Hi, my name is Ngozi and I am not the bride who will be scrambling a month before her wedding. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you the same thing,I like to plan early, no waiting, no “I will get to it later,” no last minute panic. Just a plan, a list, and the kind of energy that makes vendors pick up the phone on the first ring.
Some of these things were sorted out months before most people even knew we were engaged, because I like things private, and I make no apologies for it.
So here is my honest, personal account of everything I have done to get my wedding off the ground. See it as your unofficial checklist for wedding planning, Nigerian edition, from a bride who is very much in the thick of it and surviving, mostly.
Nigerian wedding planning is no small thing and anybody who tells you otherwise has clearly never had to manage a guest list, a family group chat, and a caterer all in the same week. But I am doing it, one booking and one step at a time, and here is exactly how it has been going.
1. Secured the Groom
The most important checkbox on any wedding planning list and yes, this one came first, because without him none of the other 15 points on this list would exist and honestly that still makes me smile every time I think about it.
2. Booked the Photographer
I knew the feeling I wanted before I knew anything else. I want an editorial, documentary style , and finding a photographer whose style matched that exact vision was a top priority that I refused to rush or compromise on. If you are just starting your checklist for wedding planning, put this near the top because the good ones get booked very fast.
3. Booked the Reception Venue
The space sets the tone for everything, the decor, the guest experience, and getting this sorted early gave me the foundation I needed to plan everything else around it. Venue first, everything else second, and that is not up for debate.
4. Booked my Makeup Artist
As a minimalist, this mattered so much to me because I did not want to look like a version of myself designed by someone else, my makeup had to feel like me, just more so, and finding an artist who truly understood what I wanted without me having to over-explain it was not optional. I took my time, asked the right questions, and when I found the right person I knew immediately.
“I did not want my dress to be about the trending wedding gown. I wanted it to match my personality — simple, elegant, and well-structured “
5. Started Premarital Counselling
The church where our service will hold required this and it began six months before the wedding date, which honestly turned out to be one of the most meaningful parts of this entire process. I did not expect to love it as much as I do, and I think every couple should do it regardless of whether their church asks them to or not.
6. Booked a Content Creator
Because photos alone are not enough for me, I wanted the day documented in full, the movement, the laughter, the small in-between laughs that a camera does not always catch, and if you have not already added this to your own checklist for wedding planning, please do because you will absolutely thank yourself later.
7. Survived the Phone Calls
There was a period where my phone did not stop ringing, family, vendors, well-wishers, people with opinions that nobody asked for, and I made more calls in two months than I had in the previous year combined, which left me exhausted but determined to keep going. This is part of Nigerian wedding planning and nobody warns you about it nearly enough.
8. Booked my Hairstylist
Hair, like makeup, is personal to me and something I was absolutely not leaving to chance or to a last minute recommendation from someone’s cousin, because the wrong hairstyle on your wedding day is not something you can undo once the photos are taken. I got this sorted early, found someone whose work I trusted completely, locked it in, and moved on with peace of mind.
9. Created a Wedding Website
I built one on With Joy, withjoy.com, and it turned out so much better than I imagined, because I wanted something personal that felt like us rather than a generic template, and when our friends saw it they loved it immediately. It became the place for everything our guests needed to know and I cannot recommend this enough.
10. Chose my Dress Style
I didn’t pick a trend and whatever is popular on Instagram this season, because I looked inward and asked myself what I wear when I want to feel most like myself, and the answer was simple, elegant, and structured. My wedding dress will be a direct extension of that feeling and that has always been what mattered to me and I genuinely cannot wait for you to see it.
11. Chose my Bridesmaids
My girls, the ones who actually know me and have been with me through everything, because I was never going to fill a train with acquaintances for aesthetic purposes and I had no interest in that kind of performance. No crowd, just the women I would want standing beside me on one of the biggest days of my life, and that decision was a no-brainer from the very beginning.
12. Built Multiple Pinterest Boards
You do not want to see my saved folder, because there is a main board titled “My Dream Wedding” and then, because I am particular about these things, I have separate boards for photo inspiration, wedding cakes, picture poses, hairstyles, gowns and pre-wedding outfits among other things. Do not judge me, it is called being prepared.
13. Chose the Wedding Cake Design
Simple but classy, because I believe a cake should be beautiful without trying too hard, and like the rest of this wedding it will say exactly what it needs to say without shouting or overdoing it.
14. Booked the Caterer
This is a Nigerian wedding and people will eat, which is simply not up for discussion, so the caterer received serious attention, a serious conversation, and a serious budget allocation because priorities are priorities and food is always a priority.
15. Selected on a Colour Palette
I started researching colours before we even had a confirmed date, which tells you everything you need to know about how important this was to me, because I wanted something elegant and classy but not predictable, a palette that felt uniquely ours rather than something I had already seen at three other weddings this year.
16. Became a Conflict Resolution Expert
Nobody tells you about this part of the journey, because wedding planning has a way of surfacing tension in the places you’d least expect, opinions, and the general weight of everyone’s expectations all landing on your shoulders at once, and I found myself resolving disagreements I did not start and keeping the peace more times than I can count.
Consider this an unofficial but very real part of the Nigerian wedding planning job description that nobody puts on the checklist for wedding planning but absolutely should.
There is something beautiful about choosing to be intentional, about a wedding, about a marriage, about the kind of day you want to walk into, and even though there have been tiring afternoons and evenings where I questioned everything, I am proud of how far this list has come and how much has already fallen into place.
If you are a bride just starting out and looking for somewhere to begin, I hope this gave you something useful, or at the very least made you feel like you are not the only one who has a Pinterest board for every single wedding category and a phone that never stops ringing.
