Nigerian Wedding in London with Ivory and Antique Rose: Simi + Gbolohan

This lovely couple brought every aspect of elegance to their wedding. Simi and Gbolahan’s white wedding was at a beautiful manor house with a quaint church and beautiful grounds.  Fusing their colorful Nigerian culture, their reception also included a vibrant dance off.  Simi recalled, “There were about 20 guys versus 20 girls participating, with the other guests watching and cheering us all on. I led the girl’s team and Gbolahan led the guys. It became quite competitive! It was absolutely amazing and so much fun. I still maintain that the girls won!”

Their beautiful wedding was photographed by Photography by Obi.  We’ve also shared this wedding with our friends over at BellaNaija Weddings + many more beautiful images in the wedding gallery here.

How They Met

“We met at a mutual friend’s party in London. I owe a massive thanks to my friend Fiona who dragged me out to that party that night (against my wishes). Fast forward 7 years and he proposed on my 30th birthday on a surprise trip to Malta. I had always wanted to go to Malta.

He told me he was taking me away for my birthday and that I should turn up at the airport with my passport. He refused to give me any clues about where we were going, despite my not-so-subtle probing. All I knew was that we were going somewhere warm. When we got to the check in desk, he revealed the destination. 

We stayed in the most beautiful room on the top floor of the Hilton Malta which had a spectacular sea view. The day after we arrived in Malta was my birthday and it was full of surprises. First of all a beautiful, large bouquet of flowers was delivered to me in the morning along with a bottle of champagne and a fresh fruit and cream birthday cake (complete with sparklers). Next was a surprise ‘activity’. As he watched me get ready for the ‘activity’ he tried to tell me that I really didn’t need to wear make up or jewelry but I refused to listen; When we got downstairs to the foyer, a van with a ‘Scuba Diving’ logo was waiting! So much for my makeup, jewelry and freshly straightened hair! After scuba diving we got ready to go for dinner at De Mondion Restaurant at the Xara Palace. It was whilst we were getting ready that he got down on one knee and held out a white box with one of the most unique diamond engagement rings I have ever seen and asked me to do him the ho nour of being his wife.”

Wedding Details

“The wedding took 10 months to plan; actually we had two weddings to plan in that time because we had a traditional Nigerian wedding two days before our white wedding. We could not have done it in that time without our Wedding Planner: Events by Emilia. She was an absolute Godsend and her attention to detail was fantastic.

Our white wedding was at a manor house at Braxted Park in Essex, which had a quaint little church within the grounds so it was very convenient for the guests to get from the church to the reception.

We didn’t have a theme per say, but I had in mind an overall look of “vintage with a modern twist” which was inspired by my beautiful engagement ring. The colours of the day were champagne, ivory and antique rose.

My wedding dress was called Suzette, by the bridal designers Maggie Soterro and I bought it from Brides by Losners. It was the very first dress I tried on and I loved it but, I still went on to try another ten dresses over the following few months just to make sure I had found THE dress. I wore it with a fishtail petticoat/hoop underneath to enhance the shape and to prevent it getting caught between my legs when walking.

The dress is actually strapless but I had a ‘cover up’ bodice made for me from tulle with lace fringing which I wore underneath the dress so that I didn’t feel too ‘bare’ in the church. I removed this bodice for the evening reception.”

Culture

“We honored our culture with our Traditional Nigerian Wedding which was 2 days before our white wedding. At the traditional wedding we wore traditional Yoruba attire (Aso Oke) and most of the guests also wore traditional Nigerian Attire. The wedding represented a formal introduction between the two families (although they had met before then) with Gbolahan and his family formally asking my family, for my hand in marriage. His family brought lots of gifts including food items, and a large suitcase full of clothes, luxury fabrics, jewelry and shoes for me. 

At the white wedding, both our families members wore traditional Yoruba attire with headties in a particular colour, to allow the family members to be distinguished from other guests. There were also other cultural elements such as the wedding breakfast, which was Nigerian food.”

View more images in the full gallery here.

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