Hello Aunty Eya ma, kindly help a blog reader clarify who pays for the wedding in Nigeria?
I am a non Nigerian woman engaged to a Nigerian man and we plan on having our wedding in Nigeria. My fiance has been a great gentleman and I’d love to foot some of the wedding bills. Our wedding budget is not really huge according to him but I still want to help out financially because I work and earn money too.
My fiance tells me that in Nigeria the groom pays for the wedding. Is that true?
Nigerian wedding culture sees the man as the head who is in charge of doing the ‘marrying’ of his wifey
Hello poster, in Nigeria, it depends on the culture and the families involved. There is no one way rule. If you want to assist in footing the wedding bills, you can.
How wedding bills are footed in Nigeria, in some cultures, the bride’s family handles the Nigerian traditional wedding while the groom’s family takes charge of the white wedding but that is not a rule, depends on the families.
Honestly, in the past, the men used to foot the wedding bills but things have changed. These days wives are able to shop their wedding gowns with their own money and to assist with the wedding budget.
You both were supposed to sit down and talk about this and where you should come in but lucky you he wants to pay for everything. I think you should let him and maybe buy your wedding dress and his wedding rings while he does the shopping for your wedding rings. That way he doesn’t end up buy his rings himself.
Brides do foot some wedding bills in Nigeria
If the bride is more financially buoyant, she can quietly pay like we have cases of celebrities who revealed during their divorce that they actually gave their hubbies money in secret to pay for the wedding. It is expected that the groom foots the bills for his wedding but honestly, there is nothing wrong with the bride shouldering some responsibilities and assisting her husband to be.