A Couple Got Married for $1, Showing Just How Little You Need to Celebrate True Love

Sabrina Rojas Weiss
The couple skipped the dress and the tux.
The couple skipped the dress and the tux. (Photo: Getty Images)

The definition of low-budget wedding planning is pretty broad in this era of lavish oligarch blowouts. Does it mean trimming the guest list from 500 to 200? Opting for a DJ instead of Mariah Carey? Ann Wambui and Wilson Mutura of Nairobi, Kenya, just set a new bar for a micro-budget wedding: 100 Kenyan shillings, or $1.

The couple, who operate a fruit stand together, wore red T-shirts and huge smiles as their pastor, Jasper Ojwach, conducted the ceremony after his Sunday sermon on January 22. According to the BBC, they moved the wedding back twice in 2016 because they had failed to raise enough money for a marriage certificate (the equivalent of $300). In the end, their church, the Community Christian Worship Centre, covered that cost, so their only expense was the rings, which Mutura reportedly ran out to buy in the middle of the wedding.

“It wasn’t supposed to be so simple as it turned out,” Ojwach told Kenya’s eDaily. “It was supposed to involve presence of few things such as the cake, bridesmaids, etc. The guy did whatever he could and asked me to officiate their wedding because they had already gotten the blessings of their parents.”

It was thanks to the pastor’s Facebook photos of the couple that their wedding went viral.

May the Lord Almighty bless your marriage #Ann & Wilson Mutura. I hereby present to you Mr. & Mrs. Wilson Mutura Wanjohi!………

Posted by Prince Jasper Ojwach on Monday, January 23, 2017

They’ve since become a shining example to the Internet of just how little you need to celebrate true love.

Some of the commentary has been a little less romantic:

By last Wednesday, the couple earned the attention of Kenyan safari company Bonfire Adventures, which offered them an all-expenses paid five-day honeymoon at a four-star hotel in Mombasa.

Maybe $1 seems a little extreme. Perhaps a goal of $2 might be easier? That’s how much Scottish couple Georgina Porteous and Sid Innes spent on their 2013 wedding. They relied on Freecycle donations, a potluck BYOB dinner, and the officiating services of Porteous’s mother. If you can stretch your budget just a little further, you can always turn to the example of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, whose courthouse wedding cost $142. (Their honeymoon safari, however, was probably not free.)

Related: The Women’s March Paused and Cheered for a Chicago Couple’s Wedding Pics

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