Bride in waiting is the diary of Noelyn Nassuuna who is engaged to be married in January 2023. In it, she describes her journey to the aisle, sharing the ups and downs, and the joys and frustrations of planning her wedding.
By Noelyn Nasuuna
I have come to terms that having to invite adults can be one of the most stressful parts of planning an introduction. It’s a little more complicated than simply making a list of everyone you’d like to celebrate with and sending them invitation cards or having to make a phone call. There are people who you have to physically invite. Last week was one of the most tedious weeks because I had to travel to my mother’s village, Kyegegwa district, 192.2 km away from Kampala district to physically invite some of my relatives to my introduction.
According to my mum, these relatives needed to see me physically so that I could inform them about my wedding plans and also officially invite them or else they wouldn’t make it. The irony is that I was meeting some of them for the first time.
I met about 10 people, six of whom are my mum’s uncles and the others were my aunties. One of the challenges I faced was having to answer and say the same things to ten people in less than 12 hours. I was also forced to invite the people who stay with them because you can’t invite one person from the household physically yet they are about 5, something that disorganised my planning. I now have to add 20 people to my list.
All that said, although that I had traveled feeling forced to make such a trip, I was impressed by the welcome I received. Most people welcomed me with so much excitement. A lot of food was served and we prayed for the success of my functions and marriage. Two of the people I met said they couldn’t make it to Kampala because of old age.
“I can’t come to Kampala. I am too old to travel long distances but I hope you can bring my son for me one day, ” my 87-year-old aunt said.
The best part of the journey was that I was able to also attend an introduction for my cousin in the village. This helped me hit many birds with one stone because I used it as an opportunity to invite most of my maternal relatives that attended my introduction function.
It hadn’t yet fully dawned on me that my functions are really close until everyone else started calling me “mugole” to mean bride at the introduction ceremony. At the end of my cousin’s kuhingira, almost everyone who found me was telling me how my introduction is next and they can’t wait to enjoy it. I really pray it is nice and meets their expectations.
