1000’s of weddings are held yearly in  Nigeria’s booming million-dollar wedding ceremony business. Blessing Oluwawamiri Alakija, wedding ceremony planner and founding father of Bblizz Occasions, says that on common, newlywed {couples} spend as a lot as ₦20,000,000 ($12,500) or extra for a 500-guest wedding ceremony. Today, budgets don’t essentially rely on the variety of visitors, she says, relatively on the specified high quality of the marriage. {Couples} wouldn’t make investments thousands and thousands of their massive day with out some assurance that issues will run easily and, more and more, that assurance comes from quite a few applied sciences.

“Our occasions closely depend on expertise,” Alakija says. 

“From digital consultations with purchasers throughout Nigeria and the diaspora by way of Zoom, to sharing digital temper boards, tech helps us streamline communication, enhance precision, and save time,” says Oyindamola Adeleke, a marriage planner who runs 234 Occasion.

Tech’s affect on Nigerian weddings goes far past Zoom calls and digital temper boards. From how {couples} share their engagement tales on social media to on-line reward registries,  expertise is concerned in each side of the marriage expertise.

Take how {couples} discover wedding ceremony distributors.

The ‘S’ in ‘weddings’ is for social media

An intending couple is aware of that the selection of a marriage vendor could make or mar their massive day, so additional care is positioned on who they contract to bake a cake or beat a face. Nigerian wedding ceremony distributors, together with photographers and make-up artists, agree that social media contributes considerably to how {couples} uncover and e book their providers.

“Most of our bookings come by social media,” says Joshua Aderounmu, a marriage photographer who runs Tush Studios. “Potential purchasers solely have to succeed in out by way of direct message on these platforms.”

Platforms like Instagram, due to this fact, double as portfolios, serving to distributors showcase and market their craft to potential clients. Marriage ceremony planners like Alakija and Adeleke additionally rely closely on social media.

“We depend on Instagram and WhatsApp to showcase occasion transformations, before-and-afters, vendor shout-outs, and testimonials,” Adeleke says.

However visibility is only one piece of the bigger image. Although social platforms assist distributors and planners talk their aesthetics and attain new potential purchasers, belief stays king.

Ifedayo Akapo, a marriage photographer, says that whereas social media showcases his type and character to would-be purchasers, referrals seal the offers. “Most of my finest purchasers come by phrase of mouth as a result of somebody they know beloved what I did. Each matter, however referrals flip leads into loyal [customers] quicker,” he says.

David Shonowo, one other photographer, agrees, including that 80–90% of his work comes by referrals. Make-up artist Davina Folowosele, founding father of Halevigne Magnificence, says likewise.  “The vast majority of my jobs have come extra from referrals than social media,” she says.

For {couples}, past considered one of many instruments to vet potential distributors, social media platforms are like real-time postcards documenting and speaking relationship and wedding ceremony planning milestones to their circle of family and friends, in addition to “on-line in-laws”, a time period used to explain extra distant social media followers.

For make-up artist Folowosele, social media labored as an “on-line diary” when she was getting married in 2024. Advantage Ekong, married in 2024, says social media was primarily used for sharing and receiving wedding ceremony info, documenting stunning recollections, and fascinating with family and friends. “It added a enjoyable, interactive factor to the expertise by permitting us to have fun moments in actual time with individuals on our timeline,” Ekong provides.

Present registries, wedding ceremony apps, and web sites

Not way back, newlywed {couples} have been subjected to an overflow of home items wrapped in nylon reward wrappers that they then packed away into a cabinet, by no means for use. In the present day, {couples} are organising on-line reward registries with particular gadgets they should start their new houses and in what portions—like Shonowo, who used Wishgum, a digital wishlist and reward registry, to obtain wedding ceremony presents. Or they’re organising cost portals to obtain money presents that might usually be delivered in an envelope. 

Receiving presents digitally will not be all the time seamless, nonetheless, for Nigerian {couples}. Folowosele says that she finally needed to resort to amassing presents by her account straight, as a result of “the interface of the Nigerian inclusive [payment] gateways wasn’t as enticing as those I fancied, and it wasn’t simply simple to arrange.”

On the seller facet, an array of fintech providers informs how money flows between purchasers and companies. Aderounmu says tthat hough his studio primarily makes use of Paystack to obtain funds from wedding ceremony purchasers, he normally adapts to no matter fits them, together with worldwide transfers.

Alakija prefers bill apps and OPay: “It has simplified my banking expertise.”

Whereas some distributors like Alakija are already embracing tech-enabled cost instruments, others like Folowosele are nonetheless navigating limitations in integrating native platforms. But, throughout the board, tech stays a marriage game-changer in additional methods than one.

Marriage ceremony or film?

Spend a number of hours on social media platforms, and you’ll glean that Nigerian weddings in the present day are actually designed to generate full-blown cinematic experiences. {Couples} are more and more choosing greater than a easy wedding ceremony photograph e book or bland documentary video of the day to look again on. 

“Marriage ceremony protection in the present day is only cinematography. We shoot prefer it’s a film,” Aderounmu says. “Therefore, the introduction of drones. It provides creativity and sophistication to footage.” 

There’s additionally the now-ubiquitous 360 video sales space. Initially seen as a luxurious, it’s now a staple. “Visitors like it. It’s change into a part of the social media ritual for weddings,” Aderounmu says. “They arrive, they costume up, and so they count on to depart with 360 footage.”

Drones, gimbal stabilisers, wi-fi audio methods, and 360 video cubicles make filmic and photographic outcomes not simply media by which the couple may keep in mind the day, however “content material” to be shared with and consumed by an internet viewers. 

In more moderen occasions, even synthetic intelligence instruments have change into a part of vendor work processes, bettering effectivity and ease. 

“AI is infused into all our post-production instruments like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere Professional. We use it to pick, add, take away, and even change backgrounds,” says Aderounmu. “It speeds issues up and offers higher outcomes.”

Marriage ceremony photographer Akapo says his work instruments now embody Luminar AI and Adobe Digicam Uncooked, which hold her from spending hours tweaking and enhancing the a whole lot of pictures that outcome from a single occasion. “Topaz Gigapixel AI is nice for upscaling photographs with out shedding high quality. Adobe Photoshop’s Neural Filters let me do inventive touch-ups and elegance modifications quick utilizing AI-powered instruments,” he says.

Other than enhancing, planners like Alakija and Adeleke additionally use AI instruments to plan weddings extra effectively, from producing content material concepts to automating emails and designing visitor experiences.

Love is within the cloud

The amount of media a single occasion generates implies that cloud providers are important to the success of a Nigerian wedding ceremony. 

Photographers like Akapo depend on cloud platforms to “again up and share purchasers’ galleries.” He says instruments like Google Drive, Dropbox, or WeTransfer are “quick, safe, and simple for purchasers to entry.” 

Hybrid Nigerian wedding ceremonys

In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic despatched everybody indoors and put a lot of life and enterprise on maintain, love and marital commitments carried on. {Couples} invited their associates, household, and non secular ministers to Zoom chat rooms and mentioned their “I Dos”. 5 years later, Zoom weddings are nonetheless a factor, even when much less so. 

Actually, they’ve opened up a chance for hybrid occasions the place {couples} can bodily marry however carry alongside family members who is probably not in the identical location because the occasion. Particularly with the rise of the japa wave, which has seen many Nigerians relocating overseas and separated from family members, livestreaming ensures that nobody has to overlook out on the massive day. Alakija says she has labored with tech firms to supply livestreaming providers and digital participation for wedding ceremony visitors internationally.

In 2025, tech instruments and platforms have change into the irreplaceable engines driving seamless wedding ceremony experiences and unforgettable moments for {couples} and distributors throughout Nigeria. With out it, many weddings merely wouldn’t occur or be skilled the way in which they do.

*Change price used is $1 to ₦1,600

This story is printed in collaboration with BellaNaija.

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