Newly weds Geofrey and Racheal : We met on a blind date

Rachel and Geoffrey owe a lot of thanks to their friends, one who brought them together and the others who helped Geoffrey put together a memorable proposal. They told WILBERFORCE OKWIRI their story.

FIRST DATE

I had seen Rachel before but had not talked to her. To her, I was a total stranger. I asked her cousin Tom, who was my friend, to give her my number and he did. When she called, I asked her out for a drink. We met the day before Valentine’s Day in 2006 in the afternoon at Club Porkies, Thika.

THE PROPOSAL

It was on the evening of January 24, 2014. I was just about to leave the office when I received a call from Geoffrey asking of my whereabouts and my plans for the evening. I informed him that I needed to rush to Thika to attend to a personal matter. He told me that he wanted us to go out for dinner and for some reason I warmed up to the idea. He picked me up at Ngara and we went to freshen up at his house in Kahawa Sukari. We later left for Nairobi. On the way, he kept receiving calls from our friend Dan. One call found us at Ngara and he assured him that we will be in town soon as the jam subsided. On reaching the Globe Round about, Joy, Dan’s wife, called me asking how I was doing. We had a good chat and she bid me goodbye. Traffic was so crazy at the Globe forcing Geoffrey to cut wrong corners. This annoyed me and at some point I threatened to alight from his car. By good luck, we manoeuvred through the traffic and he got parking space outside the Bata Shop next to the Stanley. At this point I had already had enough of traffic and wasn’t feeling the dinner any more. I followed him anyway. We got to the entrance and he called Dan again who directed us to where they were. We went up to the pool when we found Dan, Joy and another of our friend called Maina. Shortly we were joined by Mary who is Geoffrey’s colleague. We made our orders. I love steak and my order was definite. Drinks were brought as we waited for food. All along I had suspected there was something in the offing. The food I reached out for for cutlery, I realised there was no food on my plate. Instead was a maroon square box. I looked at Geoffrey and he was already down on his knee asking me to marry him. Everyone seated by the pool cheered him on and the thought to decline his proposal was overpowered by the cheers. I was shaking at some point, removed my glasses and sure enough it was true. I accepted.....

THE STORY BEHIND THE WEDDING

Planning was tasking but we had enough grace to pull through it. We did most of the errands alone but we got help at a later stage from family and friends. Kudos to Damaris and Maggie of Great Grace Collection. These ladies were a God send. All in all, most of our suppliers did a good job.

IN HINDSIGHT

We would advise couples to pray about everything and everyone involved and ask God for direction. Planning early is critical and it is important to plan with the right people. Planning within your budget is fundamental for a successful wedding.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

The number of guests who turned up at the wedding was a huge surprise. We had budgeted for 700 but over a thousand turned up and all were served to their satisfaction. Our favourite moments were exchanging the vows and cutting of the cake. For our honeymoon, we decided to go to Sarova Shaba in Isiolo due to the security issue at the Coast but we are planning for something more outside the country.

Photo: Wilberforce Okwiri