Weddings are definitely a big deal in Nigeria. It’s not unusual to see couples and their families go all out on throwing the best wedding party they could afford. So I thought it would be great to speak to a couple of Nigerians and have a conversation about how much they spent on their weddings. This article is an attempt to break down their wedding budget with a focus on the major expenses.
1. Alfred, 30
Budget: ₦7.7m
Venue: ₦700k. The going rate was ₦1, but my dad knows the owner of the venue so we got a discount.
Catering: ₦1.3M. We had 300 guests during the reception and 150 guests for the after-party. I don’t think this number is accurate because my sisters hired their own caterer and my dad did the same too.
Entertainment: My wife’s uncle hired a band for us. I have family ties to the DJ, so he gave us a big discount and we paid ₦100k. For the Afterparty, the Hypeman charged ₦100k — another big discount because I know him. His normal rate was ₦250k.
Outfits: About ₦700k. There were lots of attires.
Photography/Video: ₦540k. Again, we called in favours here and got discounts.
2. Mark, 34
Budget: About ₦2m
Venue: My mother-in-law used to work at the venue, so we got it for free. We would have paid about ₦300k for it.
Outfits: We didn’t spend up to ₦200k here. My wife’s wedding dress was rented, and it cost about ₦80k. Her wedding shoes was ₦12k. My wedding suit was ₦35k and I bought a shirt for ₦30k. My shoes and pair of socks cost ₦15k and ₦7k respectively.
Catering: ₦550k.We hired a catering company to take care of 300 guests. The plan covered three main dishes.
Entertainment: ₦170k. We got a DJ and an MC for the reception. The DJ was paid ₦120k and the MC charged ₦50k — we gave a lot of quality for that price though.
Photography/Video: Photography took ₦250k and the video cost ₦290k. We got discounts for both though.
3. Bimbo, 28
Budget: ₦1.9m
Catering: ₦500k. We hired a caterer and planned for 120 guests.
Entertainment: ₦105K. We got a DJ, a live band and an MC.
Outfits: About ₦300k. My wedding dress alone cost ₦50k. I don’t remember how much we spent on other outfits, but everything ran into ₦300k.
Photography: ₦270k. The photographer charged us ₦200k. We paid ₦70k for the video,
4. Jude, 29
Budget: ₦2m
Venue: We used a 1000 capacity hall, and we got it for ₦350k
Catering: We spent ₦1.2m.to cater for 900 guests. The options included about five main dishes. There was a separate budget for small chops and finger food.
Entertainment: The live band we hired got ₦100k, and we paid the MC ₦25K.
Outfits: My wife’s wedding gown cost ₦65k. I bought my suit for ₦35k and a shirt for ₦5k. I also got two pairs of shoes and each one cost ₦15k. My outfit for the traditional wedding was ₦30k. I’m not sure how much my wife spent on her other outfits and accessories.
Photography/video: We paid almost nothing for both because our friends did them and they wanted to contribute to the wedding. We only paid about ₦60k for their running costs.
