The Ghanaian Traditional Wedding: A Guide for Couples at Home and Abroad

Before the White, the Traditional

In Ghana, a marriage begins as a meeting of two families. Before any aisle or register, there is the traditional wedding, which many families simply call the engagement. It is where your marriage is recognised by the people who raised you, and whether it happens in a courtyard in Accra or a banquet hall in Toronto, New Jersey or Atlanta, it carries the same weight: elders, gifts, prayer and a great deal of joy.

Every family does it a little differently. Akan, Ewe, Ga-Adangbe and other traditions each keep their own customs, and your elders will guide the details. What follows is the shape most couples will recognise, and the moments we make sure you keep.

The Knocking

It begins with a knock. The groom's family visits the bride's family, usually bearing drinks, to say plainly why they have come and to ask for her hand. Some families hold the knocking weeks before the ceremony. Many couples abroad now fold it into the same day, so that relatives who have travelled far see every part of the story.

The Spokespeople and the List

On the day, each family speaks through its spokesperson, in Akan the okyeame. It is a conversation full of proverbs, teasing and ceremony, and the room hangs on every word. The groom's family presents what the bride's family has asked for, the list: drinks, cloth, jewellery, often a Bible, gifts for her mother, father and brothers, and the bride price, which many call the dowry.

Each item is named, checked and received, sometimes with a playful argument about whether everything is truly there. It is one of the warmest hours of the whole day, and one of the easiest to rush past. We never do.

The Bride Comes Out

Then the moment everyone has been waiting for. In many families other women are brought out first, a sister, a cousin, a friend, and the groom's side must protest, to great laughter, that she is not the one. Then the bride appears. She is asked, in front of everyone, whether the drinks should be accepted, and her yes is the heart of the day.

In many families rings are exchanged, the elders pray over the two of you, and from that moment you are married in the eyes of your families.

Kente, Cloth and Colour

Kente is the signature of the day, each pattern with its own name and meaning, and many couples choose cloth woven or sewn especially for it. The groom often wears his cloth over one shoulder, the bride may change more than once, and gold, beads and a colour chosen for the day carry the look across both sides of the room.

Tell us about your changes early. Each outfit deserves its own portraits, and a few quiet minutes in good light will give you frames you will want on your walls for decades.

Then the Celebration

When the rites are done, the drums take over. Dancing, the spray, aunties leading the floor, and two families who arrived as guests leaving as one. It is loud and generous, and it is exactly how your gallery should feel.

How We Photograph It

We plan around the people as much as the programme. Before the day we ask who the key elders and spokespeople are, which relatives matter most to you, and when each change happens, so the right faces land in the right frames. Then we keep a quiet eye on the conversation between the families, because the best photographs of a traditional wedding are so often reactions: a grandmother's smile at the list, a brother pretending to be stern, your face when you hear your name.

A few things help. Leave twenty minutes for portraits between the rites and the celebration. Choose a setting with good afternoon light, or tell us early if it is indoors. And ask one person from each family to help gather relatives for the group photographs. Leave the rest to us.

Wherever You Are

We photograph weddings in Accra and Kumasi, and for families across the diaspora, from Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area to New Jersey, Virginia, Atlanta and Chicago. The customs travel with you, and so do we. If your traditional and white weddings fall on different days, or on different continents, we will hold both chapters of your story.

When you are ready, tell us about your day. Both of them.