Funmi & Tunde

Funmi and Tunde's wedding had been planned for three years. Three years of family meetings, of fabric sourcing, of negotiation over the guest list that started at 400 and ended, somehow, at over a thousand. Lagos weddings have a momentum of their own: once the word goes out, people arrive. You do not tell Lagos how many people will come to your celebration; Lagos tells you.

The aso-ebi for the wedding, the coordinated fabric worn by guests to signal their relationship to the couple, came in four colours: coral for Funmi's immediate family, gold for Tunde's, deep green for close friends of the couple, and a fourth colour (navy blue) for the elders of both families, who wore it as a mark of their seniority and their blessing. The room, when it was full, looked like a painting.

The talking drum ensemble played for six continuous hours. The lead drummer, a specialist from Ibadan who has been playing at Lagos weddings for thirty years, improvised praise songs in Yoruba for each family as they entered the reception. He knew the family names, the family histories, and the family rivalries; he used all three with the precision of a man who understands that at a Yoruba wedding, the drum is not background music. It is the event itself.