My Best Friend's Wedding

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

I have had the awesome privilege of walking through this journey with Sibongile...

Introduction

Sibongile and I went on a mission trip to Zululand which is where she met Lebo. Little did I know that something was going on behind the scenes :)

Invitations

Sibongile and I decided to make her wedding invitations in order to save money. It was fun designing the invitations and spending time together making them. Five hours, not too bad.

Bridal Shower

My mom, Dawn and I hosted a bridal shower for Sibongile! It was so fun to show Sibongile how much we love her by supporting her in this way.

Wedding Day

This was a traditional wedding meaning the attire was African. Mama Tshabalala (left) and Thembane (right) are dressed like Zulus while Patricia (middle) is representing the Xhosa tribe. Don't worry, Zakhele, who is sitting down is not in his wedding attire yet.

Welcome to Africa... I have learned to appreciate that things don't always go as planned. We arrived at the wedding 30 minutes early... what were we thinking? In traditional African style, the wedding started two hours after the 10am start time. But we had fun sitting around talking, eating biscuits (cookies), and drinking juice.

Who cares that the wedding was late... it allowed me to spend quality time with my friends! Why are we always in a rush to do the next thing and miss out on investing in people's lives? I love that Africans value relationships more than time constraints.

We had a good time taking pictures while we waited. Zach and Given are wearing traditional African shirts. I am wearing a dress that I had made out of shwe shwe which is traditional material worn by many South Africans. Everyone was excited to see us dressed in African attire!

The ceremony was beautiful! In true African style, there was much singing and dancing! Alan did a great job with the preaching and exchanging of the rings.

After the wedding ceremony, we headed to a park to take some pictures. They had a man taking pictures but I decided to take a few of my own. Aren't they such a lovely couple?!

My best friend and I.

After pictures, we headed back to Sibongile's parent's house to enjoy the reception. The reception included more singing and dancing as well as speeches from family and friends. And yes, I had to give a speech which is not my favorite thing to do but Sibongile is worth it! We had a nice lunch of chicken, beef, many salads (sides), rice and bread.

The wedding was held two and half hours outside of Joburg so it was quite a drive. We packed 9 of us from Faith Baptist Church, Snake Park, into a car which seats 7. I had the pleasure of sitting on the floor in between seats. Let's just say it was not the most comfortable but the important part was that we all made it there to support Sibongile!

I couldn't resist... there is nothing like an African sunset.