Love Can’t Wait: How Daniel & Harriet Held Their Wedding During Lockdown!

Imagine, the DJ called us last minute to tell us that he had failed to get transport!

“I had a project at Kimaka dam where I was supervising electrical installation of houses now called Senior Army Camp Kimaka,” Harriet Praxedha Nalugya, an engineer working UETCL recalls how she met her husband Daniel Lyagoba, an architect. “Then he came to me to ask that I repair their family house electrical installation, although it was evident that the main reason was to come close to me and get to know me.”

19 years later, with four children (Natalie 17, Sean 12, Abigail 9 and Jayden 4 years) in the picture and they are still together. During lockdown, on 23rd May, they said their vows in a scientific wedding held at Namirembe Cathedral. This was a week after she had introduced to him to her parents in Jinja. (See the introduction here in case you missed it)

Read on for all the details on how they put together their wedding during lockdown.

Engagement

It was one evening as we were coming from Jinja Golf Club. He stopped in the middle of the road and proposed to me. It’s something I had not thought about. My thought was that it was too early for me to make a decision so I said no (ouch!) and told him to give it some time for me to digest the whole thing. But he wasn’t pleased and took a couple of days without talking to me.

We exchanged our vows on 23rd May 2020 at Namirembe Cathedral officiated by Bishop Luwalila. We had planned to have a standing cocktail reception at Namirembe Gardens due to the restrictions on movement.But on Thursday afternoon we were advised to change the venue to Namirembe Guest House since for better hospitality.

This meant that we had to change all the plans, from the sitting arrangement to the decor etc. We visited the hall that evening and we found it being decorated for a wedding to be held the following day. We were thus forced to work with these same decorators which in the end impacted the cost of the hall and decoration.

My favourite moments

It’s not easy to get a Bishop to bless you and make it to your wedding, especially during such tough times. Having Bishop Luwalila at my event was a big deal to me. Also the cake time, I had always wanted my guests to have enough of the cake and indeed it happened.

The Lyagobas flanked by their entourage which consisted of their four children and friends

Challenges

Transport was hard to get by for all service providers. Actually the music person/DJ let us down at the last minute; he failed to get transport to the venue so we had to engage someone at the venue who didn’t even have our music selection.

Fashion

I fell in love with my gown immediately I saw it. And so was everyone that saw in it. Daniel got me the contact for Mrs. Mulira in Makindye Kizungu zone, who luckily for me, had the gowns at home.
The changing dress was got from Kushona fashion.

Now for this one, accessing the Kushona bridal shop premises was another challenge we had to overcome.
Daniel got his suit from a shop on Entebbe road opposite Former Barclays bank.

My highlight

The cake was wow 150% perfect. It was baked by Sarah Bakery in Kazinga-Bweyogere owned by Mrs. Sarah Wepukulo. It was a fruity cake with several flavors i.e. coconut, vanilla, caramel and chocolate.

One thing that I would change if given another opportunity; the photographer/video and music person let me down at the last minute only to tell me he failed to get transport just as we were preparing to go to the reception.

Many thanks go to Timothy Mbako, Harriet Opulunyi, Michael, and lastly my Matron Juliet Nambooze for the effort they put in to make this event a success.