A wedding might not be as inexpensive as Kagabo says, but you can make it interesting and unique. 

Rossetti, a wedding planner, says more couples are opting to have their wedding at one venue, both the church and the reception which is cost and time efficient.

To have a wedding outside the church, you must get a special license from the marriage registrar at Pentecostal church House for the occasion.

David shared his experience when he married the love of his life, Josephine, last year.

"Mine was a stress-free wedding — the best six hours of my life. Josephine and I discussed our desires and expectations of the wedding earlier.

We asked our pastor to host our wedding and reception at the gardens of his residence. He accepted and I processed the legal paperwork from the Attorney General’s office to gazette the venue for the wedding.”

"We wanted our wedding to last three hours; to have the wedding ceremony starting at 12:00pm, through to the reception, dance and leave at 6:00pm.

We didn’t spend on transport. We drove ourselves and the bridal entourage to the venue. We didn’t spend on studio photography. We hired a cameraman and three friends with state of the art digital cams to take the pictures.

They gave us soft copies of the pictures,” David says.
"We saved time as Josephine spent the night at the venue and had the hairdresser come over to the venue.

We did not spend on make-up because a friend offered her services for free and the maids did their own make-up. We decorated once and did not have to move anything, but rearrange the tables,” he explains.

"We were also open about our earnings in order to anticipate the trend of our financial decisions. We had eight maids, who I thought were many, but they all catered for their own clothes.”

"I had one best man. My friends were better off working behind the scenes than be in the limelight. We had barbeque catering and had our rings custom-made by a local jeweler.

A generous couple paid for our honeymoon to Burundi for a week,” David says.

"At the wedding, our friends (the worship team from Zion temple azaph) sang for us and my wife sang a magnificent special as I played the piano with the boys.

The guests started leaving at 5.30pm which was a first for many. We also went to Gisenyi for a second honeymoon. It was much quieter,” David explains.

Joseph and his wife had the wedding of their dreams with only 170 guests at Serena hotel in Gisenyi
"We had a garden wedding.

The function started at 4:00pm till late. It was worthwhile. I didn’t have to hire cars. I worked till 12:00pm and at 2:00pm I went to the venue to check whether everything was going as planned. By 4:00pm, I was ready. We spent Rf3m.

The biggest expense was on food/drinks, and we had 150-170 guests. The venue included food, chairs, tables, drinks plus two nights at the resort.”

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