Q&A: Planning Our Wedding While Living in the UK – Zim Edition 🇬🇧💍🇿🇼

Wishlist

Q&A: Planning Our Wedding While Living in the UK – Zim Edition 🇬🇧💍🇿🇼

Real Wedding Story – Amanda & Rufaro Nyathi

💌 BACKSTORY

Amanda and Rufaro Nyathi are both Zimbabwean-born but based in Birmingham, UK. Like many diaspora couples, they dreamed of returning home to tie the knot—surrounded by family, tradition, and the familiar chaos that only a Zimbabwean December can bring.

Spoiler alert: they made it happen—but not without the usual panic moments, surprise costs, and plenty of emotional phone calls at 3am.

We sat down with them to unpack the truth behind planning a Zimbabwean wedding while living abroad.

Q: Let’s start from the top. How did you even begin planning from overseas?

Amanda:
"We got engaged in early 2023 and decided that December 2024 was the goal. First step? Panic. Second step? Google. We found Plan My Wedding Africa, downloaded the app, and just started researching."

Rufaro:
"We had no venue, no planner, and no idea how pricing works in Zimbabwe anymore. The first few weeks were just about understanding what’s realistic."

Q: What was your biggest worry about planning from abroad?

Amanda:
“Trust. I was afraid of being scammed, especially with payments. And just… not knowing if what I was seeing online was actually what I’d get.”

Rufaro:
“Also control. I’m a spreadsheet guy, and I like structure. But in Zim? Things don’t always work like that. You book someone, then ZESA hits, or fuel disappears.”

Q: How did you choose your wedding planner?

Amanda:
“We used the PMW Concierge service. I didn’t want to rely only on family—everyone’s busy during December. And having someone professional on the ground who speaks the language, understands the culture AND knows how to communicate with diaspora couples? Life-saving.”

Q: Any challenges with venue hunting?

Rufaro:
“We originally wanted a waterfall view wedding at Vic Falls. But logistically it was too much—expensive, travel-heavy for older relatives, and limited availability.”

Amanda:
“We switched to Harare and eventually fell in love with Highlands Estate—modern, central, with a garden setup for our church ceremony. The planner did live walk-through videos with us.”

Q: Let’s talk family. How involved were your families back home?

Amanda:
“My family was super involved—but also opinionated! My mum wanted a 300-person wedding, I wanted 80. We compromised at 150. There were also uncles who had opinions about seating charts, roora gifts, and even my second dress.”

Rufaro:
“Having a planner as the ‘middle person’ really helped. It stopped small fights from becoming big ones. And our cousin Chido was our go-to for things like food tastings and seeing supplier mockups.”

Q: Did you have any moments where you thought… this isn’t going to work?

Amanda:
“Absolutely. Two weeks before the wedding, the DJ we booked ghosted us. But the planner replaced him within 24 hours. Another time, the florist’s payment platform wouldn’t work with UK cards—and I literally had a meltdown at work.”

Rufaro:
“There were days where we felt like giving up and eloping. But every time we saw a new vision board update or a message from our families excited for the day—it kept us going.”