had not bought sodas and water for the guests. Most of our relatives arrived late after being detained for hours by traffic police.

WITH HINDSIGHT

We had our dream wedding in mind even before we started planning. The wedding turned out the same way and there is nothing we would have done differently if given another chance.

Our advice would be, plan your own wedding and it should be within your financial strengths. This one is for men-please be there always, spare time out of your busy schedules during the planning process.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

ELIZABETH: First, the day was sunny throughout, it’s funny because the weather before and after was chilly and we were afraid our day would not be as fun because of the cold. Secondly, my hubby surprised me with my dream car — Land Rover Discovery —  to use ferry me to church. It was our daughter's — Jasmine Chelangat's — birthday and to spice it up, both my hubby and daughter were being baptised that day.

RONALD: I always wondered how I would feel seeing my wife-to-be walking down the aisle. The feeling I experienced so sweet that I can't express it in words... a memorable moment it was. And ooh we had guests we didn't expect — hawks — and boy! guests had a hard time because these guests wanted to share their meals. Kayamba Africa didn't disappoint also, we had the fun we had dreamt of.

PHOTOS AND INTERVIEW: Wilberforce Okwiri