Meeting someone special was absolutely
the last thing on both our minds when we met in August,
1996. Mutual friends had fixed us up on a blind date as
they kept saying we were "perfect" for each
other. It took almost a year of persuasion before we met
but we hit it off straight away. Within a matter of a
few weeks we knew that it was serious. We moved in together
after six months and Gary asked me to marry him 17 months
later on a hotel balcony overlooking Lake Windermere.
Gary said it was the quietest I had ever been, but I eventually
managed to squeak out a "yes"!
We both love travelling and neither of us are very religious
and so we decided to get married abroad, accompanied by
our close family.
As we wanted to make our wedding quite different and unique
to us, we also decided to go against tradition as much
as possible. Sri Lanka is renowned for its elephants and,
as we both love elephants, we thought it was quite an
exciting place to tie the knot.Our ceremony was booked
for 3.30pm on Saturday 12 February 2000 and we finalised
all the arrangements on our arrival with our fantastic
co-ordinator, Sunali, at The Triton hotel. She said we
could have whatever we wanted and was a truly brilliant
organiser.Our ceremony was booked for 3.30pm on Saturday
12 February 2000 and we finalised all the arrangements
on our arrival with our fantastic co-ordinator, Sunali,
at The Triton hotel. She said we could have whatever we
wanted and was a truly brilliant organiser.
The night before our wedding I started to feel sick and
very nervous, but Gary was happily drinking Jack Daniels
and coke and grinning stupidly! Much to everyone’s
surprise, we spent the night together and also remained
together for breakfast which we shared with Gary’s
parents and my mum, my twin sister Denise, her husband
and three close friends. It seemed like no time before
we all said our goodbyes.
 I spent the morning with mum and Denise and
we arrived at the hairdressers at 1.30pm. I was nervous
because I’d had no trial run, but it turned out that
I didn’t need one because the hairdresser was fantastic
and it only took him 25 minutes to put my hair up - tiara
and all. I was very impressed... and relieved!
Denise forced me to eat some lunch, saying that I would
faint in the heat if I didn’t eat, but it was a struggle
to have anything. Then the two mums and my sister helped
me into my dress. I was warm, but not too hot, and very
glad that I had chosen a fuller dress with no tights as
air could circulate better underneath. I also decided
not to wear a veil because of the heat and I am pleased
I didn't.
I started to feel a little better and more relaxed once
my beautiful bouquet arrived at 2.45pm, all cream and
white orchids picked fresh from the gardens with gold
sprayed onto the leaves to match with my gold and ivory
dress. At 3pm, a huge bouquet of red tropical flowers
arrived from Gary with a card, which almost made me cry.
I was in real danger of my contact lenses floating away
down my newly made-up face!
Unbenownst to me at this point, Gary was getting ready
in his parents’ room and having a major trauma because
his shirt was three sizes too big! He and his poor Dad
had to fold back the sleeves and cut holes in it for the
cufflinks, with his father stabbing himself and bleeding
all over the place in the process! In the end, Gary asked
the video man to do them up for him. Luckily, they did
a brilliant job and nobody noticed how big it really was!
Needless to say, the hire shop who had given Gary the
wrong size after FOUR fittings had a very unhappy groom
visiting them on our return. All of this excitement meant
that Gary kept me waiting for half an hour and I was getting
really worried. I thought he had either changed his mind
or fallen asleep or something!
Eventually, Sunali came to my room and said they had finished
Gary’s photos and that he was on his way down to
the venue which meant that it was now my turn to have
some photos taken on the balcony overlooking the sea.
Meanwhile, Gary and his dad followed a huge elephant,
dancers and drummers through the hotel grounds along a
white, silk carpet to the private wedding venue. He then
waited under a flower-filled arch while the procession
came back for me and he had to face away because he wasn’t
allowed to look around to see my dress! As I stood at
the top of the stairs it seemed like the whole hotel had
come to watch us walk down which was lovely. What was
even better was that the actual ceremony venue was very
private, just as we had asked for.
The stairs were decorated with fresh frangipani flowers
and I walked down with my Mum. My dad died eight years
ago, before I met Gary, so it was quite an emotional time
for me but I knew that he had made the sun shine and was
looking down on us all. We followed the elephant towards
Gary and, when I got there, he turned around and said
some lovely things to me. I nearly cried again but managed
to compose myself. He said he loved my dress but it was
a total surprise for him as he expected something quite
plain and straight. I felt like a princess as we walked
to the fabulous gold altar, which had been decorated with
flowers.
 The actual ceremony was fairly brief. The holy
man blessed the altar then we stepped up onto it and said
our vows. I tried not to look too much at Gary as I knew
I would cry, and I did stumble over my words but Gary
was brilliant with his. We exchanged rings and I got Gary’s
stuck half way up his finger as his hands had swollen
in the heat!
This produced giggles all round! We dropped seven sets
of betel leaves onto floor to represent good luck for
the next seven generations, and then gave each other coconut
milk which was warm and disgusting!
All of our guests were watching and grinning away. Gary’s
mum had some tears and when my twin sister, Denise, did
a reading for us, she started blubbing and missed out
an entire section of the poem, bless her!
Time to cut the cake, which was heart-shaped, then have
some more photos and champagne with everyone congratulating
us whilst the dancers put on an acrobatic show.
We sat on a seat surrounded by flowers and the huge elephant
was behind us munching happily away on the decorations,
which we thought was hilarious. None of our smiles were
posed, we really were laughing our heads off all day as
it was all so unreal. Getting on the elephant was an experience.
I asked where the ladder was and the elephant handler
laughed and said he would give me a leg up! Not very elegant,
but we got up there somehow, clinging on for dear life
as we went back to the hotel on this beautiful big elephant
with our guests following and a man playing a little pipe
with a Sri Lankan love song - an amazing feeling. This
really was one of the most fantastic bits to the day and
something we will never ever forget.
 After more photos on the beach we
got into a little car - a 1928 Hillman Imp which needed
winding up! It was decorated with gold and ivory balloons
and we really thought it was going to fall apart, but
off it went towards the river with tin cans trailing along
behind. Everyone else followed after us in a mini-bus
(this bit was a surprise for our guests). All the local
people were out waving, shouting congratulations and clapping!
The Sri Lankans are really lovely people and were so friendly
towards us, it was brilliant. At the river, we had a speedboat
ride of 20 minutes to a little island where we had nibbles
and drinks with a calypso band playing until the sun went
down. We sat on a big rock and opened all our cards and
it was absolutely fabulous, another favourite part for
us and all our family and friends had a truly wonderful
time. We came back zooming along the river in the dark
which was exciting, but big black clouds were forming
and we were a bit worried about it raining. When it rains
out there, it REALLY rains!
We got back to the hotel at 8pm and made it just inside
the door before the heavens opened and there was torrential
rain for about two hours - we were so lucky that it had
been such a beautiful sunny day. After freshening up,
we all met for dinner. Gary’s dad said a few words
and bought us yet more champagne, but we had no real speeches
as we didn’t want any. The hotel gave us a lovely
Indian tea caddy, a gold tray with elephants on and said
our pictures and video would be ready in two days - how’s
that for service? They also gave us the negatives, which
you can’t have in the UK due to copyright, so that
was a brilliant bonus.
 We had a honeymoon suite for the night and trundled
down to the beach at 2pm the next day with much teasing
from everyone! Two days later we left on our honeymoon
for Bangkok for some shopping, then onto Phuket, which
was absolutely beautiful.
We returned home on a Friday and had an evening reception
the next day with 140 guests. We were really lucky that
my sister and the rest of the family had re-confirmed
arrangements so everything ran smoothly. We had a disco
and a chocolate cake instead of fruit as we are both chocoholics,
and again had no speeches, much to Gary’s joy! But
a friend of his did say a few words and embarrassed us
sufficiently anyway. Afterwards, Gary whisked me off to
a hotel for the night as a surprise and there was even
more champagne waiting for us.
He really is an old romantic, but I’m not complaining!
The next day we all met for lunch at TGI Friday’s
to celebrate Gary’s 32nd birthday.
It’s all over now, but it’s great to be married
and we have some brilliant photos and videos to remember
it all by. We have no regrets about going away. It was
18 months of hard work, but every minute was worth it
a million times over.
Do Differently: We wouldn't change anything at
all apart from trying not to get so stressed. We both
thoroughly enjoyed everything!
Groom's Comments: He loved getting married abroad
and said it was the happiest day of his life and that
the wedding forum really helped us with ideas!
Comments: Thanks for your time and a brilliant
website! |
|
