Notes From the Jetty: Planning Feruz & Joses' Wedding in Dar es Salaam

A jetty on the Indian Ocean. Three cultures in one ceremony. Roughly 13,000 kilometres between our Vancouver desk and the venue.

Feruz & Joses’ Tanzania destination wedding

photo: CP studios, TZ

Feruz and Joses married on a beautiful, sunny August (when is it never sunny on the African continent?!) day, at the Ramada Resort in Dar es Salaam, with the reception on the Giraffe Beach Hotel's jetty. Joses is Ugandan-Canadian. Feruz is Eritrean-Canadian. Their ceremony was a mix of Anglican Church liturgy and traditional symbolism of prayers from elders. The cake was a two-tier Ugandan cinnamon creation, with hand-painted florals for a nod to the couple’s whimsical and playful side. The menu picked up local and East African dishes along the way. The music travelled in from Uganda with their DJ.

See more photo highlights from their special day here.

We started planning the September before. The wedding happened almost a year later to the day. Here's what destination weddings actually ask of you — the parts Pinterest skips.

Your vendor team lives on three continents

We booked Clemence Photography in Dar, a Ugandan DJ, a Tanzanian event designer for florals and décor, and a local hair and makeup artist. The MC flew in too from Vancouver, Canada. Good destination planning means accepting your dream team may be scattered. Build your timeline around that from day one, not week 30.

WhatsApp runs the show

Email does not work for Tanzanian vendors the way it works in Vancouver or other parts of North America. We ran several WhatsApp groups — one for the planner and the couple, one for vendors, one for the key day-of team, one for the wedding party (sans the couple), and a couple others — and voice notes became the default. If you're planning abroad, build communication around what vendors actually use. Fighting it costs you weeks and can lead to mis-communication which you do not want.

The climate rewrites the timeline

Dar in August is hot. We pushed the ceremony later in the day, moved cocktail hour to 5:15pm on the beach, and put dinner on the jetty at 6pm. The party stretched past midnight because guests did not want to stop the party. Your timeline should match the weather, not a mood board.

Pad your arrival window

Feruz and Joses flew in ten days early. That was not a vacation. It was food tastings, florist meetings, a family dinner, and a rehearsal the day before. For destination couples, the honeymoon is not your arrival window. Give yourself at least a few days to a week on the ground, if you can, before guests land.

Multicultural menus take real conversation

Serving Ugandan cinnamon cake alongside East African dishes meant extra back-and-forth with the hotel and a local restaurant partnership to source the right spices and preparations. Start those conversations three to four months out, not three weeks.

The takeaway

Destination weddings are not small weddings done somewhere prettier. They come with their own time zones, comms tools, weather rules, and menu politics. Would we plan this one again? Without hesitation. Especially for the jetty at sunset.

If you're planning a destination wedding that weaves together more than one heritage, we would love to hear from you.

F&J destination wedding - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania