Amen! A match made in fashion heaven

Designer duo Brad Muttitt and Abiah Mahlase, after 15 years together, sealed their union in a whimsical ceremony during Pride Month.

The meeting  

Brad: We met in 2008 at the Lisof Fashion School, now Stadio. We were both in our first year but in different classes. We had the same circle of friends and although we weren’t friends at the time, closer to our third year we ended up gravitating towards each other and forming a friendship. I was very intrigued and amused by Abiah... it was a great attraction. I was initially attracted by his hairstyle, which was what actually caught my attention.  

Abiah: What always caught my attention about Bradley was that he was always cheeky. In class, he was the one who was quite daring and not afraid to speak his mind — this left an impression on me, especially when we became friends.  

Dating  

Brad: After six years as friends, Abiah and I decided to take our relationship to the next level and started dating. In 2014, we made things official. The beginning was exciting and I enjoyed our honeymoon stage. We also went through the different slumps and bumps, which we managed to go through together. Our parents and friends would always advise us not to “mix business with pleasure”, seeing that we had a clothing brand — Brad & Abiah (Amen) — together. However, we chose each other and after almost 10 years of dating we chose to cement our relationship.       

Lightbulb moment  

Brad: I was the one who had the “lightbulb moment”, because I proposed to Abiah. I had just come back from a holiday where I was with my niece and nephew, who kept nagging me about why I wasn’t married to Abiah yet. That had me thinking that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man. I also had a feeling that he too wanted to get married, so I thought if I were to propose, I wouldn’t get rejected — fortunately, I didn't.   

Abiah: He did it very privately. It was the night before Christmas last year after a dinner with our friends. We both agreed not to get each other any gifts, so we chose to open the presents our friends had given us and take videos of our reactions... I wasn’t quite sure why Bradley insisted on opening our gifts the night before. He then gave me a box, which I felt was so unfair because we both agreed not to get each other anything... as I opened my gift, I realised there was a ring. The whole time I kept asking him whether he was for real, because I couldn’t believe he finally wanted us to get married.   

Lobola negotiations   

Abiah: I was set on the fact that we were going to elope and make things official at the magistrate’s court and then enjoy our lives. But when we told our parents that we wanted to get married in two weeks’ time in court, they refused and insisted that we do things the right way, because things aren’t done like that in the Black culture. They made us realise that our union isn’t just between the two of us but [between] our extended family members too. My parents reached out to my great-grandmother for advice on how we could go about it, since we are both male.   

Brad: We didn’t get to do a lobola ceremony, but we did have a session where we spoke to the ancestors, asking for their permission and blessings. Then we set a date for our wedding.       

The wedding   

Brad: We wanted our wedding to seem like a fairy tale and have a mystical look. We tied the knot at St Francis in the Forest Methodist Church in Joburg on 16 June in a tea-party-inspired wedding. It evolved from a tea into lunch [and then] a full-day celebration.  

The suits  

Brad: Seeing that we both are fashion designers, we chose to make our suits ourselves. We wanted a classic look, so we went for black and white. We were also involved in the bridesmaids’ dresses and flower-girl looks.  

Abiah: Remember, our initial plan was to have a simple ceremony in court, and then we realised we had to plan looks for a big wedding. We didn’t have a lot of time, so we opted for a tea-party type of wedding right after our church service.     

Honeymoon   

Brad: Shortly after we got married, we went to Sun City for our honeymoon... we were there trying to take it all in. Since we had gone on holiday in January, we chose to spend our honeymoon with my sister and her partner along with their kids — they came all the way from Singapore for the wedding. It was quite nice spending time with them... it was different because we weren’t just staring into each other’s eyes but had wholesome company with us.      

Top tips for grooms-to-be   

Abiah: Make sure to do something that makes you happy. When it comes to a wedding, there are so many opinions, from family to flower girls. They will have an opinion on what colour they want to wear and what the wedding should be like. So, shutting out the noise and sticking to what makes you happy is very important, because it is your special day, after all.