by Ayoyinka Falade
Saturday, the 20th of September marked the coming together of Kokoeka Ita-Giwa and Chimaobi Obioha as man and wife, to proclaim and celebrate their love for each other in front of family, friends and well-wishers who came out en-masse to celebrate with the couple and bear witness to their love.
The church service for the wedding held at the Methodist Church, Tinubu, Lagos, with the service being originally scheduled for 3pm but the time incidentally coincided with the campaign rally of the PDP political party in Lagos. The service therefore, did not begin till about 5pm due to the huge traffic that remained in the wake of the rally, causing mother and daughter to exit their car to do the brief walk into the church, with area boys clearing the way for them. The service was however a beautiful ceremony that lasted a little over an hour as the couple lovingly exchanged their vows and listened to words of advice from the preacher. At the end of the ceremony, guest began to move to the venue of the reception while the couple and family stayed behind briefly to take pictures.
It was a burst of purple and pink at the Expo hall, Eko Hotel and Suites as the colorful late evening wedding reception took off wonderfully with Ali Baba co-hosting the event alongside Abuja based broadcaster, Olamide. The rib-cracking jokes from Ali Baba definitely added to the fun of the event. If one were to talk about all the wonderful and fascinating things at the wedding, we could go on for pages and pages. But our focus is more on one the express and glamorous display of exquisitely designed couture and bespoke attires in abundance at the event. Also visibly displayed were show-stopping head gears and head pieces, bold accessories, exquisite foot wears and clutch purses.
The couple and their train danced into the hall to groovy contemporary songs played by DJ Xclusive with the large train of bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls, ring bearer and little bride forming a human aisle for the couple to dance through.
Elaborate hats, hair fascinators and geles were top choices at the evening event. A lot of fashionable celebrity women were seen rocking this heady trend and quite a number of them pulled it off beautifully and gracefully.
Interesting and intricately designed clutches was common place at the event, as most women could be seen gripping their statement making clutches as they walked into the event.
As most fashionistas must have come to notice, corded lace is back and in a big way. It was a huge hit at the Ita-Giwa/Obioha wedding, being the Aso-ebi(uniform) for the event. And the women of all shape and sizes dazzled in pink and purple mix cord lace. Brilliant fashion statements were made as women mixed the cord with a hue of pink or purple lining depending on the color of the cord lace they got. They matched, twisted and constructed simple, elegant, extravagant, quirky designs from their fabrics that added to the pizzazz of the whole event. Even Tiwa Savage, who performed at the event, wore a peplum top in purple corded lace with black sequenced pants.
There were also performances by Run Town, Jodie and a colorful dance performance by the Ita-Giwa sponsored carnival dance group who came all the way from Calabar. A performance of “Baby Jowo” by the duo of 2face Idibia and Victor Olaiya for the couple’s first dance was the cherry on the cake for the performances that evening, while people helped themselves to generous helpings of food from the numerous buffet points strategically positioned across the hall. Kokoeka also gave a heart-melting dedication to her mother for her support and care over the years that left her mother feeling very emotional.
Majority of the women did pull out all the stops to astound in their pink or/and purple dresses, skirts and blouses, or iro and bubas. In the midst of all these beautiful and glamorous fashion, one person found and caught our attention and kept our eyes glued to her all through the event and that was the mother of the bride; Senator Florence Ita-Giwa. She definitely stood out and made a huge style statement. She was elegant and radiant in a Swarovski stoned corded lace and duchess satin skirt and blouse designed by Emage of Beirut, Lebanon. She was the cynosure of all eyes and couldn’t have been missed.
The bridesmaids weren’t left out of the ardent display of style at this wedding. They were all looking stunning in their pink/purple floor length dresses. The dresses which had shear, embellished backs that dropped down to their lower backs, with a moderate sized bow just above their bums was also designed in Beirut. The dresses drew well deserved attention to their curvaceous behinds.
All in all, the event was one that will remain in our minds for a long time to come.
