A Curse

Hmmm! How do I start? I got a call from a client of mine and all I heard was, “If I did anything wrong by giving you this job, may God punish me and if you spoilt our day with evil intentions, may God judge and punish you”. I couldn’t utter a word, I was dumbfounded. What did I do to deserve this. I was angry, sad and in tears.

How did I get here? I asked myself, replaying the events that led to this conversation in my mind. I jumped up only to realize that it had been a dream.

It was 5am in the morning, Saturday 16th June, 2012. In reality it was Blessing & Michael’s wedding day.

I arrived at the house of the Bride at 6:30 early in the morning. The bride was excited to see me. My job started when the make-up artist began the transformation known as the make-over. Before, during and after make-over pictures were taken. It was a very interesting time, I automatically became an apprentice as I watched the make-over session. 🙂

The church wedding took place at St Cyprian Catholic Church, Agege. The service reminded me of my secondary school days at Our Lady of Apostles, Yaba. 🙂 The service was an interesting one, I had the privilege of sitting through the sermon as requested by the Priest.

After the church service, everyone gathered in front of the church for the group pictures. At that time, the MC was already at the venue of the reception, left with no choice, I took up the responsibility of calling out the order of photographs. You can only imagine what it sounded like, with my tiny soprano voice screaming “Bride’s family, groom’s family, couples friends” etc. I should have charged extra as this wasn’t part of the bargain 🙂

After the group photo session, It was time for the Couples’ Photo Session. We moved to another angle of the church. During the photo session, I asked the groom to carry his bride, he smiled & said he wasn’t sure he could carry her. He tried to carry her but he could hardly lift her off the ground.

I got a nice shot as they both laughed heartily at the groom’s inability to carry his bride. 🙂

The reception took off on an igbotic note. 😉 The MC spoke majorly in Igbo language, I had to use my discretion to interprete his jokes. There was a lot to eat, lots of tasty Igbo dishes and drinks in surplus. I was too busy to even taste anything I could only feed my eyes.

Dance! dance!! dance!!! Lots of money flying around. A ghana-must-go bag had been reserved for safe keeping of the cash. The money bag was filled with different currencies, naira, dollar, euro etc. I wish I had charged the couple more than I did 😉

14 days later, it was time to deliver the photobook & other deliverables, unfortunately I had to send through proxy as I had another event photography. I really did not like the idea because I’d love to see expression on my client’s face when I deliver, the satisfaction on their face gives me joy. While waiting for the verdict, I called my assistant countless times all to no avail. About an hour after the job was delivered I got a call from the groom, he was excited at the outcome of the photobook, it was beyond his expectation. He made calls to his friends who are getting married in September and November, he told them he had a photographer for their wedding.

To say I was glad is an understatement. 😉 Finally my assistant returns with the balance and a bottle of champagne in appreciation for a job well done. I think I should do this more often, What do u think?