Wedding bells are ringing for Mzansi’s celebrities, with our very own Denise Zimba being the next local celeb to walk down the aisle.
This follows media personality K Naomi, who celebrated her wedding two weeks ago and actor Buhle Samuels who celebrated hers at the weekend.
Zimba’s big day will be on April 9 in Cape Town with her traditional wedding to be held on the Easter weekend in Joburg.
While past reports said she got married in 2020, she clarifies that she in fact got hitched at Home Affairs in 2019, and that the big celebration was due five weeks before the hard lockdown in 2020.
“With the venue paid and plans already in motion, this wedding celebration is just us following through with our vision and seeing it come to life. It is about getting everybody together to celebrate with us, which has always been a dream of mine,” Zimba said.
Speaking about the two cultures merging, Zimba said there have been challenges they had to conquer to get to where they are now.
“There are certain ways that Europeans do things and we have our own ways as Africans that we do things. We just had to overcome those differences. From how to raise a child to what medication to use, when is the right time to pierce the baby’s ears, etc.,” she said, making reference to her daughter Leah.
Another difference in cultures that they had to overcome was ilobolo. “So, funny enough, in the German tradition it is the woman that pays the guy’s family. So, you can imagine the drama,” she said laughing.
“My husband’s culture says that my dad would be the one to pay my husband to say ‘you are now taking care of my child for the rest of her life, so we pay you lobola to say thank you’. So, it was an up and down of negotiations but my husband understood how important it was for me to uphold this part of my belief and how strong it is for our culture. So he chose to forfeit it.
“As much as it’s their traditions, his family didn’t feel strongly enough to practise it,” she added.
Zimba said her wedding will be different in that, instead of having the normal table where guests are seated and food is served, she will stage a night market instead.
“The market will have seven different stalls with different kinds of foods from a pasta stand to a Korean food stand, and there will be a lounge seating area. But the whole idea is to get people to blend together, considering that we will be having people from around different parts of the world.
“We will have the normal ceremony of walking down the aisle with my nieces as my flower girls and the ring bearer being my nephew. Then we will have a spiritual guiding teacher/mentor instead of a pastor who will officiate the wedding,” she said.
The hands-on bride admits to being a tad-bit stressed because of the logistics of booking flights, accommodation and transport for everyone. Zimba also reveals that she will be moving to Germany soon after the wedding.
“I am going to start over. I want a new challenge with my career, to broaden my horizon with my career and be on an international scale. It is nerve-wracking because it is a language thing but the nice thing is that if you are married to a German, the government helps you integrate within the community with paid language classes and help you get what you need to be part of society,” she said.
Zimba adds a twist to wedding celebrations
Media personality will stage night market for guests to bond
Wedding bells are ringing for Mzansi’s celebrities, with our very own Denise Zimba being the next local celeb to walk down the aisle.
This follows media personality K Naomi, who celebrated her wedding two weeks ago and actor Buhle Samuels who celebrated hers at the weekend.
Zimba’s big day will be on April 9 in Cape Town with her traditional wedding to be held on the Easter weekend in Joburg.
While past reports said she got married in 2020, she clarifies that she in fact got hitched at Home Affairs in 2019, and that the big celebration was due five weeks before the hard lockdown in 2020.
“With the venue paid and plans already in motion, this wedding celebration is just us following through with our vision and seeing it come to life. It is about getting everybody together to celebrate with us, which has always been a dream of mine,” Zimba said.
Speaking about the two cultures merging, Zimba said there have been challenges they had to conquer to get to where they are now.
“There are certain ways that Europeans do things and we have our own ways as Africans that we do things. We just had to overcome those differences. From how to raise a child to what medication to use, when is the right time to pierce the baby’s ears, etc.,” she said, making reference to her daughter Leah.
Another difference in cultures that they had to overcome was ilobolo. “So, funny enough, in the German tradition it is the woman that pays the guy’s family. So, you can imagine the drama,” she said laughing.
“My husband’s culture says that my dad would be the one to pay my husband to say ‘you are now taking care of my child for the rest of her life, so we pay you lobola to say thank you’. So, it was an up and down of negotiations but my husband understood how important it was for me to uphold this part of my belief and how strong it is for our culture. So he chose to forfeit it.
“As much as it’s their traditions, his family didn’t feel strongly enough to practise it,” she added.
Zimba said her wedding will be different in that, instead of having the normal table where guests are seated and food is served, she will stage a night market instead.
“The market will have seven different stalls with different kinds of foods from a pasta stand to a Korean food stand, and there will be a lounge seating area. But the whole idea is to get people to blend together, considering that we will be having people from around different parts of the world.
“We will have the normal ceremony of walking down the aisle with my nieces as my flower girls and the ring bearer being my nephew. Then we will have a spiritual guiding teacher/mentor instead of a pastor who will officiate the wedding,” she said.
The hands-on bride admits to being a tad-bit stressed because of the logistics of booking flights, accommodation and transport for everyone. Zimba also reveals that she will be moving to Germany soon after the wedding.
“I am going to start over. I want a new challenge with my career, to broaden my horizon with my career and be on an international scale. It is nerve-wracking because it is a language thing but the nice thing is that if you are married to a German, the government helps you integrate within the community with paid language classes and help you get what you need to be part of society,” she said.