3 proposals, 3 'yes I dos'

Bride: Juliet Mazera

Groom: Martin Gichia

Date of wedding: April 27, 2013

Guests: 200

Venue: Serenity Gardens, Karen

Budget: Sh1.35 million

First date 

Juliet: We met through a mutual friend at the Kenya School of Law in 2007.

Martin: I had seen Juliet a few times at the Kenya School of Law, but she always looked so busy.

Plus, she was rarely in the country and every time I asked our mutual friend where she was, she would tell me “Oh, Juliet is in Uganda” or “Juliet is in Mombasa” or some other place. The few times I saw her, she was always seated at the stairs near the classes reading something or typing away on her laptop.

Even though she ignored me, she intrigued me. With patience and tact, I was able to win her trust, confidence and finally her love.

The proposal

Juliet: Which one? There were three proposals by my count! And not because I said no to any of them. I think every time he proposed, he felt the need to do it again!

The first time he proposed, I was lying on the floor. He knelt down as if to pick something, and he handed me the box! It was such a random day and I never thought a proposal was on his to-do list. I said yes.

The second time he proposed was in the presence of both my family and his. I remember him kneeling down, slipping the ring on my finger and making a lot of promises. I said yes, again. Much of this was a blur. I probably can’t remember much because I was overwhelmed by the moment. My mum’s sister had to narrate how he proposed.

The third time, he took me to Tipuana Gardens in Karen for a late afternoon lunch, or so I thought. I remember there was a small and private wedding going on and I kept remarking how wonderful it must be to have such a cosy wedding. I don’t think I counted more than 25 people at that wedding. And the couple looked young and very happy. Then after our lunch, Martin took me for a walk in the gardens. And when we were out of sight, he went down on one knee, again! And this time, he had another box and another ring! It was the sweetest proposal ever. And I said yes for the third time.

The story behind the wedding

Martin: Juliet and I had agreed that we would finance the whole wedding on our own, and so we did not want any outside influence with regard to how we had pictured it.

As for service providers’ drama, we contracted a lady who had a venue in Karen and she gave us a wedding package.

 We paid her a deposit but soon started noticing something was off. We asked to see samples of her photographer’s work, but she didn’t give us. We attended one of the weddings she was handling and the food was flat.

The meetings we had with her to discuss our décor ideas all seemed like battles on whose ideas were better. She did not want to indulge any new ideas we had, which were different from anything she had done before. We got the feeling that she just wanted to replicate the décor that was common in almost all Kenyan weddings. She rejected our cake design saying it was too complicated!

 Meeting her used to be exhausting because three quarters of the time was spent defending our ideas.

She actually said she did not want to set the table with cutlery because our relatives might steal them! After our last meeting, she sent us an SMS telling us that she did not want to do our wedding as it was too labour-intensive. Thank God she dumped us! We went for a good plan B.

Lessons

Martin: I would advise a couple planning to wed to keep in mind that it is their day. You only get one take. Try as much as possible to have no regrets and leave very little room for ‘shoulda, coulda, wouldas’. Lastly, try to be unique! Dare to be the trendsetter.

Photos: Ben Kiruthi photography