A Tale of Two Weddings
On Saturday the 16th of February 2008 I married my sweetheart Zwakele Mamba. And then on Sunday the 17th I married her again! Yes, we had two full-on weddings, two days in a row. Two days of “I do’s”, two days of my beautiful bride in her wedding dress, and two days of wedding fun and craziness! 
Why two weddings on consecutive days? Well, we kind of had to do it that way. We chose to have our first wedding @ Emafini Conference Center. It is a beautiful place up in the mountains outside of the capital, Mbabane. Zwakele and I love Emafini, and we know the owners, so they gave us an incredible deal. The downside of Emafini was that it was a small venue, so only a limited number of people would be invited .
That didn’t sit well with our rural community of Timbutini. You see, in traditional Swazi culture one never has a wedding that uses private invitations. Everyone and anyone from the community are invited, and the bride and groom are expected to cater for them. Many people upon hearing that we were issuing wedding invitations, and that it was an hour and a half’s drive away, expressed their displeasure to us. So, in a way of compromise, we decided to have another full-on 2nd for the community taking place the next day. We held the 2nd wedding at Zwakele’s church – Timbutini Wesleyan Church, where Walter Malaza is the pastor. 
It was fun weekend but also absolutely crazy to have two weddings two days in a row. I don’t think I would ever suggest it actually. In the end, some people were still not happy with our compromise. But most importantly we are happy, and we had our wedding(s) the way we wanted to them. Amen and Hallelujah to that!
Zwakele and I have been married for almost 2 months now. It’s still hard for me to believe. We spent so much time and energy preparing for the big day (or days 🙂 ). And after all the preparation, the weekend came and went by so fast. After it all when we were actually able to sit and rest for a moment, we held each other and said “Why did we stress so much about this. It came and it went, and was over.” We spent so much time before in preparation. In the end the result was sweet for sure, but we realized that we didn’t really need to walk in all that stress and aggravation that we did. What’s important is that God has called us together. And we are happy to be together. Thank You Lord Jesus!
Zwakele and I really just want to thank so many of you who helped us to take this next step in our lives. This would not have happened without the help of Ben & Janeen Messner, Julie Anderson, Matthys & Kirek Gereber, and YOU – Our friends and family that regularly support us!!! Thank you all so much! 
