Wedding Planning For Kenya from Abroad - Part 1
Posted on June 6, 2008
Filed Under Information, The Observatory
Planning a wedding is a headache. Planning a wedding locally is a headache. Planning a wedding in a different continent is a massive, gigantic,head-banging type migraine. The list of things that have to go right is quite daunting. For baby girl and I, for a wedding scheduled this coming December, we have had curious surprises, the usual odd ball and had to dodge curveballs thrown our way like any other couple planning a wedding. To say the least, we have learnt a lot about ourselves, and more importantly, event planning and management as a whole. The biggest thing we ever had to plan between herself and I was our engagement party - and that comprised no more than 50 closest friends from all over the US. Weddings are quite daunting and rightfully so. To understand our challenges so far you also have to consider the backdrop against which we are planning this wedding.
DECEMBER 2007
Firstly, a lot of people, fearing pre and post-electoral violence last year chose to hold off on trips, vacations and weddings this past December. Post electoral violence and intermittent civil unrest throughout January, February and March 2008 had a devastating effect on the Kenyan tourism industry. This meant, a lot of re-scheduling not only vacationers and business travelers but also university exchange programs, peace corps etc. This has congested the tourism schedule considerably for 2008 which means this coming December, despite rising gas prices, we will see an incredible upsurge in diaspora-tourism as opposed to previous years. This means increased competition not just locally (in Kenya) but also from abroad.
ECONOMY ON THE BRINK
Secondly, the fact that the dollar is weak largely due to the US economy tittering on the brink of (or already in) a recession has meant not only a surge in gas prices but also commodity prices. This means it will not only cost us more to travel to Kenya but it has increased our commodity expenses significantly. The Kenyan Shilling (Ksh) has gained considerably against the US dollar recently. As we speak, our estimations are that our best exchange rate among different banks, forex bureaus and other institutions in Kenya is hovering between Kshs 60 - 63 against the dollar. Consider this against the dollar trading at about Kshs 70-73 this same time period a year ago.
WHO IS YOUR COMPETITION
Thirdly if you are planning a wedding in Kenya in late December you’re not just competing with fellow couples for venues but also with businesses and corporations holding their end of year parties. This also means, more competition for good DJ’s, caterers, flower vendors, car leasing services, decorators, bakers - the whole nine. In addition, keep in mind the major holidays in December - Jamhuri Day (Independence Day) on the 12th,Christmas eve and Christmas Day on the 24 and 25th respectively, New Year’s Day on the 31st and January 1st. You have to schedule your day somehow to make sure it’s not right before or right after these days. This allows flexibility for travel options for your guests and also means a little bit more availability from vendors whom you are depending on to make things right.
CUSTOMS
I had never thought our customs would have such a big impact on our planning. I knew we wanted to incorporate them to as much an extent as possible without making ours a typical traditional wedding. I have come to note that Kenyans turn such gatherings into mini-political rallies for family members with political aspirations. Weddings/Graduations provide a familiar and captive audience, and being a Kenyan, I know the odd political discussion is always around the corner. In our custom, the groom’s family performs all the wedding planning. The responsibility of the bride’s family is reduced to choosing the church. That meant, for us, at least modifying some aspects of it. We decided against a church wedding for one big reason; logistics. But before we get into that, let me address customs exhaustively.
Our customs create a rift in the planning process. We opted against a pre-wedding since, for our sake our wedding will be in Kenya. It would be disingenuous of us to hold one in the states and have the wedding in Kenya. Pre-weddings traditionally were meant to raise money for the wedding and it was/is expected that all invitees and contributors will be guests at your wedding. This benevolent custom has been abused so much so that not only will baby girl and I not hold one, we generally do not attend pre-weddings. We substituted this with a committee of our closest and dearest, and assigned certain costs to each individual with baby girl and I assuming 90% of the cost.
Secondly, weddings are planned and executed by committees in our customs. Again, I personally do not care for committees so in the interest of simplicity and not to do away with this custom, we formed two committees. One largely symbolic - that has uncles, aunts etc - which will do the ‘negotiating for the bride’ and oversee other tradition-related aspects of wedding should they arise. The other is a smaller 4 person committee, baby girl, myself, my sister and my mom who has run our Kenya operation superbly. This acts as more of a finance committee which has made our decision making process pretty simple and highly effective. Simply put, it avoids bottlenecks in decision making by large committees and has handled the more important aspects of the ceremony such as choosing vendors, venues, caterers, colors, decorations etc and engaging with a myriad of vendors which is basically the brunt of the work that needs to be done.
Thirdly, as briefly mentioned above the bride’s family is not involved in the planning process. As such it is difficult for me to ask my in-laws their opinions/likes/dislikes etc. Baby girl’s parents are cosmopolitan in some ways but traditional custom-wise for most part. As such, they have relinquished planning to us and let us run with it. It would help to have their input which baby girl solicits once in a while but for most part they seem to be happy with our operations.
I will talk about our plan and execution here soon. Until then the journey continues….
Comments
2 Responses to “Wedding Planning For Kenya from Abroad - Part 1”
Leave a Reply
-
About
Magaidi.com is the journal of the African kid. A diary of sorts, a collection of musings and a discussion point on the way forward for the motherland.
First, congratulations. Seems that you have everything all figured out. Avoiding church wedding is a wise decision
This whole wedding thing was very foreign to me before I became a vendor. Now I get tidbits of what it’s like planning one. You are right, there’s big competition for dates and venues. I’ve already been approached for a wedding Dec 20th and another Jan 3rd. Prior to this I had no idea things were booked so far in advance. Both those dates are by people based in the US coming home to have their wedding.
All the best in planning yours!