Merging American and African Cultures to create one perfect day

by geeky puppy
(phila, pa)

My husband is a direct Zulu descendant who came to this country when he was twenty-one to make a better life for him and his parents and siblings back home. We met, fell in love and knew we wanted to celebrate both our cultures in our wedding ceremony.

I’m a born and raised Philadelphian and my father owns a 275 year old farmhouse outside the suburbs of Philadelphia. The house, with its 60 foot-long covered slate porch and ancient trees seemed the perfect location to have our ceremony. We invited 70 people to an outdoor wedding in early September when the foliage was just beginning to turn followed by a sit down, catered formal dinner on the slate porch.

The juxtaposition of a casual garden wedding followed by a formal sit down dinner seemed to fit with the theme of tying various elements of various cultures together.

Our caterer loved the idea of working in my step mom’s farmhouse kitchen with it huge stainless steel counters. We knew we wanted a traditional split plate dinner, but we wanted to include the African foods we loved, and our caterer loved the idea so much that he and his head chef went to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant in the city and spent two days behind the stove with the owner, learning the secrets of our favorite dishes.

We served a split plate of fillet and salmon with wild mushroom risotto cakes, and then served family style on the tables, in keeping with Zulu traditions, platters of lamb and injira (an Ethiopian flatbread that is spongy and tastes like sourdough and looks like a large crepe and is used to scoop up pieces of lamb and veggies and is so delicious).


We seated Africans and Americans at every table and the Africans had a fantastic time showing the Americans how to eat the family style dishes; and discussing their homeland and wedding traditions they grew up with. Since we as a couple were international, we kept the theme going with dessert and instead of a wedding cake, had a tremendous assortment of mini deserts from both our cultures, along with an assortment of French-inspired mini desserts and pastries.

Unbeknown to us, my father had asked my husband’s brother for help in learning a few phrases in Ndebele, my husband’s native language, and gave his speech in both languages, which was the perfect touch to an amazing day.

We were on a tight budget planning our wedding, so our favors were CD’s of our favorite African and American music and flutes of dark-chocolate cashews.

The need for flowers and decorations was minimal due to the setting, but scattered wildflower petals made up the aisle we walked down. Having our wedding in a residential area, we wanted to be respectful of the neighbors and opted not for a DJ or band, but instead a three piece string group played classical music throughout the day.

The caterer packed us a picnic of food and desserts, having figured we would not have eaten much during the reception and we were sent to the airport in a Rolls-Royce from the reception.

The day was fun, easy, romantic, elegant and beautiful all in one.