WEDDING BLUES IN NIGERIA

    My stories are culled from my own personal experience or other people's experiences or stories, today's piece is from my own personal experience. A friend of mine who is getting married in a month's time in Port-Harcourt came to visit me on a saturday. Having nothing better to do that Saturday I followed her around  to her caterers shop were she alighted from the car to attend to some last minute  culinary arrangement . I stayed back in the the car waiting for her to emerge from the shop, lo nd behold my eyes fell on a piece of paper on her dash board.
  Call me the inquisitive cat but yes I opened the paper to read the paper out of boredom not snooping (winks). What did my eyes see.....first line on the paper          
Wedding hall - 1.5million                       
Hall decorations - 1million
caterers - 800k
Wedding gown - 150 (new) hired (50k)
Suit - 100k (new)
Sourvenirs - 500k
Make up artist - 150k (trad and white )
Wedding organiser - 100k   
     I would stop here for the sake of ink and not to bore you my readers, but the total amount of money spent on that list is 4million, at least 4million.  I forgot to add the cost of rings both engagement and wedding.It all made sense now , I could see why many things were they way they are in this country. It answered the unspoken question when I see men of marriageable age scared to pop the marriage question because they are looking for money to wed with salaries of 150 and 250k as a standard pay check . My friend got into
her car and I had to ask her about the list, most especially the hall. I won't call the names of the wedding halls in Port-Harcourt, but from what I gathered to get a good  standard 
 hall fully air conditioned with capacity to accommodate at least 500 guest would cost nothing less than 950 - 1million naira.  PLEASE quote me anywhere , I used my two eyes to see this in Port- Harcourt last weekend .                                                                              
  Trust me she wasn't extravagant , she just wanted to have a normal simple classy wedding . Its her day and she deserved that, the figure which I mentioned will give you a normal simple wedding in Port-Harcourt In this dwindling economy were naira has lost its value.  We don't want to think of the ones that make it to the popular wedding sites like Bella naija and the rest, those ones would make four million seem like a joke in today's economy. It all made sense , the amount of bachelor's we have roaming the town and not thinking of getting married . Why some of the young men look for young ladies who are working or actually doing something to shoulder some of the responsibilities. ( oh yes the okonkwo days are over ) why make -up artisans are now very lucrative with thousands springing up everyday . Why event decorators are springing up like fast growing corns.                            
     Especially now when the value of naira has fallen, everything became crystal clear in my eyes . To anyone getting married in this day and age , no matter how small the wedding might be is still a major feat .I just came to the conclusion after seeing  her list that wedding management is the NEW OIL IN NIGERIA.