Team Pete: Our Kenyan Wedding Celebration

Few people are lucky enough to have 2 weddings, to the same person, within 6 weeks of each other!

We loved our American wedding. It was truly one of the most enjoyable and blessed days of our lives. It was special to celebrate together with both of our families and so many close friends. We're grateful, most of all, that Christ was the center of the wedding ceremony and God received the glory. It was a fantastic weekend that we will always cherish.

Our Kenyan wedding couldn't have been more different from our American wedding, but we loved it just the same!

The first thing to understand about Kenyan (and most African) weddings is that you have a Wedding Committee. The wedding committee is a group of some of your closest friends who will be the ones to ultimately plan your wedding! While this sounds scary to anyone with control issues… it's a fantastic concept! We selected our Wedding Committee back in April. Joe chose some of his closest and most loyal friends; 15 in total. We met with the committee only twice to share our desires for the celebration. They listened to our ideas and then planned everything for us; EVERYTHING! It was fabulous! We highly recommend this concept be accepted by Western culture! We had an amazing wedding committee who represented over 5 different churches, 4 NGOs, 3 schools, and 2 sports teams from around the Mbita community.

Team Pete Wedding Committee

We contributed about 1/4 of the budget and the committee raised the remaining funds needed. To an American, this sounds inappropriate; your friends and the community shouldn't have to pay for your wedding. However, in a community-centered and interdependent culture, your friends and community are eager to join with you and express their love and support. After all, every wedding is a community event. The proof lies in the fact that we personally invited about 350 people to our wedding; yet around 600 were in attendance!!

We had no wedding rehearsal the day before. Joe and I never saw a program or schedule of events before the day started. We simply knew we were not only along for the ride, but we were the main attraction!

We couldn't have planned it more perfectly ourselves. It was an absolutely beautiful celebration. There was much praise and worship, plenty of Kenyan flavor, and a whole lot of dancing! Per the recommendation of our wedding committee, we needed three key elements for people to feel as if they've experienced a true Kenyan wedding:
1. cake
2. meat
3. flower girls

So… we had 7 cakes, we killed (and ate) an entire cow and we had 8 flower girls!

The special occasion was held at CGA on the basketball court (fitting since Joe left his career as a college basketball coach to move to Kenya). Three large canopies were set up to provide shade from the hot equatorial sun. The wedding was scheduled to start at 9:00 am, and thanks to some American influence, it only started one hour late; as opposed to most Kenyan weddings which start 3 or more hours late.

There was no bridal party, except our 8 adorable flower girls; all CGA students. The entrance of the flower girls, who escorted the bride, consisted of traditional Luo "marching" which is similar to a slow shuffle. The guests were overjoyed to see the bride in her original white wedding dress; just like the American wedding! After the bride's arrival, the Worship team led everyone in praising God with music and dancing, including a kanga line and a song that required playing an air guitar, air trumpet and air flute. (Strange? Nope- we were prepared for anything.) We stated our same wedding vows from our American wedding and the ceremony ended with a big kiss, and an even bigger cheer by all the guests!

Check out this short 30 sec video of the CGA dancers!

The Pastor gave a fitting sermon about love and marriage, and used us as an example to the young people to wait on God’s timing. An African wedding is never complete without entertainment. The CGA dancers presented three spirited routines to different songs. Another local primary school presented a traditional Luo dance with brightly-colored authentic Luo costumes. After more praise and worship, and more dancing, the official cake cutting took place followed by the presentation of gifts from the guests. There was a long arduous photo session, and finally, everyone enjoyed rice and meat with a cold soda.

We were very grateful that many special friends were able to attend. 12 of Joe's friends from Nairobi made the 8-hour journey to Mbita to celebrate with us and 3 of Daneen's close friends from Uganda even made it over. It was extra special having these people travel from far to be with us!

Friends from Nairobi

Friends from Uganda

It was an incredibly fun, blessed and colorful celebration. We loved every bit of it! Yet, the best part of all was the opportunity for our marriage to be a testimony to the students and community of God's abounding love and of how it's worth being patient to wait for His very best!