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“The Law of Attraction”: Onyi & Craig’s ❤ Warming Love Story & Pretty Park Pre-Wedding Shoot

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Onyi and Craig are such a down-to-earth couple with an inspirational love story. The couple’s selflessness and support of each other while dealing with love, loss and more, and the blessings that have come out of their impending union are truly heart-warming …

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 00

Craig grew up in the foster system and lost his only blood relative (…so he thought) – his younger sister – a year before he met Onyi. Despite his tragic loss, he had such a caring heart and was open to love.

In everything from taking a day off work to accompany her to a job interview (which she got!), their encouragement and support of each other cemented their love, although they had only known for a short time.

In the course of planning for their wedding, Craig was able to find his real mother, who will now attend the wedding with the rest of his family.

How amazing!

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Be inspired by their love story and fuss-free pre-wedding shoot, where the bride was cute in her backless polka-dot dress and the most gorgeous afro, while the groom was casual cool in his t-shirt and jeans.

BellaNaija Weddings prays ‘The Law of Attraction’ continues to manifest in the couple’s life together as One.

xoxo

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Bride-to-be: Onyi
Groom-to-be: Craig

Our Love Story
by Craig
I met Onyi on Oasis (a dating website) in the summer of 2012 after my close friend convinced me to try it out seeing he had a successful relationship after giving it a go. I sent her a request and she accepted, from there we exchanged numbers and that was the beginning of my journey to knowing this beautiful creature. I flooded her phone with text messages and calls every chance I could and everyone around me knew I had been struck by Cupid even before going on a first date.

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 03I then arranged for us to have our very first date. She was a very busy lady but managed to squeeze me in for a meal at Wetherspoons in-between a seminar she was attending and work. When I first saw her in person I knew there and then there was a reason I felt the way I did. Something about her was very carefree and loving. She seemed to find a way to see a positive in every situation. She’s one of those people that when you meet make you feel good about yourself and you always want to be around them or at least call them when in need of support. This whole experience was life changing for me and made me want to know more about her. You see, a year before I had just experienced the tragic loss of my little sister. We were both foster kids and she was the only blood relative I had and she was my everything. I was still finding ways to deal with this loss and somehow I had met someone who made the load of it all feel lighter and all I wanted to do was be with her.

I made certain I saw her everyday after our first meeting. After work everyday we would both meet up in the city centre for coffee and a lovely chat and at the weekend go to the cinema which turned out to be a historical place in our relationship as it was where we had our first K I S S 🙂

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 04In a bid to know her more, I asked her how she managed to be so positive about everything and she told me about something called ”the law of attraction” which in a nutshell means if you think positive, positive things will happen to you and if you think negative you will attract negative things. She then finished off by quoting someone whose name I don’t remember, saying ‘‘the best way to predict the future was to create it”. This conversation was what sealed my feelings towards her and I was convinced that I had met the one and so I began creating my future by thinking positively with her in it, lol.

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 08Four months after dating, I had a ring (impatient much). I kept it with me for another month as I was very worried she would turn me down. I had it with me each time we were together but couldn’t bring myself to do it. And finally one Saturday at the movies watching a not so romantic movie called ”Broken City”, I decided to propose in the middle of the movie – after all it was the same spot where we had our first K I S S and the not so romantic movie didn’t matter (the things I told myself to feel better about the proposal). I went down on one knee and mumbled words along the lines of ”Onyi, since I met you nothing has been the same and it’s cause of the way you make me feel, I love you so much and never want to go another day without you being with me, will you marry me?” and after what seemed like the longest one second since time began, she said Y E S ! ! !

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 05But this isn’t the happy ending just yet, the wedding plans took us places we never imagined. We went Church hunting immediately after our engagement and found ourselves falling in love with the congregation which took us back every week and now we have a wonderful relationship with God. And also while working on the guest list, it was evident I didn’t have family in attendance but as God willed it I was able to find details of my Mum through the foster system and I connected with her and it turns out I have this amazing family who will be there to support us in our journey. Now I believe everything happens for a reason. Onyi isn’t just God’s gift as her name implies, she is God’s gift to me. I am indeed grateful and I let it be so.

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 09From Onyi
I remember when I first met Craig, all I could think to myself was how genuinely nice he was as a person. He called and messaged me all the time just to check up on me and make sure I was doing okay.

I was so busy at the time trying to progress in my career and it was beginning to get very frustrating for me. I had successfully completed my ACCA the year before and was struggling to find relevant accounting work and so I spent my days volunteering and attending CPD courses which kept me very pre-occupied. But when Craig shared his story with me I immediately realised I had it easy with my current situation. The way he was still able to be such a loving and caring person after life dealt him such a hard blow inspired me.

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 01We saw each other everyday and we would talk about our days and life in general. He made it his mission to find me relevant accounting work. He would send me links to accounting jobs and made sure I applied for them but I never got through. One day he told me forget the internet – “Babe, go and apply for the job in person cause you’re so good at what you do and you have the best attitude ever and when they see you they will want you.”

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 02He took a day off work and went with me to an accounting recruitment agency in the city centre and he was right! I was put forward to attend a job interview for a qualified accounting role in the head office of a huge finance company and I got offered the job with immediate start. I had never met a man besides my Dad that was so determined in making me find happiness. This was the turning point for me in our relationship. I could tell he genuinely cared for me.

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 06And sure enough when he proposed I couldn’t care less of the length of the relationship or the movie in the background but every moment where he had gone out of his way to make me feel very special, and I said yes. Every day I wake up and I’m thankful for him. With him I found my way back to God. With him I found love, support and strength. With him I found a better me and wouldn’t trade it for any other experience in the world.

Onyi & Craig | Igbo Nigerian Wedding | BellaNaija 07

Photography: Cassandra Lane

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