Bonnie & Clyde! Loretta and Niyi’s enchanting engagement session and captivating love story

Our Love Story

(as told by Loretta)

In my opinion, three years is a long time to get to know someone. Somehow Niyi made it seem a lot shorter. I met him towards the end of Uni and at a point when I had no plans to be in a relationship. My focus then was getting a degree and moving on to greater heights. BUT! We happened and everything in me felt at peace with him. Also being the spiritual type, I was more than certain he was the one.

A friend of mine and now one of my bridesmaids, Doreen Mufadzi, who happens to be the friend Niyi and I had in common, put up my picture on my birthday in 2012.

Little did I know that the picture had earned me a secret admirer in Niyi. We soon became good friends and spent a lot of time sharing and debating our views on a wide variety of topics and life in general.

Fast forward 2 months, we planned our first official date in January of 2013. We agreed to meet up at Euston station while I was on my way from Manchester to spend the weekend with a friend and now bridesmaid, Susan Omeiza. Ever the gentleman, Niyi after dinner offered to drive me all the way to her house in shooters Hill as he didn’t feel comfortable with me taking the public transport on a snowy and cold wintery evening.

I was intrigued by the gesture and obliged to his request…From that moment things naturally progressed and Niyi has since been a source of encouragement and motivation. I choose to spend the rest of my life with no other person than the man that understands and compliments me.

Surprisingly, he stated his intentions in the early stages of our friendship. Let’s just say that he knew what he wanted, found it and likewise. It’s been over two years of learning about each other, learning to sacrifice for one another, learning to love the right way and above all learning to put God first together.

May I add that the learning is a never ending process but our unity lies in the fact that life is a lot more bearable when you find someone that shares in your joy and pain, sees you for who you truly are at your best and worst and makes a decision to stand by you through it all and beyond. In him I found the qualities I needed.

(as told by Niyi)

When I saw her for the 1st time, I kind of said to myself Whao! Who’s that cute young thing! At first I wanted a friend we had in common to play cupid but then I thought naa… I can do this! We randomly started chatting and I instantly found myself captivated by her innocence. I went and stalked her social‎ media platforms and I saw pictures of her and a guy whom I at the time thought was her boyfriend and I was like ouch…with that sinking feeling hard on my knees… in my mind I was like “that was over before it started!”

A short while later we randomly got chatting again and I asked “so how’s your boyfriend? The fine yellow paw paw I saw in one of the pics in your profile” Naturally with everything crossable in my anatomy crossed, hoping she’d say “oh he’s just a friend”. I got my Eureka moment as he thankfully turned out to be her only brother.

I straightaway told her that I will be the guy that’ll marry her. The statement was made with a combination of hope and a little bit of fear. Hope because I really wanted it to be so and fear because that could really be the initiator of my ‘best before’ stamp! Something in me was convinced though.

That inner voice said “she really might be the one”. As the inner voice grew louder I had to dig deeper; what type of friends she hung with? Who were her biggest influences? What was her mother like? Naturally by that point, her beauty had already captured my imagination but the more I got the answers the more I got to know her and the more I got to know her, the easier it was for her personality to capture my heart!

This girl doesn’t just have a beautiful face… she has a beautiful heart too! All this while, I had been away but immediately I returned, I scheduled our 1st date. Booked a table at a decent Chinese restaurant and drove to Euston in anticipation. There she was, just arrived from Manchester in all her glory #TheMissingRib.

Having spent a splendid afternoon wining, dining and chatting away, the chemistry was obvious and more importantly I quickly established that her comfort around me was her way of sewing a seed of trust in me.

The Remarkable Proposal

(as told by Niyi)

Most men have a level or an indicator of where they want to be in life before taking the quantum leap of faith known as marriage. That point came for me last summer. Unknown to Loretta, I started planning for our engagement and being a firm believer in the notion that anything worth doing at all is worth doing well, I started ring shopping nice bright and early. For me a ring is not just a fashion piece but a sacramental of marriage.

So I knew I had a job on my hands. I actually designed a beautiful masterpiece of a ring for her with 7 smaller diamonds either side of a bigger stone signifying 7 promises we made to each other concerning our future.

I was always advised to propose to the girl first then announce to the father so one can reduce the risk of the father saying no. But I decided against that and for me the right thing was to have the dreaded “sir I want to seek your blessing in asking for your daughter’s hand in marriage’ conversation with her father first before any proposal. So I called him and booked an appointment.

On the day of the meeting, my liver was on life support, close to failure (lol)… I thought “what if he says he’s not ready? What if he doesn’t think I’m right for her?”

Then he called me and said “oya lets meet”. The man though diminutive in stature, has this aura of presence that can fill up a whole stadium! There was no going back now. My voice shaking slightly, I said “Sir, I wanted you to know that Loretta and I have plans for each other’s future and with your blessing, I want to take the relationship to its natural conclusion and ask for her hand in marriage”.

A few seconds pause and he looked at me. At this point my blood pressure was probably on Grave danger levels! He said “what permission again? It’s Loretta that’ll marry you not me so it’s her you need to ask.

As for me whatever she says has my blessing”. And that was it. Approval secured!

Next stop, the unexpected proposal.I woke up on the morning of Saturday the 20th of December 2014 and rang my brother to tell him today is the day. He asked why?

I answered because I woke up feeling it was the day. So I rang and told her that my brother had tickets to some Management Christmas party at the Hilton and wanted us to represent him. So she should pick a nice dress and be ready for 8pm. I dropped by at a restaurant to make reservations and plan with their staff how events will unfold. Picked her up and she looked beautiful in her chosen dress. Off we went for dinner and on the way I was like “oh I Just wanted to wine and dine with you before we all went to the Christmas show”.

On the way to the restaurant, I told her how I could see a lot of our friends were getting engaged and that she should bear with me. That they don’t even sell the type of ring I’d like to give her in Nigeria anyway. All to eliminate any thought of marriage proposals that evening.

She replied with that “yeah yeah yeah it’s not by the ring” attitude. Dinner went down well and the ring was placed in a dim sum bowl that usually contains the bill. I opened it slightly and said oh whao! What the hell did we eat! Gbese!

But that any way she was worth it. Ever since I met her I always wanted to marry her. That her beauty may have captured my imagination at the onset but her personality captured my heart. I got down on one knee turned the basket and there it was. A rock sparkling in her eyes and the question “will you marry me?” in her ears. At this point my heart stopped beating till I heard the word “YES!”.