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Metro FM talk show host Criselda Kananda and her businessman fiancé Siyolo Dudumashe will say “I do” – but you’ll need to be a VVIP to witness them wed.
The pair is getting hitched in the presence of only a few hundred guests, which include family and A-list celebs only. Among those who will be attending are businesswoman Basetsana Kumalo, former talk show host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu, record company executive Lindelani Mkhize, Ukhozi FM’s Dudu Khoza and axed Generations actress Winnie Ntshaba.
The wedding reception will take place at the luxury Summer Place wedding and conference venue in Hyde Park, Johannesburg.
Kananda and Dudumashe spoke to City Press this week about their wedding. A relaxed Kananda appears to be far from the stereotypical bridezilla, but she admits to some problems with the guest list.
“It’s been a nightmare! I had to cut down the guest list from 400 to at least 250 guests,” she said.
Kananda said so far everything was going according to plan and she had no reason to stress or panic.
“This is going to be a very intimate wedding and I can’t wait to share this day with my loved ones,” she said.
But unlike other brides, Kananda has help in the form of Sophie Ndaba, ace wedding planner and axed Generations star.
Ndaba, who says she is honoured to be planning her colleague and friend’s nuptials, revealed that she had two chairs custom made for the bride and groom.
“Pearl and diamond are going to be the colours for her big day,” Ndaba said, adding that she chose these for the décor because Kananda was a “woman of class”.
Ndaba said that on arrival at the reception, guests would receive welcome cocktails, accompanied by a variety of canapés for starters.
The main course of the five-course dinner is plated lamb and chicken roulade. For dessert, guests will be served a buffet of miniature desserts, and chocolate and vanilla red velvet wedding cake.
There is one detail that Kananda is not on top of – her wedding dress, which she has yet to see completed.
Designer Fred Eboka is in charge of the creation that he says is “very African”. Eboka declined to comment on the specifics, but said the style of the dress was “very elegant and opulent”.
“It’s an expensive, fabulous dress that will express the beauty and elegance of Criselda,” he said
Dudumashe will be wearing a suit by designer Paledi Segapo.
Segapo, who was preparing for the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Ghana, said: “We are going for a classic cut and we are keeping the look very minimalistic.
“The suit is going to be a three-piece tailor-made suit – think of a tuxedo-lapel look,” he said, noting that it would be made of wool suit fabric matched with a shirt in Egyptian cotton.
Kananda and Dudumashe met five years ago.
“When I met him [Dudumashe] for the first time at the Mandela lecture, I thought he was just a fan,” she said, but it was love at first sight. They dated for just three months before he went down, not on one, but both knees, and proposed.
Kananda described her engagement as poetic and romantic, while Dudumashe added: “We are at a stage where we both know what we want. And I am not here to play.”
The couple had their traditional wedding ceremony earlier this year.
