When you talk about marriage ceremony in my part of the world you talk about celebration. When I say celebration I mean a big time celebration where the host mostly spend millions of naira (Nigerian currency) in preparation.
In Nigeria, there are mostly three kinds of marriage. The court marriage (which people ignore most). The white wedding (mostly done by christian/ I believe there should be one for other beliefs which I'm not sure) then the traditional marriage. I don't know if it's just the Igbos but this is the most important of all. Although you can do all three if you want.
Let's talk about the traditional marriage, just as the name goes, it's a marriage ceremony done in the tradition of the people in Igbo it's called Igba-nkwu and this ceremony has different stages. First the bride comes out to great her in-laws. You see her dance out with her asoebi girls (traditional bridal train) everyone beautiful dressed and they come out and dance around then they go back inside. While other activities for the bride to change her dress. (Yes, she won't come out again with the same dress) because in our culture the bride is so beautiful and everyone has come there to adore her beauty so she really needs to feed their eyes (just kidding 😂) but truly the bride is always extremely beautiful on her day.
Image of my sister I took on her traditional marriage day which I have her permission to use.
Her next outing would be to come and show the people who her husband is. Because in our tradition, the only man you are meant to introduce to your father is your husband and it's assumed your father don't know him yet.
At this point, the father of the bride gives the bride a drink and ask her to go and search for her husband. And then she carries the drink and goes in search of her husband. She would dance around from one place to another to search for him and she finally sees him, she would kneel and hand over the drink to him (the kneeling signifies her loyalty to her husband). He'd take the drink and add some money to the cup (I don't know if there is a specific amount he is meant to add or not) then he helps his wife stand and they both go back to the brides father. When the get back to her father they would kneel Infront of him and he would bless their union.
The couple now as one dance together before the guest.
The traditional marriage is extremely significant and is done because this is where the father hands over his daughter to her husband and from that day on wards he is expected to take care of her. This must be done first before any other form of marriage.
But In a case where the couple wants to celebrate both the traditional and white wedding same day mostly in order to save cost. They must at first come to carry out the traditional rites first which mostly involves the dowry payment.
This is because in Igbo land until the family of the bride accepts to give out their daughter in marriage to a man no body has the right to wed them as husband and wife.
