{"id":7215,"date":"2018-11-20T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T10:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/?p=7215"},"modified":"2018-11-22T07:23:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T07:23:05","slug":"simple-does-not-mean-substandard-how-the-matsigas-pulled-off-a-classy-wedding-with-13-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/?p=7215","title":{"rendered":"Simple does not mean substandard: How the Matsigas pulled off a classy wedding with Shs13million"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Desire Mbabaali<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meeting someone in a simple, yet beautiful way, followed by an equally simple wedding isn\u2019t a combination you find any day.<\/p>\n

But this is what happened to Efi\u00a0Koelewijn and Joseph Matsiga. After two years of\u00a0praying at University Community Fellowship (UCF), Efi, a community psychologist and baker decided to join the worship team and\u00a0had to talk to the choir director, Joseph, to do that.<\/p>\n

That was the first time she talked to her now husband, the communications person at UCF although she had been seeing him on stage before.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Holding onto the future<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe became friends and then everything went pretty fast. Two months after, we were in a relationship,\u201d Efi reveals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got together, we had total conviction and we knew the direction to take. The goal wasn\u2019t to hang round, we were focused on doing everything right, being together and getting married,\u201d Matsiga emphatically states.<\/p>\n

A year and eleven months after they met, on September 22, the two tied the knot at Makerere Full Gospel Church, Makerere.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Efi’s mother and father walk her down the aisle to meet her soon-to-be husband<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We live in a time when having mega weddings is the new normal. However the Matsigas decided to keep their wedding simple, uncomplicated but cosy. That said, having a simple wedding doesn\u2019t have to mean having substandard things. What it calls for however is setting priorities and sticking to them. This is the story of how the Matsigas went about their wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I wanted for our wedding was that it would be simple yet warm. A few close people \u2013 family, friends, who have been there through our walk in life,\u201d Efi explains. On the other hand, Joseph dreamed\u00a0of a mega wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had no money because I was straight out of school and I hadn\u2019t saved for the wedding. I didn\u2019t want us to strain ourselves because I knew we had a life to start after the wedding. But again, I am not a big showy person and yet that is what he wanted,\u201d she explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my head, I wanted this humongous, mega wedding but meeting her and talking over it made me start asking myself questions of why I wanted this. So we eventually got on the same page and decided to keep it simple. However even in the process of keeping things simple, there were certain things I really wanted to see happening and yet she didn\u2019t see it that way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A smile from the bride<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

\u201cCompromising and crossing over to what she had in mind was a bit of a problem we had through the preparations. One of the biggest issues we had was with the wedding venue,\u201d Matsiga admits. Whereas he wanted an outdoor wedding reception, Efi wanted an indoor wedding in a hall.<\/p>\n

To find a common ground, they settled for having their reception at Fairway Hotel in Kampala. \u201cBut even at the hotel, we went for the least expensive offers on the list,\u201d Matsiga points out.<\/p>\n

However, two weeks to the wedding, the hotel management changed the deal they had with them and needed the couple to throw in an extra Shs10,000 per plate. \u201cI wanted to change the venue but we weren\u2019t successful. She suggested we have the reception at UCF, but I had my own reservations. So we stayed at Fairway Hotel, but reduced our guest list by half \u2013 from 300 people to only 150,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Matsiga’s moving amidst close friends and family at Fairway Hotel, Kampala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Capitalising on friendships<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The fullness of joy after being made husband and wife<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among things that helped the couple keep costs down was being strategic on hiring friends and people they knew. \u201cFor the videography for example, I have a friend who does videography and photography so he agreed to work for us with the little money we had and as for decoration, we got a service provider who does it for our church. We were very strategic and very open that we really don\u2019t have a lot. So, we were working at a friendly level,\u201d Matsiga shares.<\/p>\n

Joseph sings for his bride at the wedding
\n https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grace.koelewijn\/videos\/2280039185358741\/<\/p>\n

Prioritising and cost-cutting<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur final guest list had 150 people. We gave the hotel Shs50,000 per person and those who came to the reception and weren\u2019t on our guest list, took soda and cake. We didn\u2019t spend any extra cash on food,\u201d Matsiga confides.<\/p>\n

When it came to the cars, Efi says <\/strong>they had an entourage of 14 people and so they needed about four cars. \u201cI wanted us to get cars from friends, but Joseph wanted Benzes and to strike a balance, we decided to just hire two Benzes at Shs150,000 each and borrowed other cars from different friends we knew,\u201d Efi\u00a0says.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Bridesmaids admire Efi’s ring. Notably, they all styled their natural hair into shaggy dreads for the wedding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matsiga notes that they also made it a point not to go overboard with the attire. \u201cWhen it came to me and my best man, we didn\u2019t go for very expensive suits. We got a tailor who knew what he was doing, we looked for nice colours, blended them together and made beautiful suits. Everything together cost over Shs900,000 but not over Shs1million,\u201d says Matsiga.<\/p>\n

Making use of discounts<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for the bride, she bought her wedding dress in the US while visiting a relative. \u201cWe went looking for gowns, and managed to get them at a discount. My gown was at $500 (about Shs1.9million) but I got it at $250 (about Shs900,000). I also didn\u2019t want a changing dress, so that\u2019s all I put on,\u201d she says. The rest of the entourage took care of their attire.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The couple cuts their pink and white cake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The couple also got the rings at a discount from the US for Shs250,000 a pair.<\/p>\n

The cake cost Shs1.5million \u2013 a three tier cake cost Shs1million and seven other give away cakes cost Shs500,000 also made by a friend.<\/p>\n

For the venue, they just paid for the food which was Shs50,000 per plate, and the hotel gave them chairs, tables, food and drinks.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Efi styled her natural hair for the wedding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The saloon cost the bride Shs300,000. \u201cWe did the nails ourselves, the night before the wedding because I was so busy during the day and I forgot to go the saloon. We walked around looking for a saloon, but all places were closed so, we went to a beauty shop, bought artificial nails and my matron and I painted our nails the night before the wedding,\u201d Efi shares.<\/p>\n

Tying the knot was at 10am, reception started at 2:30 and it was done by 6pm. We took the pictures from Munyonyo Speke Resort. \u201cWe went to Full Gospel and they charged us a church fee of Shs650,000 but refunded us Shs100,000 because we kept time,\u201d Efi says.<\/p>\n

Friends helped cover costs\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the music at the reception, Matisga says, \u201cI had friends that we used to play music with, so I just brought a few of those to play live music. One was playing an acoustic, the other singing and one playing the saxophone. I just gave them transport and money for hiring machines which cost Shs400,000 and they kept us entertained,\u201d Matsiga says. For the PA system, a friend from church who owns an events company gave the couple equipment for free, and that is what they used at the reception.<\/p>\n

This was also the case with makeup. \u201cI have a friend who does makeup so she did our makeup for free \u2013 the entourage and myself. It is such a blessing to have friends that do a lot of different things,\u201d Efi says with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for our honeymoon, we wanted to go to some particular place, but we decided to save and do that later on when we put our monies together. So, for honeymoon, our parents asked us which place we wanted to go and we chose a quiet place that was not very expensive as long as we were together,\u201d Matsiga explains\"\"<\/p>\n

Budget wise, the couple worked with between Shs10million to Shs13million.<\/a><\/p>\n

A good chunk of this money was got through the wedding meetings they had. \u201cWe used to have two meetings in every week \u2013 one in town and the others at church on Sundays \u2013 and we did this for over a period of five weeks, making it a total of 10 meetings. Contributions were about 80 percent and the rest was from us,\u201d Matsiga says.<\/p>\n

They however noted that they experienced tremendous amounts of pressure from friends and family about how they wanted to see their wedding. \u201cWhen people talk, you reach a point when you just say \u2018Okay,\u2019 but in the end, it was my wedding and I did it the way I wanted it to be. For example, I remember my mum wanted me to have a changing dress but I put my feet down. I had a pretty gown, and I wanted to wear it till the end,\u201d Efi says.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A hand peck next to a Mercedes on your wedding day is the way to go<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGenerally, I would say there was pressure, from friends, family, and the bride. But both of us had things that we didn\u2019t compromise with till the end. The only things we compromised about were those we sat down and had a conversation about and afterwards decided on,\u201d Matsiga states.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s story shows that it is indeed possible to have a wedding that does not cost too much as long as you plan, prioritise, and work with friends who have skills or things they are willing to give you at a small fee or for free.<\/p>\n

My Wedding team congratulates the Matsigas.\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Desire Mbabaali Meeting someone in a simple, yet beautiful way, followed by an equally simple wedding isn\u2019t a combination you find any day. But this is what happened to Efi\u00a0Koelewijn and Joseph Matsiga. After two years of\u00a0praying at University Community Fellowship (UCF), Efi, a community psychologist and baker decided to join the worship team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[171,524],"tags":[692,693,694,695,683],"ppma_author":[1785],"class_list":["post-7215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-budget","category-real-stories","tag-efi-koelewijn","tag-full-gospel-church-makerere","tag-full-gospel-church-uganda","tag-full-gospel-weddings","tag-joseph-matsiga"],"authors":[{"term_id":1785,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"enantambi","display_name":"Esther Nantambi","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b1fa0f938f32d805446562e1bb7c32da6a6c7e51bd320fd89d4ba0819146b78d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Esther","last_name":"Nantambi","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7215"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7337,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7215\/revisions\/7337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7215"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=7215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}