Today on our blog we meet Patchwork couple Rosie and Femi, both from Gloucestershire. They met during college when Rosie was 18 and Femi was 21. (Femi technically met Rosie’s mum first, because he had booked some Maths tutoring with her to get into university!) Rosie says “we started talking here and there but it wasn’t until we found out we’re both Christian that we started talking regularly. We’d talk first thing in the morning until we went to sleep. It went on like that for a few weeks and long story short, I had to ask him out because he was very oblivious.” Haha, well done Rosie! Femi and Rosie had a wonderful British-Nigerian wedding combining cultural traditions, foods and plenty of outfit changes! Read on to hear about their wedding day and honeymoon to Iceland made possible by friends and family.
How did you get engaged?
Rosie: 5 years after we met Femi proposed on New Year’s Eve during the countdown, in our living room. He got on one knee at midnight, and it was the very first thing he did in the year 2019.
A perfect way to start the year. What kind of wedding did you plan?
We had planned a British and Nigerian mixed wedding and it was going to be large because of my large family (I’m the youngest of 7) and our large circle of friends. Unfortunately Covid-19 had different plans. So restrictions meant that after rearranging it 3 times, we couldn’t have a first dance or alcohol. The day was amazing though, we still had our British and Nigerian mix. We had outfit changes throughout the day and we had a mixture of Nigerian and British food.
What was your favourite part of the day?
We’re both hugely family orientated and family and friends played a massive part in our day. My mum made all the decorations for the church by hand. (If anyone needs any paper origami flowers, or bunting let me know!) My mum and aunt made our wedding cakes, Femi’s family cooked the Nigerian food, my aunt made our guest ‘tree’, our next door neighbour provided the flowers, and our best friend was our photographer. Then everyone chipped in with decorating the church and hall. So it was really nice that they could have such a personal addition to the day and the gifts too. Patchwork just felt like the perfect touch.
Why was Patchwork the best wedding registry choice for you?
We chose to use Patchwork because we created a website for our wedding, with things like details and layout of the day. We decided Patchwork would be helpful to include, so if people were struggling for gift ideas, they could put money towards some of the things we’d love to do.
What did you want to ask guests to contribute towards and why?
We’d planned a honeymoon to Iceland so we had options for people to contribute to experiences while we were there. Because we’d recently bought our house, we also had the option for money towards renovations. We then had a few fun things that were non-monetary like a games night or promises to help us with decorating. We had patches towards nights out (and our hot chocolate addiction!) We’re quite social people and we wanted to use it as an opportunity to catch up with people we might not have been able to keep in touch with over the past few months. The best bit about Patchwork was being able to say what we want as a couple but also what we want individually. It’s nice to have something for you, but sometimes the groom gets forgotten about!
What did your friends and family think?
Our friends and family really liked that we used Patchwork. A lot of people commented on it and how it gave them ideas of what we wanted. The pastor that did our wedding also mentioned it in his speech.
What have you done so far with the gift money you received?
Quite a few people contributed towards our honeymoon, so we used that money to go to Iceland. I’ve always wanted to go and we had a great time there. The highlight of the trip was getting to see the Northern Lights, and we would definitely recommend it to anyone. We plan on going back in a few years.
Thank you so much Rosie and Femi for sharing your day with us and for using Patchwork in such a beautiful way! If you’ve been inspired to set up your own honeymoon fund to Iceland or anywhere else or a unique cash wedding fund you can customise one of our many gorgeous templates and get started today!