Four Kenyan Inspired Wedding Themes

Try coming up with interesting decor ideas. Like a swahili lounge for your Kenyan Inspired wedding.Wedding by waridikenya.com wedding planners. Decor by Weddings by Kui

Are you thinking of having an African wedding theme? Well, why not try out a Kenyan inspired wedding theme? Well, yes you read right a wedding theme inspired by Kenya that is if your feeling patriotic. Well, am a sucker for wedding theme challenges coming up with a wedding theme out of nothing so when, we sat down with my wedding planning side kick, to come up with this month's articles she threw the ultimate wedding planning challenge to come up with four Kenyan inspired wedding theme so here it goes :

Number Four:

Maasai wedding theme: Maasai's are associated with Kenya whether or not you are one you have to admit that their culture is beautiful.  A lot of tourists who come to have their destination weddings here often choose to have maasai wedding theme, so what would it take for you to execute a maasai wedding theme:

Wedding color scheme: Your color scheme would be largely red and blue, you can incorporate white as a base color. Red, blue and white/ black is the color associated with Maasai's.

Wedding attire: The corset of your wedding gown could have the maasai traditional head piece incorporated in it. For your tiara you can use a traditional maasai headpiece.Your groom could  wear the traditional shuka and akala's at his feet ( I wonder how you will get him to wear this ). You could have the groomsmen dress like the groom and have all your maids have the beautiful ornate neck piece, to match with yours.

Wedding cards & stationery: Have your stationer incorporate a carving of a maasai maiden and moran on the front of your invitation cards, have your card shaped like a manyatta and use materials like bark cloth instead of paper.

Wedding entertainment: Hire morans, or have two of your male friends / relatives dress up as morans and have them stand strategically at the entrance of your wedding aisle, they can escort you down the aisle. You can also hire moran dancers to come spice up your wedding reception let them have a battle with your male guests on who can jump the highest!

Wedding favors: For your wedding favors you could give out a shuka to all your female guests and a beaded maasai keyholder to your male guests.

Wedding venue: If you can spend try any exotic maasai mara lodge, they actual offer maasai wedding packages. You can also look up any of the local venues that would be ideal like bomas of kenya, request if you can hire a manyatta!!

Number Three:

Swahili wedding theme:

This is one of my favorites cause we actually managed to execute it. A swahili wedding theme is one that is inspired by the swahili coastal culture. Again like the Maasai wedding theme, the swahili have a rich and diverse culture and have been known to have a love for all things fine, luxurious and beautiful.

For the swahili wedding theme what you would need to focus on is the following:

Wedding décor: Incorporate props like rugs, cushions, Arabian lamps, chests, lamu tables as part  of your wedding décor. You can also hire palm trees and shisha pipes to add on to the coastal flair. For your swahili décor think of using a lot of luxurious colors like purple, gold because their culture is associated with wealth.

Wedding stationery: Think of having scroll invitations, with a mendhi  monogram of the couple's initials. You can use swahili sayings/ phrases in the invitation cards to make it more authentic e.g. " Umealikwa kwa ndoa ya Wanjiku na Mwangi".

Wedding entertainment: Get a bango or taarab band. One thing that we loved about executing a swahili wedding theme was that the guests were fun!!  We hired a band straight from Mombasa who ensured that the guests were on their feet all reception long! Bango and taarab are types of music associated with the swahili, bango is upbeat and has a sort of upbeat, salsa tune to it and is great for making your guests dance. Taarab tunes are more laidback and easy.

Wedding favors: Have a henna designer on site, to draw menhdi designs on all the female guests. You could also receive your guests with madafu i.e. a drink made from coconut as they stroll into the reception. You can also give out madafu's and karafu's for favors.

Wedding attire: Kanzu's and lesso's can be creatively incorporated into the wedding attire.

Number Two:

Jamhuri wedding theme:

Je wajivunia kuwa Mkenya? ( are you proud to be kenyan). Well , the Jamhuri wedding theme is ideal for you the patriotic bride and groom. If you are in the diaspora, and you can't fly back in to have your wedding here this would also be great for you.  Well how would you execute the Jamhuri wedding theme:

Wedding venue: Think national landmark, a place that stores our country's great heritage e.g the museum or Uhuru gardens ( note gardens not park). You could choose to have your wedding on any national public holiday e.g. Jamhuri day that would be great cause all your friends and family would get to attend.

Wedding décor: Ok, so for your wedding color palette, choose the colors of the flag I.e. red, black, green and white. Let your wedding decorator find a clever way to mix up the colors e.g. you can choose to have some colors as your base colors and the rest incorporated as accents e.g. in your centerpieces e.t.c.

Wedding attire: You can have all your wedding attire fashioned after the Kenyan national dress. For your wedding gown the cape could act as your wedding train.

Wedding entertainment: The music that you play should be all kenyan! You can decide to have a playlist incorporate different love songs from different years e.g. the 70's Fadhili Williams Malaika, the 90's Eric Wainaina's Ritwa Riaku, the 08's Sauti Sol 's Zosi. Ensure that you get a Dj to make you a great kenyan mix with all sorts of music from twist to genge!

Wedding food: Kenyan's love nyama choma and tusker! That's what we are famous for, have a meat fest with open barbeques and for the beer lovers have the complimentary tuskers!

Wedding favors: For wedding favors you could give out assorted tshirts with any patriotic Kenyan message e.g. Najivunia Kuwa Mkenya.

Number One:

The Safari wedding theme:

Well one of the things that puts us on the tourist map is our wildlife. Why not try out a Safari theme? Like all the other Kenyan wedding themes, the Safari wedding theme can be executed if you sample some of this ideas:

Wedding décor: Should you want to have a safari wedding, the colors that you ought to incorporate are shades of brown,  and jungle green with elements of gold ( the gold is a classy accent). You can think of having dry flower arrangements, to imitate the savannah landscape. Hire décor props this include canvas tents, leopard skin table linens, animal carvings, bark cloth.

Wedding venue: Any park would do you can call up the National Park they offer unique wedding & reception venues within the park. Imagine seeing zebra's in the background as you exchange your vows.

Wedding attire: If you are really going all Safari, find ways of incorporating Khaki shorts and Safari boots into the theme. This can be worn by the ushers.  For the bridal party attire keep the colors close to those of the color scheme. You can choose to go for a more casual and informal look by using fabric like linen.

Wedding favors: Have Safari goodie packs for all your guests filled with wood carvings of the big five.

Wedding entertainment: You can have your guests  have a game drive into the park to your wedding venue. You can either arrange for tour vans to transport them in or have arrows that will guide them into the park. This will definitely be an adventure for them. Have bonfire's light at strategic points of the wedding ceremony and reception, to bring out that jungle feel.

Wedding menu: Have a safari inspired menu, have plenty of meat stations, if your wedding budget allows you can request your caterer to provide exotic meats e.g. zebra though your caterer needs to be licensed to provide for such. Name your guest  tables after popular wild animals like Zebra, Gazelle, Lion, Onyx, e.t.c.