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For generations, lavish weddings have been a rite of passage for many Nigerian families. Now, soaring living costs are forcing many couples to rethink that tradition. NPR's Jewel Bright reports from Lagos.
JEWEL BRIGHT, BYLINE: In Nigerian wedding - one part love story, three-part spectacle - celebrations can last for days, bringing together hundreds of guests, elaborate traditions, piles of food and entire communities. But in Nigeria's cost of living crisis, that spectacle is shrinking.
KEMI OLABODE: (Laughter).
BRIGHT: Curled up on the couch in their small Lagos apartment, 26-year-old Kemi Olabode and her 28-year-old husband, Dare, are watching videos from their wedding more than a year ago. Their ceremony was intimate. It was a far cry from the lavish traditional Nigerian wedding Kemi had dreamed of as a girl.
OLABODE: When I was much younger, I actually imagined - you know women now would imagine a very big wedding. But growing up and facing reality, most of the time, it doesn't always work that way.
BRIGHT: Kemi, a data analyst, and Dare, a lawyer, are a typical Nigerian middle-class couple, and a few years ago, they would have been able to afford the wedding of their dreams. For the couple's Yoruba family, a low-key wedding was simply against tradition, but with prices rising, the couple had to rethink their plans.
DARE: We didn't want anything loud. We felt like it was a waste of money.
BRIGHT: More than a year on, Nigeria's economy may be showing signs of recovery, but for many households, the squeeze continues. High inflation and the weaker Nigerian naira are changing how young Nigerians spend, and now higher global oil prices linked to the Iran war are adding pressure to fuel, transport and food costs, making saying I do in style even harder.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEWING MACHINE STITCHING)
BRIGHT: The impact is being felt by businesses built around weddings. Fashion designer Precious Adeola says his bookings have fallen sharply.
PRECIOUS ADEOLA: Nowadays, we have low-key weddings, so not the high-profile weddings anymore. I'd say (ph) the cost of living affected that a lot.
BRIGHT: Adeola specializes in matching traditional wedding outfits for couples and their families, known locally as asoebi.
ADEOLA: Back then, now, we do 10, 15 full weddings. But nowadays, probably we do three, four.
BRIGHT: Traditionally, Nigerian weddings could mean three separate celebrations - a registry, a church ceremony and a lavish cultural wedding. That meant big business for the wedding industry.
KHADIJAH LAWAL: We barely have weddings to plan, and it is really, really affecting our businesses.
BRIGHT: Khadijah Lawal has been a wedding planner for over two decades.
LAWAL: When I started planning wedding many years ago, weddings were a community celebration, everyone was welcome. But now, the first thing every couple tells you is, we need a guest list. No more than 30 to 50 people. This is not who we are. And it is so sad to watch. Nobody understand what is going on.
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY BABBLING)
DARE: In between and (ph)...
BRIGHT: Back at the apartment, Kemi and Dare are playing with their 5-month-old son, Fisayo, who has just woken up from a nap. He was born 11 months after their wedding, and Kemi says the cost of having a baby makes her even more glad they kept the wedding small.
OLABODE: We didn't have to struggle.
DARE: No, we didn't. We had everything all figured out. My advice to every couple is...
OLABODE: To plan (laughter).
DARE: ...Plan properly, have so much money.
OLABODE: Kids are expensive.
DARE: That is enough (ph).
BRIGHT: For Kemi and Dare, the choice was simple - spend less on the wedding and save more for the life that comes after it. And across Nigeria, a tradition long associated with lavish celebration is being reshaped by a new economic reality. Jewel Bright, NPR News, Lagos.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADANNA DURU SONG, "POP!") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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