The Wedding ...

The wedding itself was very simple and very moving. The bride looked gorgeous. The ceremony itself was partly in Dutch and partly in English. The couple had written their own vows, which I thought was quite lovely. The registrar recounted the story of how the couple met, how they got together and how the bride broke the news of their relationship to her father.

Once the formalities of the marriage were done and the couple had signed the dotted line, I made it my mission to take a photograph of the bride and groom. Not just any old photograph, but one with the lovely couple having an intimate moment – tongues and all ! I told Thush that I wanted to take such a photograph but every time I thought there was an opportunity to do this, there was always an excuse: “too many people around”; “not sure where my husband is”; “my mum might see us”. In spite of all these excuses, I persevered and I managed to get just one picture of the kissing couple, but unfortunately there were no tongues! Needless to say, I was very disappointed!

The champagne reception was pretty lavish. It was held at the groom’s mother’s house where there is a very spacious garden. And the champagne reception was just that – lots of champagne! It’s amazing how little champagne one needs to drink before the bubbles start going to one’s head – in my case, it think it was about 1.5 bottles! Wearing a penguin suit did give me the added advantage of being able to walk around with a bottle of champagne in my hand and not look too suspicious unfortunately, it had the disadvantage of people coming up to me with empty glasses and expecting them to be magically filled. I didn’t mind this too much because it gave me an excuse to go and get another bottle.

After the champagne reception was a sit down dinner at a castle. This too was rather nice and I sat at the table not really sure whether to use the cutlery or whether to take a photograph of it. Even if I did use it, which ones was I supposed to use for what? This was the first dilemma of the evening and after much debate, Udayi and I agreed that we needed to start from the outside in and that a food fight or a moonie would not be appropriate. Now that the ground rules were set, we proceeded to enjoy the food.

My second dilemma of the evening was the wine. Red or White? I decided to go with the white, which was a little bit too sweet for me. Isabel, who was sat opposite suggested I tried the red. And so I did, and it went down rather nicely although it did leave a bit of an aftertaste. I continued the evening drinking both the red and the white but I never seemed to be able to finish either of the glasses (although I did manage to spill a bit of the red wine on the table). I honestly believe that the waitress (who’s name I did ask, but I can’t remember now – I’m sure it started with an M) was trying to get me drunk. I did, at one point, ask her if this was the case, but I can’t remember what her answer was – I think it might have been a yes!.


The rest of the evening went on quite merrily. There were the usual speeches (with the father of the bride describing the moment when his daughter asked him what sex was for the first time!), more toasts, some dancing (even by Kugan who usually avoids nightclubs and dancing like the plague!), more wine (both red and white of course) and even a chorus of Santa Lucia by Uncle Lloyd. All in all, a jolly good show and it’s certainly will remain in my memory for many years to come. A special mention needs to be made of the bridegrooms mother, who did a splendid job of organising everyone and everything, especially the wedding reception.


There are a few things that I’ve learned at this wedding.

(a) Sex is only a small portion of London – there is Sussex, Middlesex and Essex as well
(b) Lipstick on your collar can be disguised as a splodge of red wine.
(c) The little Village in Belgium (where Villa Christina is) closes down completely between 12:30 and 2pm. During this time, the village turns into a ghost town.
(d) Specially flown in Hair Stylists can be very cute.
(e) There is a variety of yogurt in Holland that is sold in containers that look very similar to milk. However, using this stuff in a cup of tea doesn’t help you make any friends.
(f) Photographers at weddings are a real pain in the ass – they always get in the way of the pictures you want to take (I learned this at the last wedding I went to, where I picked a fight with the said photographer, but this lesson was confirmed here).
(g) Friends from Uni don’t change – deep down, they are still the same!