Today was supposed to be his big day. His hair had been fitly shaved, beard well-trimmed. His properly ironed emerald green tuxedo and white shirt, combined with a gold tie, had been hanging in the closet for some days now. A new pair of black Oxford shoes, with accompanying socks, had also been bought, well polished. A wristwatch, as well as the rings, lay in their cases, waiting to be worn on the occasion.
The caterer had been paid to provide food of all sorts for the invited guests. The hall for the reception also paid for. The disc jockey, or simply DJ, including the master of ceremonies, had also collected fees in advance. Invitation cards had been printed and distributed to family and friends several weeks ago
The groomsmen had rehearsed their dance steps, waiting to wow the hundreds of guests particularly at the reception. They were well prepared to compete with the bridal train, even though no crown awaited whoever won. It was all going to be for fun, anyway.
However, on Wednesday, Donald Itsuokor and his fiancée, Mercy Chinukwue, made one of the toughest decisions of their lives. They postponed their wedding indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria. They had no choice but to do so.
“The thing is,
Today was supposed to be his big day. His hair had been fitly shaved, beard well-trimmed. His properly ironed emerald green tuxedo and white shirt, combined with a gold tie, had been hanging in the closet for some days now. A new pair of black Oxford shoes, with accompanying socks, had also been bought, well polished. A wristwatch, as well as the rings, lay in their cases, waiting to be worn on the occasion.
The caterer had been paid to provide food of all sorts for the invited guests. The hall for the reception also paid for. The disc jockey, or simply DJ, including the master of ceremonies, had also collected fees in advance. Invitation cards had been printed and distributed to family and friends several weeks ago.
The groomsmen had rehearsed their dance steps, waiting to wow the hundreds of guests particularly at the reception. They were well prepared to compete with the bridal train, even though no crown awaited whoever won. It was all going to be for fun, anyway.
However, on Wednesday, Donald Itsuokor and his fiancée, Mercy Chinukwue, made one of the toughest decisions of their lives. They postponed their wedding indefinitely due to the coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria. They had no choice but to do so.
“The thing is, it was not an easy decision. The wedding postponement is one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever taken in my life,” Itsuokor, a civil servant with the Edo State Government, told our correspondent via the telephone.
As with many tribes in Nigeria, he and her fiancée planned to hold their traditional marriage first. They fixed that for Thursday while the white or church wedding would have held on Saturday (today) in Lagos.
But they were forced to cancel the events amid the ban on public gatherings in Lagos and many parts of the country to check the spread of the virus.
Itsuokor said, “On Wednesday when we decided to postpone the wedding, I didn’t eat until Thursday afternoon. Definitely, it’s not easy for me and my fiancée, especially for her. But I’m trying to make her understand it’s not our fault. We have to save lives right now.
“We don’t know where people we had invited had travelled to and we don’t want to put other guests at risk. Ultimately, we don’t want to run afoul of the state government’s directive because even if we went ahead with the wedding, the Lagos State Government has set up a task force to enforce the ban on public gatherings and it’s going to be embarrassing if they chased us out of the wedding venue. We have sent out the postponement notice to family and friends.”
-Pulseng.com
