Adelaide & Desmond’s Gorgeous Ghanaian Outdoor Wedding & Sweet Post-Wedding Shoot | Photography by Abi

Happy Independence Day Ghana!!!

To celebrate we hope you enjoy Adelaide & Desmond‘s Ghanaian wedding and post-wedding shoot – both beautifully captured by Photography by Abi. The beautiful couple met through their grandmothers, who are best friends, and they were led by the Bible for their wedding theme, which they planned themselves. Can you say a match made in heaven?!

In their beautiful beach post wedding shoot, what happens to one of Adelaide’s bridesmaids is so unexpected and simply sweet – you might shed a tear or two!

How We Met
from the bride, Adelaide
Desmond and I met when I went to Ghana to teach as part of my primary teaching course. I was actually scheduled to go to Cambodia to teach and then my course director changed her mind about my placement and so I ended up going to Ghana. Around the same time that I was finalising my placement details, Desmond was moving to Accra from Kumasi to complete his degree. It so happened that our Grandmothers are best friends and so rather than rent his own place my Grandmother invited him to live in her home while he studied. So in December of 2010 while I was finalising my course details, he was moving into my Grandmother’s home. We had never met each other before and no knowledge of the others existence.

In March of 2011, I arrived at my Grandmother’s home in Accra and went around greeting the people at the house, my aunt, my uncle, cousin etc and then my Grandma told me that her best friends grandson was also now living there and so I had to greet him also. I knocked the door of the room that Desmond was in, he came out, introduced himself, we shook hands, made small talk, then I went back upstairs to settle in, not knowing that I had just met the man that was to be my husband in years to come.

When I Said Yes! 
The proposal was simple and sweet. We had travelled about 5 hours by coach to Desmond’s mothers house in Kumasi. After the long journey, I just wanted to sleep and wasn’t feeling my best. Desmond obviously thought otherwise and thought that it was the best moment to propose. I must say it woke me up! His mother, sister and aunt were present and he made a speech about how God had presented his wife to him and blessed him with his hearts desire. He then went down on one knee and in front of his family asked me to marry him! For a moment I was stunned. I knew it was coming, but I did not know that it would be then. Yes I cried, lol, (I never thought I would). Desmond had to ask me again as I hadn’t replied for about 5 minutes. I said yes and then through tears looked at the ring he was putting on my finger…it was the ring I had seen and so desired but didn’t think that I would get. I loved every moment of it and now wish he could propose all over again.

The wedding took place in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Accra. The couple was led by the Bible for their wedding theme –

“Our theme for the wedding in its entirety was Ecclesiastes 3:11… ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time…’ We really wanted Jesus to be the centre of our day and our marriage and recognised our day as His day and gift to us.”

The couple, was the perfect pair in their vintage inspired looks – the bride in a strapless Allure Bridals gown while the groom donned cream Jeff Banks dinner suit blazer with black trousers, and black buttons.

Advice To Other Couples –

“Make sure you leave yourself enough time. We had about a year to plan our wedding and ideally a year is a good amount of time, however, we were planning a wedding in Ghana from London so there were so many obstacles that we had to overcome. The key thing during the wedding planning process is to have patience, with yourself and each other. Keeping Jesus at the centre is so important. We would not have overcome many things had it not been our faith in Christ Jesus. We attended pre-marriage counselling with our Pastors and it shed light on so many things, gave us practical tips on how to overcome issues that could arise and how to basically relate to each other. Remember that just because God chose him for you or you for her, it does not mean that you don’t have to work at your courtship and your marriage. We invested time in personal Bible study to really know God’s design of marriage and what HE said a wife and a husband is and not what the world says it should be. This really aided us in how we related to each other, how we invested in each other and how much we were willing to humble ourselves so that God’s will was always at the forefront of our minds. We would definitely recommend pre-marriage counselling for every couple thinking of marriage. Invest now so that your marriage can be as fulfilling as God designed it to be.”

BellaNaija Weddings wishes the couple the best in love and life.

~ Photography: Abi Rotimi for Photography by Abi

Here’s the couple’s poignant take on wedding vows  that we just Had to share-

“A major highlight was speaking our vows to each other. A few months before the wedding, Desmond and I had studied the vows to really know and understand the promise that we were going to making to each other on 10th August 2013.

We did not take the vows lightly and it is something that we would encourage every couple to do. If you cannot speak those vows in truth and make a conscious commitment to keep them, then don’t get married. The words carry so much weight and I don’t think that people always understand that the bonding covenant that they make on their wedding day is everlasting. We really wanted to honour God in the action of getting married and in the vows that we spoke.”

Post-Wedding Shoot:

Remember one of Adelaide’s bridesmaids? Well watch what happens next 🙂

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Photography: Abi Rotimi for Photography by Abi | instagram.com/PhotographyByAbi | www.facebook.com/photographybyabi | http://www.photographybyabi.net/blog | e-mail: info (at) photographybyabi.net

UK: +447940295291 | Lagos: Airtel 07085030974 | MTN 07039460656 | Accra: 0249107929 | BB PIN: 271b35eb

Bride’s Review: Our photographer was Abi Rotimi, founder and director of Photography by Abi. He travels all around the world from Ghana, to Nigeria, across Europe and the USA. I had seen his work in bridal magazines and various websites and obsessed over his work to the point where I would see a picture and KNOW that it was taken by Photography by Abi. I told my now husband about him and he fell in love with his work also. From the moment I had the initial meeting with Abi in London Westfield I quickly saw that his talent was not limited to Photography and he really was a people’s person. We were so comfortable with him from the beginning and I can say that he has definitely become a friend now. I would definitely recommend him to you for your up and coming wedding, that’s if you’re looking for a photographer to capture your day in perfection!

Wedding Details
Wedding Date: 10th August 2013
Venue: GIMPA, Accra, Ghana

Wedding Attire
Wedding Gown: Allure Bridals
2nd Dress: Selina in London
Groom’s Suit: Jeff Banks

Vendors
Cake & Food: Betty Bediako of Sugar N Spice – bettybediako (at) hotmail.com
Bride’s Review: Our beautiful cake was made by Betty Bediako of Sugar ‘N’ Spice. She did an amazing job and created a gorgeous 3 tier cake. I showed her a picture of the cake we wanted, she sketched it, made a few alterations and produced the perfect cake. The bottom tier was traditional victoria sponge, the second tier was red velvet (my favourite), and the top tier was lemon and vanilla cream.
Betty also owns a catering company under the same name and served gorgeous food with her team on our wedding day.

Bouquet, Flowers & Decor: Wendy Donkor of Decor Talk | decortalk (at) ymail.com
Bride’s Review: A very lovely woman with great ideas. She took care of everything from the table arrangements, to the lighting at the ceremony and the reception.
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