{"id":19410,"date":"2021-10-05T09:57:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/?p=19410"},"modified":"2021-10-05T11:50:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T08:50:45","slug":"it-was-either-yes-or-i-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/?p=19410","title":{"rendered":"It was either \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018I die\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joyce Aheebwa<\/strong><\/section>\n

This was a Friday like no other. It was dark and chilly. The stars in the sky seemed to be on a spying mission for the many uninvited guests to this rather intimate and grand day.<\/p>\n

Bright candles, specifically on this table of four, and soft music in the background did not do much to ease the tension Ridley Abimanya was under as he awaited the arrival of his darling, Patience Nayebare.<\/p>\n

Having arrived at Jack\u2019s Lounge, Mbarara earlier according to the plan, the thought of asking Nayebare to spend the rest of her life with him in front of the about 20 people who were visibly minding their own business was clearly eating at the 34-year-old.<\/p>\n

But his two \u2018partners in crime\u2019, best friend Isaiah Nasaasira and Agnes Asiimwe, Nayebare\u2019s sister, were there to support him.<\/p>\n

In Ankole, kneeling is not a common practice by both men and women so it takes a lot of courage or eternal love\u2019\u2019 as in Abimanya\u2019s case to get the man down on his knee for a worthy life partner.<\/p>\n

The proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart has never beaten as hard and fast as it did when I took the knee with the ring in my hand as she walked toward me. In this moment she literally became the air I breathe,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe closer she came towards me in her little blue dress, black high heels, the more unsure I became about the answer she would give. I expected a \u2018yes\u2019 or I die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack\u2019s Lounge was a favourite hangout place for the two lovebirds. They always had their dates at this venue every Friday and the sight of Abimanya kneeling completely shocked Nayebare, 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw him on his knees with a ring in his hands, I froze. I did not see this coming at all. I was scared and wondering why he was in a rush (to propose),\u201d Nayebare recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cStanding in front of me with her hands on her face in disbelief, I asked if she would marry me. She said yes!\u201d Abimanya says.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, to the delighted amazement of the couple, everyone in the room shouted congratulations.<\/p>\n

Hathcing the plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abimanya had made all the arrangements to have a very intimate, simple and real \u2018African\u2019 romantic proposal with Nasaasira and Asiimwe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents and family do not like a flashy pompous lifestyle and prefer doing things the simple way regardless of one\u2019s status. I admired their sobriety and simplicity which inspired my idea to propose the way I did in spite of the public display of affection era we are in today,\u201d Abimanya says.<\/p>\n

Around a week to the D-day he bought the ring and gave it to his best friend on that day for reassurance of its availability at the special moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not trust my nervous self to remember everything especially the most important one of all, the ring. He handed it to me when I was taking the knee,\u201d Abimanya says.<\/p>\n

Nasaasira was responsible for making sure Asiimwe was on time and kept on the lookout for Nayebare to make sure her arrival did not catch them all off guard.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHe played a great role keeping my confidence,\u201d Abimanya adds.<\/p>\n

Asiimwe\u2019s role was to show up on time and represent Nayebare\u2019s friends and family. She is the one who informed their family about the proposal as they only knew Abimanya as a friend by then.<\/p>\n

How they met<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2013, Nayebare, a banker and Abimanya, an accountant, met and hit it off with friendship while working under the same project for about 14 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked her from the moment I set my eyes on her and reached out by treating her in a special way at work.\u00a0 She was welcoming. We shared much about our personal lives and discovered that we had a lot in common. She was beautiful, intelligent and developmental with very many good ideas. After about a year, our friendship gradually advanced into something more,\u201d says Abimanya.<\/p>\n

It was a no brainer for Nayebare that he had taken a liking for her based on how he treated her differently at work, helping her beat deadlines, dropping her home every evening after work and calling every evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would take me for dates, surprise me with gifts which, indeed, assured me that he felt something special for me. Being close uncovered the man of my dreams in him. He was hardworking, God-fearing, very friendly, and handsome and above all, had respectful qualities I always wanted in a husband,\u201d Nayebare recalls.<\/p>\n

The couple figured building a lasting relationship did not necessarily depend on a third party\u2019s opinion which led them to keeping their love under wraps at work. Click to here to read<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joyce Aheebwa This was a Friday like no other. It was dark and chilly. The stars in the sky seemed to be on a spying mission for the many uninvited guests to this rather intimate and grand day. Bright candles, specifically on this table of four, and soft music in the background did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1784],"class_list":["post-19410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-stories"],"authors":[{"term_id":1784,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"weddingadmin","display_name":"weddingadmin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd3996c46efafdc40969010bfd78c8e4dda9d99318e7dd6403983ea0dadbcfce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19412,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410\/revisions\/19412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19410"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=19410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}