The 1st sunflower-avis wedding was a very sober qui
et affair in August last year, necessary to make the union legal in la malaysie. The 2nd wedding was a traditional, ethnic wedding with a modern twist to seal the union for the avis famile . The 3rd wedding, for the purpose of acquiring the Zim/civil papers, was twee and quaint - set in the blossoming garden of sunflower's family home and attended by the bride, the groom, the magistrate, the groom's mother, azuredec (matron of honour), bestman and 20 other people who had known sunflowerman since he was naught. The fourth wedding - the exchange of vow ceremony and party thereafter was simply
ours.
It wasnt easy to organise a 'location' wedding. All plans were carried out remotely, thousand of miles away from the venue - Vic Falls. Lucky, Sunflower Man's best mate runs an adventure outfit out there together with his brother and wife (all very lovely people!) Luckier still is that they have a wedding organiser in their band of merrymen+women.
So anyway, lots of skye-ping and hundreds of emails later, we managed to sort us out a wedding just the way we wanted and get to party for 4 full days with 51 of our friends and famile that made the journey across to vic falls. woohoo.
xxx
For the evening before the wedding, we organised a meet and greet ice breaking session on a sundown boat cruise (aka booze cruise) where the just arrivals saw their first hippo yawning. dinner afterwards in mama africa with the african jazz band in attendance. by late evening everyone had bonded nicely. huzzah.
xxx
On the day: I waved sunflower man goodbye from the suite we were in (our friends had kindly arranged for an upgrade) and got ready for the event (scheduled to begin at 4pm) with my best women in attendance - Azuredec and KHA. We giggled, ate and drank bubbles, got dressed, toasted to and remembered the gurlies who werent able to make it, sniff (thats you best bud, Sof and SL!)
At 3pm it started pouring rhinos and eles. My spirits were dampened, never mind that in Afrique, its good luck to have rain on your wedding day! The 'pick up' for guests had to be postponed till the rain abated and so they all sat at BB ( Buffalo Bar), mingling and imbibing. At 4pm the clouds shifted, my spirits were revived (both methaphoric and literally) and we were ready to go!
The guests were taken to the water edge (to their suprise) and given a safety talk on being on the river. 5 minutes later, they traipsed through the muddy riverbanks to hop on the rafts, in their finery, heading for the island where the ceremony would take place. Noone complained about getting their shoes and outfits soiled - the hour spent at BB turned out to be the best (!) as by then everyone was chilled and in serious mood for fun.
Azures, KHA and I set off once everyone were there. Accompanied by the Warriors with painted faces and Drums.
Boom cheke boom
boom chekeboom
Boom che ke che ke boom. All the way to the island.
Once there, I was hoisted and carried by the Main Warrior onto dryland (where Azle Rose stood waiting to give me away), whilst Azuredec, KHA and all of Sunflowerman's godchildren walked behind us. A crowd had gathered and then suddenly a beautiful tune wafted from the tree tops - the African Vernacular Love Song sung by the Amazing Amazulus.
Azle walked me up the aisle where Sunflowerman and his grooms were waiting. Ma Sunflower did a reading on love. Vows were exchanged and then rings.
The setting where the exchange took place.
Hundreds of pictures later (with the Amazulus still singing), we hopped back on the raft and drifted back to mainland for dinner.
This time it was Sunflowerman who carried me back onto the raft. African Warrior that he is ; )
We were deposited at the end of the bush and as we walked further into it we saw a path lined with candlelights leading to a bushcamp. Dinner was by bushlamps and was delish. So were the speeches!
KHA gave a fiery talk on how lucky Sunflowerman was to marry me (honest guvnor, I only bribed her to pay a small compliment); Sunflowerman got the chance to use the lines from his favourite film, A Beautiful Mind heh, the Bestman told us the story of sunflowerman in school and in uni and as a last minute surprise - I decided to start the marriage on the right footing by having the last word.
Cake cutting after all the speeches (you saw the pix!)
Afterwards, first dance with the Shengen warriors and Disco Dancing to 80s music till 3am. (A Shengen warrior below)
Suffice to say It was a blast. Amazing that it all came together really.
xxx
The next few days were spent recovering. Brunch and boules with the Elephants, drifting along the Zambezi and African dinners (more drums and dancing). Sunflowerman and I disappeared to the Hide 3 days after, our friends retreated to other sanctuaries or returned home and Azures, EC and Azle went on a canoeing safari.
Definitely a week to remember!
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