Amany ties the knot. . . marries long-time girlfriend

Trish Mukwazo, [email protected]

IN a world that often reduces celebrity relationships to tabloid fodder, Bulawayo-based singer and songwriter Amany has offered a refreshing counter-narrative. The 34-year-old musician, whose real name is Yemurai Nyoni, recently exchanged vows with his long-time girlfriend, Patience Zhou, in an intimate and elegant ceremony.

Amany’s love story began four years ago on a seemingly ordinary day. While filming a music video, he crossed paths with Patience, a captivating model pursuing her own career. Their initial encounter sparked a connection that blossomed into a beautiful romance.

“We decided to work together from then on. We became friends after a while and, as they say, the rest is history,” said Amany.

Amany told Saturday Chronicle that after realising what he needed was closer than he thought, he decided to put a ring on it.

“Before we started dating, I had gone through a series of difficult relationships that had damaged my faith in love and my commitment to marriage. I took some time out to rethink, pray, and figure myself out. I figured out what I wanted for myself and from a relationship that leads to marriage. I realised that the woman I needed was closer than I thought.

“Patience and I were friends at that point and had had many conversations on life, love, and faith. She represented many attributes I desired in a life partner, but I hadn’t thought of her in that way before.

After my relationship break, I asked her out and she said ‘yes.’ We both knew we were dating for marriage (courtship) and took the time in our relationship journey to learn each other through life’s ups and downs,” he said.

Amany said after a year of dating, he knew he was just delaying the inevitable.

“I knew she was the one for me. I then asked her to marry me and she said ‘yes,’” said Amany.

As the couple embarked on planning for their special day, they had a clear vision in mind — to provide most of the wedding’s services by themselves and use the opportunity to buy equipment, chairs, and so forth to start hiring out after the event.

“We weren’t keen to give a lot of our money away to other people; we wanted to invest it in our future instead. Sadly, we weren’t able to meet our original goal due to budget limitations. We did get to provide some of the services ourselves in the end, but not as much as we hoped,” he said.

As the big day approached, the couple faced the usual stresses that come with planning for a big event, but everything sailed smoothly in the end.

“The wedding preparations, like anything big, had their own challenges and stresses, but seeing the day unfold the way it did just makes one forget any challenges and just appreciate God for the blessing of love. The service providers we ended up working with gave stellar service and helped make the day a memorable success,” said Amany.

With the desire to have something intimate yet elegant, the couple chose Lavinia Gardens as the venue.

“We chose Lavinia Gardens because it has a beautiful garden that suited exactly what we were looking for. We wanted a natural look, a place that wasn’t overused and would give us fresh visuals for photography and videography. We also wanted a venue that didn’t overcharge or try and force us to do things their way. The Lavinia Gardens team was flexible and helped us pull off all that we envisioned for our day,” he said.

The wedding décor was a testament to the couple’s love for nature, with earthy tones of beige, brown, and burnt orange dominating the scene.

“Our event was only with close family and friends; it was grounded in close connection — the colours spoke to this grounding.”

Did they have a bridal team?

“Yes, we had a mini bridal team with children from both families and just the best man and best girl,” said Amany.

Amany recounted his favourite part of the wedding as having close family and friends come and pray for their union after they exchanged rings.

“I enjoyed knowing that our families were covering us in prayer and standing with us to help strengthen our bond together,” he said.

The most touching moment, he said, was when he saw his wife preparing to walk down the aisle.

“At that moment, I realised that in all the organising and stressing over finances, I had almost missed the significant value of why we were doing all of this.

“All the emotions rushed in and I became fully present in the moment,” said Amany.

Amany said he received the most touching speech from the best man, who he considered his best friend, who gave an unexpected and heartfelt speech.

Amany ties the knot

“We’ve known each other for almost 20 years now, but I’d never known about the amount of respect he has for me and the impact I’d had on his life. I felt humbled and obligated to do more to add value to the lives of those around me,” said Amany.

To add icing on the cake, the menu featured a two-course meal. The main course included vegetable rice, stuffed potato balls, roasted chicken, beef stroganoff, carrot and raisin salad, beetroot pineapple salad, and butternut. Dessert was custard and ice cream for the guest list, which comprised 45 people.

“It (the guest list) had some of our friends also come through as service providers for the sound, videography, and entertainment on the day,” Amany shared.

With the desire to get top-notch pictures that would make the wedding memorable, the couple hired Doc Miles for the photography, and Amany Pictures for the videography, which was done by Cyril and Larynx. The wedding’s MC was Wisdom the Wise Planner, who is the couple’s close family friend and has known them from before they started dating.

Entertaining the guests was Shekinah, the Nama award-winning maestro. Shekinah entertained the guests by playing guitar and singing covers of love songs, which were the couple’s favourites, with Larynx also in attendance as the DJ.

Despite being a people person, Amany opted for an intimate setup for the wedding.

“Last year, we decided as a couple to exchange vows and rings while surrounded by the people we felt were closest to us. We wanted to be with close family first and just a few friends. We felt we wanted a wedding focused more on prayer and faith than on celebration and publicity.

“We wanted the moment to be private, but the memory to be public. We refused any gifts to be given and had very few children invited,” said Amany.

“God-willing, we hope to hold a follow-up celebration event later in the year where we will invite broader family members, friends, and colleagues to celebrate our union,” he added.

Patience told the Saturday Chronicle that she and Amany met on business grounds and it was a year later that they took it to another level.

She said being an artiste does place someone in the limelight, making them a target for temptations, but whether or not the person gives in comes down to personal character and integrity.

“I am in the social media space as well. I intend to get back to acting once I am done with school,” she said.

“Amany sings most of his love songs primarily to me and here and there he adds bits and pieces about our love story.”

Patience is a God-fearing woman and Amany is a God-fearing man as well, and that was the foundation of their relationship and the very thing that brought the two together for love.

“We look forward to a bright future and to making an influence on the younger generation that love exists, and love that is Christ-centred thrives,” she said.