Love Life is a Zikoko weekly series about love, relationships, situationships, entanglements and everything in between.
Olisa (29) and Sandra (27) started dating, got engaged and married within a year after meeting on Twitter. They tell us about how it happened, the stress of planning a wedding and their first pregnancy.
How do you meet someone on Twitter?
Sandra: Early 2021, I saw a tweet about how Taurus women are always lucky with men. I was very single at the time, and all the men who’d reached out to me were hellbent on hi-ing me to death. I replied to the tweet with “I beg to differ.”
Olisa: I saw that comment. It was funny and made me think she had a good sense of humour, so I replied.
Before I did, I went through her profile and saw her pictures. She was stunning, had such a gorgeous smile and looked approachable. I tried to get her attention by liking all her pictures.
Smooth
Sandra: Seeing all the notifications made me curious about who was behind the account. I went through his media, and that’s when I tweeted, “You, liking all of my pictures, this is me telling you you’re cute AF”. He liked that tweet and sent me a DM. I was eventually going to text him, but he beat me to it.
Olisa: If I’d liked all her pictures and she hadn’t noticed me, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to text her.
I think I’m using my Twitter wrong
Olisa: I wanted to see her in person as soon as possible, but I couldn’t at first.
Sandra: We were both very busy with work. Extremely tight schedules and booked weekends. That’s why when we met a week after we started talking, it was during my lunch break. It was a 30-minute break, but it was lovely.
Olisa: I saw her smile, and I knew I was a goner. There was no hope for me.
Sandra: During the date, my mum called and he spoke to her.
Olisa: I told her mum I was going to marry her. The next day, I asked her to be my girlfriend.
In a week?
Olisa: There’s something about her. I was so sure from the first picture I saw of her. I didn’t want to waste any time before someone else who saw what I saw would carry her away.
Sandra: When he mentioned marriage to my mother and me, I thought he was just spinning my head. You know how all these Lagos boys do?
Olisa: I wasn’t lying sha.
Sandra: It was just that initial fear that you would break my heart.
Olisa: I’d never.
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God when. What was dating like?
Olisa: It was great. The problem was we were both extremely busy people. Between traffic, meetings and stress, seeing each other could’ve been labelled impossible, but we made sure we had dates every weekend, no matter what.
Sandra: It could be watching a movie or going out, but we must spend the weekend together. Throughout the five months we dated, he only missed two weekends because we weren’t in the same country.
Olisa: I’d just proposed, then I needed to be in America for two weeks.
Sandra: Imagine proposing and leaving your fiancée for two whole weeks. I thought he wouldn’t return.
Olisa: LOL
Tell me about the proposal
Olisa: I knew I wanted to marry her very early on. She’s kind and I knew she would make a fantastic mum. If she loves the child just half as much as she loves me, it’s enough.
When I proposed to her, it was on a Sunday after we got back from church. While on the bed, I told her to close her eyes and kiss me. Instead of kissing her, I put the ring on her lips. When she realised it was a ring, she said yes.
Sandra: He’s kind, communicates efficiently, is a good listener and even though the world is challenging and tiring, he makes me happy. Saying yes was a no-brainer.
Tell me about planning the wedding. How did that go?
Sandra: The engagement lasted five months because we kept trying to ensure everything went according to plan. The wedding was in Port Harcourt, where I grew up. I was in charge of everything because he didn’t know the location.
Olisa: The stress of the wedding was getting to her, but I tried my best to organise people, make payments on time and schedule movement. Everything from booking flights to dealing with the event centre manager caused us a great deal of stress, and we never want to go through that again.
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That must’ve cost a lot too.
Olisa: Can’t give an actual figure, but yes, it did.
Sandra: I didn’t want people travelling up and down for the wedding. I felt it wouldn’t be safe. So we decided our white and traditional weddings would be on the same day. A white wedding in the morning and the traditional wedding as the reception.
Olisa: We had to pay for the accommodation and transportation of our bridal party and family members.
Sandra: Food, drinks, clothes, photographs, omo. It was a lot.
But it looked like you had fun
Sandra: We did. Now that that’s over, we’re looking forward to starting our family. I want to start my family traditions like taking Christmas pictures by our tree, going on vacations, etc.
Olisa: I’m so excited because I’ve always wanted to start a family. Knowing it’s happening with her makes it so much better.
Sandra: I want to have my two children before I turned 30. I’m about to pop now. So, one down, one more to go.
How’s pregnancy treating you?
Sandra: Great, except for the weird cravings and evening sickness. During my second trimester, I was in a constant state of craving eba. It could be with any soup. I just had to eat eba.
Olisa: I try to do my best, but I’m not the one carrying the baby. We had to adjust our outing schedule because she’s not as energetic as she used to be, but I know it’ll pass.
Sandra: There’s no easy part, but knowing I’m creating a human is a fantastic feeling. I’m currently on maternity leave, and it’s so dull. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy to keep me busy.
Rate your love life on a scale of 1-10
Sandra: 10. This relationship is everything I’ve always wanted.
Olisa: 10
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