“Officially married. There was no groom. One bride, one goal,” 32-year-old Lulu Jemimah wrote.
Lulu Jemimah got exhaustingly tired of her Ugandan family preaching to her about getting married and settling down. She got annoyed to the point that she got married to herself.
Currently pursuing her masters in Creative Writing at Oxford University, marriage was the last thing of Lulu’s mind. Just so she could get her family off her back with the constant nagging to get her to agree for marriage, she decided to marry herself.
As per a report by the Daily Mail, Lulu’s intentions of calming her family down with this decision confused them even more. This definitely did not fit well with the family’s thoughts and hopes for her. But she feels that this would be the perfect commitment to herself and her further studies and career.
“’I have a strong passion in life and I am committed to achieving my goals at becoming an academic. But all my family wanted to ask me was when I planned to get married – which is very important back in Uganda – followed by when I would be having children and starting a family. My father wrote my wedding speech when I turned 16. Every birthday my mother prayed for me and in recent years this has included a plea for a good husband. But I just didn’t want to think about walking up the aisle. It’s not the thing which keeps me up at night”, said Lulu.
Lulu sent out formal invitations of her wedding to all her close ones. She hired a dress, walked through the wedding march and even explained to around 30 guests who were present, through a speech, about her decision of marrying herself. A lot of her friends showed up at her wedding, including international and local journalists, film directors and feminist entrepreneurs. Her parents didn’t attend the big day but she did go and see her mother to explain her choice.
The entire wedding cost was just $2, which was the taxi fare. She was able to get the rest of the day for free or as gifts from her friends. A friend who works as a web designer made and printed her invites, and her friend paid to hire her dress, while her brother baked her cake.
After she got married, she took it up to Twitter, where she wrote, “Officially married. There was no groom. One bride, one goal,” she wrote. “I got married on my 32nd birthday to the one person I am certain will take care of me,” explained Lulu Jemimah.
