The best of my wedding photography from Southfield's
Word of Faith Church in Detroit featuring a traditional
Nigerian wedding in Detroit, Michigan.
Deborah and Femi's wedding at Southfield's Word of Faith Church and their wedding reception at the Farmington Hills Manor featured an all traditional Nigerian wedding. Deborah spent a lot of time vetting me to make sure I would be able to capture and capitalize on all the aspects of wedding photography that would be unique sounds and sights that go along with a traditional Nigerian wedding. The actual wedding ceremony and the multi cultural Word of Faith Church in Southfield was much more like a typical Western style wedding where the bride and groom wore more typical wedding gowns and tuxes. I photograph a lot of weddings that feature a myriad of different cultures, but in over 1,000 weddings, I'd never photographed a traditional Nigerian wedding. I figured it couldn't possibly be that different from some of the other weddings I've photographed where there is a language barrier or customs that are unique to a certain culture. Deborah had a lovely assistant who was extremely helpful to me and to my surprise, many of the Nigerian guests approached me throughout the wedding day to see if I had any questions about what I was seeing so they could have the opportunity to explain some of the difference. See if you can pick out some of the difference in these tradition Nigerian wedding photos...
My Best Wedding Photography from Southfield's Word of Faith Church Wedding
Featuring a Traditional Nigerian Wedding in Detroit, Michigan
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Like many fall weddings in Michigan, Deborah and Femi were wanting to get a lot of their wedding party photography at Southfield's Word of Faith Church in their courtyard as leaves were still quite colorful. Even though it was unseasonably warm for November, Femi (having just landed from Nigeria for the wedding) absolutely froze, so we didn't actually spend too much time outside. Most of the wedding party was from Texas or had flown in from all of the world to come to this traditional Nigerian wedding at Southfield's Word of Faith Church which seemed to host a lot of international weddings. One of the biggest differences between most of the wedding I photograph in the Detroit area and this Nigerian wedding was the volume. I'm not sure if all Nigerian weddings are that loud and feature that much music or if that was the Evangelical flavor of the wedding, but it was joyous AND loud!
The other thing you'll notice right away about this Nigerian wedding in Michigan is all the colors. The color coordinated outfits of the wedding guests is traditional and while they are all slightly different, all the material is the same. The wedding reception venue, the Farmington Hills Manor was also completely draped in white on the inside making a striking difference from most wedding halls. Please feel free to check out my blog about Femi and Deborah's traditional Nigerian wedding. I've posted more wedding photos than I have here as I was absolutely blown away! Notice all the electronic coverage from the wedding guests. My single most difficult part of the day was that wedding guests would jump in front of me and/or push me aside so they could get their shot. They also had an MC who did a stand up routine throughout the night and of course, one of the main features of a traditional Nigerian wedding is having the couple "sprayed" with money during their dances. I had assumed dollar bills would be flying through the air, but in truth, all of the dancing is very slow moving, very slow motion and so the "spraying" actually looks like people sticking bills on people very slowly while girls with bags scramble underfoot to pick up the cash in what was undoubtedly the most challenging job of the night!
copyright Marci Curtis