The Wedding

Sri Lanka

December 2006
4 days

The Wedding at the River House
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A few kilometers south of bentota is the luxury boutique hotel 'The River House'. We arrived around midday and were immediatly impressed by the luxury setting of the hotel within its own 7acres of gardens. Once shown our suite, our home for the next 4 days, the word 'Wow' was used alot by both of us - we have a 4 poster bed, a massive balcony with sitting room and our own plunge pool - fantastic views of a river (hence the name) and everything we want for our wedding. The River house only has 5 rooms, and we have the best, it is also considered one of the most luxurious places to stay in Sri Lanka, lorraine and i did our homework. Anyway enough bragging.

We spend our first night getting used to the surroundings and although the food is probably not as nice as the Wunderbah, it is still very good (i had fish and chips!).

The Wedding day, 7th December 2006, this is all stuff from my point of view by the way.

We wake to a beautiful sunny day, the first really nice weather so far. I need to do a bit of faffing in town before the wedding and when i get back around midday mum, dad, conrad and amy have already arrived - i am gutted as i dont get to witness their 'wows' when they arrive. Anyway, kick-off (well the wedding) is planned to start at 3:30pm, the weather is looking ok - and the hotel staff have everything in hand, so we can all relax - well the girls sort out lorraines bouquet and start planning hair and makeup and wot not, me, i spend the time sorting out some food for everyone and i try not to crack open the beers to early.

At around 2:30 lorraine is well into the getting ready stuff, with my mum and amy assisting with hair and other stuff - i try not to look as i want it all to be a surprise, me and my dad and conrad sit around chatting before deciding to go downstairs and leave the girls to it. I meet the photographer and for some reason that is the point where my nerves go all weird, so i get a few beers and we wait for kick-off.

Pretty much on time the conch player and drummer turn up and they walk me, conrad and dad over to the wedding site that lorraine and i chose the previous day - by the river at the boat dock under a bit of shelter (good stuff as while i am walking out, the rain decides to come!) - so anyway, we're walking out, the drummer is doing his thing and the conch player dude is blowing into the shell - they were making a great noise and i really enjoyed this bit.

When i arrived at the dock, me conrad and dad took shelter and the drummer and conch (its a sea shell by the way) dude went back to collect lorraine, mum and amy and they too did the walk. By this point i still hadnt seen lorraine and along the way she was mostyl obscured by the drummer dude, so it was only when she arrived at the dock did i see my bride for the first time....and WOW, lorraine looked incrediblely beautiful, the dress was fantastic and her hair was great - i think when you look at the photos you will notice i am grinning like a cheshire cat throughout the ceremony.

Anyway, so lorraine is looking fantastic and then the monk dude gets us into position and then does this blessing thing, it takes a while as he produces frankly bizarre noises while he chants - but i have to say it makes it very interesting for us and cultural, he directs us into doing various things which we have no idea what we are doing, such as passing each other leaves and dropping them or giving each other some water - but its nice anyway and feels pretty cultural - there is a bit more chanting and then the virgins (i take their word on this) start singing for us, then we head over to light an oil lamp which is disasterous (well it took ages) as there was some wind and it took several attempts to light all the wicks.

Once this is done, finally, we head over to the registra. At this point we are both expected to say stuff, &Quot;i call upon all here present...&Quot; etc. which we do well, (i only get lorraines middle name wrong), then we sign lots of things and say more stuff and this is all the legality stuff with getting married - it was quite full on but also nice to do things properly. Once this is all sorted we cut the cake (which due to a misunderstanding the virgins eat rather than our guests - it was lovely as well - we get reimbersed with free deserts in the evening). Then we posed for photos and stuff and then headed back to the hotel's main building where more pics were taken. Then we headed up to the room after more pics and some other legalities.

Wow, so lorraine and i are now man and wife!

We get up to the room and have some champers (there is a hilarious picture of me openeing the champange and as the cork goes flying lorraine has a 'doh!' moment) and i make up a speech on the spot to be followed by my dad saying some incredibly moving words and welcoming lorraine into our family, tears were close. Lorraine did the bouquet throwing thing, alhtough amy was the only single woman there so it was a bit token, but still traditional so that was nice. We all drank some more and had a great time, but sadly everyone needed to leave early ish as they all had an early start the next day (5am!) for a trip.

We stayed on at the river house for a few more days of ridiculous luxury and peace and quiet, all stuff needed for a few days after the wedding.

And well, thats about all for now.

I am a married man, we have rings and everything!

Gav