We are one month from the BIG DAY – June 4! Seems like yesterday, we were starting the preparation process. Now the date is here…

Sheila has been busy on the ground in Kigali meeting with vendors, visiting sites and ensuring our wedding goes off without a hitch. I have been mastering the art of the deal, looking for discounts online to save us as many pennies as possible. It has been a challenge and by the end of this wedding, we may be in the business of renting table linens and other decorative items to supplement our wedding cost (and trying to figure out what to do with 25 table cloths)!

I have been slammed between work and wedding planning and my blog has suffered. Since getting back from the United States, I have been running full steam ahead ensuring that everything is ready for our June 4th date. I was recently in Kigali trying to get registered for our marriage. In Rwanda, unlike in the U.S. for my American readers, a preacher or man of the cloth is unable to certify your marriage. So you have two ceremonies, one before the local government office and one before the church. The challenge is meeting all the bureaucratic processes and red tape that comes with government process. Its like trying to get a driving license in the U.S. You prepare yourself for a full day experience and are pleasantly surprise when after four hours, you are free to do. (Everyone hates the DMV) Despite the trip to Kigali, we were unable to get registered with the local office. The registrar demanded a birth certificate from me. So I called my mom at 7:45 in the morning to race to Mobile, Alabama to get a copy of my birth certificate. By 9:00am (3:00pm Rwandan time) she had the birth certificate in hand and had sent it to me by WhatsApp. Sadly, it was too late and we would have to wait until the next day!

We will complete the process when I return to Kigali later this month. But rest assure, we will be getting married on June 4th!