No kissing the bride as Thika couple holds unusual wedding

On Monday, Kennedy Muriithi and Pauline Waithira walked down the aisle at the ACK St Andrews Church in Thika.

The wedding was unusual from the start; first it was held on a Monday and took a paltry thirty minutes. Also lacking was the dramatic flair common at Kenyan nuptials.

Photos shared online show the bride and her groom sitting a considerable distance from each other while donning face masks as required.

According to Inooro TV, the  church which can accommodate 1,000 worshippers was largely empty with only 15 guests who included four members of the clergy.

The number of journalists present, reports say, exceeded the number of invited guests.

At the same time, the 15-people wedding party was under strict guidelines and was  required to sanitize before they got into the church.

Once in the church, they spread out across the expansive precinct during the short ceremony.

Parents of the bride however missed the ceremony as they were unable to get a permit allowing them to travel to Thika which is part of the Nairobi Metropolitan area currently under a 21-day lockdown.

Four members of the church clergy then kicked off the wedding from a safe distance in their robes and facemasks.

Unfortunately, what was to be the icing on the cake- the couple kiss- did not happen with the lovebirds only signing their wedding certificate moments before the ceremony ended.

Those who could not be part of the wedding due to the social distancing directive followed the proceedings which were broadcast live on social media platforms.

The couple had been organising the wedding since January and had hoped to have a huge ceremony attended by their family and friends.

“We would not have postponed the wedding because by doing so, we would have disappointed God because marriage is a covenant,”

The couple says they have no plans for a wedding reception and will only have lunch with their best couple.

On the issue of wedding gifts, the couple says that their close friends and family who knew they could not make it had already started sending their gifts even before the ceremony.

Citizen Digital understands the wedding cost less than Ksh. 20,000 for the lunch, certificate and the logistics.