Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Nigerian fashionista, Swanky Jerry is the designer who designed and styled Porsha Williams’ husband, Simon Guobadia, for their traditional wedding ceremony.
On Friday, the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum, 41, and the Nigerian-born businessman, 57, wed in a Nigerian traditional native law and custom ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta in front of 250 guests. The couple will tie the knot again in an American ceremony on Saturday.
“I am ridiculously excited,” Williams told PEOPLE ahead of the nuptials. “I am just so ready. I’m not even nervous. I mean, I know I’m marrying the love of my life, and it’s just going to solidify our relationship and our family bond. I’m calm and excited.”
Guobadia, meanwhile, said he’s a “little nervous” — but not for the reason one may think.
“When you say you’re a little nervous, and you’re about to walk down the aisle, people are thinking, ‘Uh-oh,'” he said. “But my nervousness comes from the family members and friends who I haven’t seen in a long time coming into Atlanta!”
The only thing Williams said she’s “anxious” about when it comes to their wedding is the seven wardrobe changes she’ll be making over the course of the two days.
“It’s going to be a true fashion extravaganza,” she said with a laugh. “I just couldn’t turn any dresses down! If a wedding dress came my way, and I loved it, I got it.”
On the day of the Nigerian wedding, Williams had three outfit changes. For the ceremony, she wore a red gown by designer Lakimmy customary for an Edo bride (Guobadia is from Benin City in the Edo State of Nigeria). She also wore an okuku, a headpiece with Benin coral beads.
Later, she changed into two gowns by the designer Tabik: one in royal blue and one in gold.
Guests were also asked to follow suit by wearing traditional or formal Nigerian-inspired attire in the colors of the day: purple and teal.
Typically, Nigerian Yoruba and Edo cultural attire for women includes iro and buba, a vibrant skirt and top that is usually heavily beaded. Women often accessorize with a gele (an ornate head wrap) and by carrying a fan. Men, meanwhile, wear an agbada, an oversized kaftan designed from guinea or lace, and a hat made of asoke fabric.
Following tradition, the couple provided the cultural fabric to make their family members’ clothing for the day. With the fabric, each family member could choose how they wanted to design it.
“It was a huge undertaking,” Williams said. “I personally chose the fabrics that they’re going to be wearing, including their head wrap, their gele. I chose all of the colors, everything. I should be a stylist after this!”
“It’s going to be interesting to see people’s take on the fabric,” she added. “It’s going to be a beautiful expression of fashion, love and family.”
Throughout the native law and custom ceremony, which was led by a spokesperson from each side of the couple’s family, traditional Benin singers and dancers performed. Then, at the reception, Williams said she wanted her guests to feel like they were in Nigeria.
For the reception, Porsha told the publication she wanted guests to “feel like they have taken a flight and landed in Benin.”
“The whole room should be transformed with beautiful colors of browns and rose golds and tans and creams. It should be really, really beautiful and give you that authentic African feel,” she shared, later adding, “The other thing I wanted was trees in the room. I want it to feel like an inside/outside space, but luxurious.”
The wedding is the first of three ceremonies the couple has planned to celebrate their love, and Porsha told the publication she plans to make their wedding weekend a “true fashion extravaganza” with seven outfit changes.
Porsha had previously hinted that she wanted to have a big wedding. “I am marrying an amazing Nigerian man, honey. It is not going to be intimate,” she told Bravo in April. “It is going to be huge probably. It’s gonna be big, but I want it to have an intimate feel.”
Simon was previously married to Porsha’s former co-star Falynn Guobadia. The former couple wed in June 2019 and split in April 2021—the same month Porsha and Simon started dating.
Soon after, the Porsha’s Family Matters star set the record straight on the timing of her relationship.
“For all of you that need facts,” she said in a statement in May 2021. “I get the optics but Simon filed for divorce from a previous marriage in January. I had nothing to do with their divorce filing. That’s between the two of them”
Porsha continued, “Falynn and I are not friends, and Simon’s divorce has been settled. Our relationship is a positive, loving step forward in everybody’s lives.”
And Falynn had something to say about her ex-husband’s new relationship. “At this time, I am focusing on finalizing my divorce and healing,” Falynn said in an exclusive statement to E! News. “Sending positivity to all of you.”
Simon proposed to Porsha a month later with a massive emerald-cut ring—and he has the approval of her ex-fiancé Dennis McKinley and father of her daughter Pilar, 2.
In fact, Porsha spent Mother’s Day 2021 with her ex and her now-husband.
“Simon and Dennis are committed to being respectful and supportive of my happiness in this situation, as well as being the best co-parents they can be to baby PJ,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “Two Black men stepping up and being amazing people-let’s praise them!!!! It’s truly a beautiful moment in my life & we cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together.”
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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