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I fell in love at Mbale School of Nursing and Midwifery football pitch
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I met her again a year later in Bududa after a church service in one of the local churches where my dad was a vicar. I immediately approached her and asked whether she was a resident or had visited a relative since it was around Christmas,
Grace Massa, an economist and system administrator at Bugisu Cooperative Union, and the love of his life Vicky, held their Kukyala, Kwanjula and church wedding, in a space of a month among each other. Grace shares how his clergy-man father encouraged him to make the challenging feat happen.
“We first met in 2015 at Mbale School of Nursing and Midwifery grounds during a football match, organized between the Nursing students and the neighboring community.” Grace says of their first encounter.
“I spotted Vicky while on the pitch and fell in love with her at first sight. Getting in contact with her felt impossible since I had no one to connect me to her, but after this moment my heart never remained the same. Memories of her stayed with me for a whole year.”
But just like any relationship written in the stars, Grace would meet Vicky again a year later,
I met her again a year later in Bududa after a church service in one of the local churches where my dad was a vicar. I immediately approached her and asked whether she was a resident or had visited a relative since it was around Christmas. I was surprised to hear her say that Bududa was her ancestral home district, my eyes could not believe that such a mouthwatering beautiful lady was from this land of the hills,” he narrates.
The two then lost contact with each other as they went to different parts of the country for further studies and employment. Grace says that the urge to get married pushed him to ask a cousin of his to help him look for Vicky’s contact, and luckily he found it. The lovebirds met again, and this time round, they did not look back.
The confidence and smile Vicky possessed, took Grace over. Her intellectual conversations, strong sense of passion, thrilling zeal for life, love of style, and her character of being a good listener made him want to share the rest of his life with her. He proposed to her at Rosewood Hotel Mbale on September 4 2022, and told his parents about his plans.
“After visiting my parents in Manafwa district with my fiancée, we shared the idea of marriage to them, my dad being a clergy man was so excited and immediately set dates for the three functions: kukyala, kwanjula and the wedding. One month after the other. We held all the ceremonies successfully,” he reveals.
“We only managed to have four wedding meetings and our committee only consisted of three people. That is the chairperson, secretary and treasurer. These were hardworking and committed people that I can say were the vital in the preparation of our wedding.”
On Saturday November 12, 2022, the couple tied the knot at St Andrews Cathedral Mbale. Grace recounts the events of the day,
“I cherish the memories of walking down the red carpet of the church and saying I do. It was a dream come true for me: a day filled with joy and excitement.”
“Being a son to a clergy — the Diocesan secretary of Mbale Diocese — the church was filled with men and women in white collars: bishops, priests and church workers. The main celebrant was the bishop of Mbale Diocese, Rt Rev Wilson Nandah.
“Our first reception preference was Mbale Court’s View Hotel, but we opted for Wash And Wills due to convenience and distance for our 500 plus guests. The venue was adorned with classy decoration filled with lilac colors,” he adds.
Despite welcoming a huge number of guests, the Massas only spent about shs 23 million for the church wedding, and still had a great function. Before the day, the bride held her last rehearsals with her team, while the groom had a Kasiki. After function, the guests were served packs of coffee since the groom was working with a coffee processing firm.
It is intriguing how they managed to organize all the three wedding functions in a space of just 3 months. Grace explains,
“We were able to raise money through my salary savings that I have gathered over time. My wife was also so supportive to an extent that her family raised over 40% of the total contributions. My dad was a strong pillar in making contributions even from his own pocket. In general ontributions from workmates, my wife side and mine played a big role.“
“We single-handly worked with all our service providers to an extent that we had earlier made part payments even before committee's approval. Me and my wife had earlier on planned the entire idea of this marriage ranging from reception, church, food, venue and entrouge. We only shared to the committee what we had agreed on. So this made their work easy. Planning was entirely headed by me and my wife indirectly.” he adds.
Grace believes that people should marry young and grow old together happily, and that respect for one another and good communication are integral to making a marriage work. Staying with someone for some time before marrying them to know their behavior and reactions is helpful. Or else you may be in for a “rude awakening the shock of your life due to the differences in ideology and stress piled up from work,” he says.
