Monday we slept in until 7:30. I applied Vitamin E lotion to a sunburn I got on my left shoulder probably because my sunscreen rubbed off while I was sleeping on my left side in the love shack yesterday and then went to the pool immediately afterwards.
After another wonderful breakfast of local fruits, banana pancakes and eggs benedict we spent some time in our room catching up on the blog and pictures. One of the four television channels we get in our room was playing National Geographic’s, “Journey of Man” which was very interesting and timely as we had just been wondering the day before how the Aborigines had arrived in Australia. This show had the answer to this question and others as it detailed the journey of our distant ancestors out of Africa, to Asia and then on to Europe and America.
Andy has been filtering through the hundreds of photos that he is taking pulling the good ones and purging the others. As I type this, he is replacing the batteries on his camera and getting ready to be the wedding photographer tonight. We plan to spend the day relaxing and getting ready for the wedding. I am hoping that we get a big rain storm this morning or early afternoon so I can get a walk in since I missed the window of bearable temperatures to walk in this morning while we were sleeping. It would also give a better possibility of no showers during the wedding.
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We relaxed in the love shack for awhile enjoying the sea breeze and scenery. The wind was strong enough that I decided to go for my walk despite the fact that it was noon and arguable the hottest part of the day. After the walk, Andy and I ate lunch while chatting with Sereana. Later we relaxed in the room for a bit before getting ready for the wedding.
At 4:30, we met my parents and Derik’s parents in the lobby and shared a van/taxi down to the Uprising. As we walked to bure #5, we noticed that the common area that doubles as a restaurant was decorated very nicely for the wedding. There was a white draped border around the area for the wedding and the aisle was designated with wooden stakes draped with the white fabric and with red flowers lining the edges below the white fabric border. The “alter” was designated with a green archway filled with yellow flowers and a small table with a bouquet of tropical flowers. It was very beautiful in the most natural sense and really fit the surroundings. The white fabric blew naturally in the wind which was unfortunately signifying that rain was coming.
We all piled into bure #5 and Anna and Derik seemed far from being ready for their 6:00 wedding. They had showered but nothing else. My mom got busy giving Anna a manicure and pedicure and Andy started taking pictures of the wedding preparations along with some “artsy” shots of their rings, flowers, etc. He claims not be artsy, but between the books he has been reading about photography and shooting weddings and his intrinsic “artsiness” he did a really amazing job capturing not only the pre-wedding, but the entire night. He took more of a photo journalistic approach rather than the “n factorial” combinations of people in staged shots. It was nice.
The dads busied themselves with predicting if and when the rain was going to hit. “We think it is 15 minutes out and then you should have about a 45 minute window to get married and then the second wave will hit.” Anna worried a bit about the rain but she was actually quite calm. Around 5:15 or so, a torrential downpour began. We continued to pass the time in the bure and let the Uprising staff deal with the repercussions of the weather. It probably only lasted 20 minutes and luckily was the only wave that hit that night. By the time the wedding began, there were little remnants of the water except for wet sand.
After the mani/pedi and during the downpour, Vicky started flat ironing and styling Anna’s hair. About that time, one of the gals who works at the Uprising resort brought in the leis and flower hairpiece for the wedding. Vicky came up with a hairdo that worked well with the flower hairpiece and then Anna moved on to putting on a smidge of make up. About that time, we heard the drum beating which apparently signified the start of the wedding. Anna starting dancing in haste and exclaimed that she was supposed to be out there with my dad to walk down the aisle when the drums started beating. She quickly put on her dress, grabbed her flowers and met my dad. It had been a false alarm and the drummer was just practicing but nevertheless, Anna was at the beginning of the aisle ready to get married.
A few minutes later, the drums started for real this time and Anna and my dad began walking down the aisle. She looked absolutely beautiful and Derik’s eyes indicated that he fully agreed as he waited expectantly for his bride to join his side. As I looked around, all of the women had tears in their eyes including the ringleader, Anna. She had the beginnings of the huge tears that make you flash back to when she was just a child with her huge brown eyes.
The minister was a local man probably in his 70s. He was cute and said a fairly traditional ceremony with much more religious references than I would have expected at Anna and Derik’s wedding. Anna, of course, was raised Catholic as was I and Derik neither was raised Mormon, but neither practices a religion nor consider themselves religious. I about jumped out of my shoes when the minister started reading a scripture about how the wife must submit to the husband and the husband must love his wife. Why and the hell must the only the wife submit? I knew that the minister had not gone over this prayer with Anna as she would surely have put the kibosh on this reading. In talking with her later, I found out that this was literally the only part of the ceremony that the minister had glossed over in the rehearsal. He just said something like, “I will read a scripture here” and then… Andy said my eyes were open wide with surprise and anger (I really don’t like it when they say this in wedding ceremonies) and I believe I whispered something to my parents who were sitting in the two chairs in front of me. In the laid back fashion that is Anna and Derik, they went with it and soon, they were proclaimed joined in matrimony and everyone’s faces were filled with huge smiles. When I say everyone, I mean Anna and Derik, both sets of parents and Andy and I, of course. But I also mean a whole slew of random guests at the Uprising, some random Japanese tourists who were taking pictures of the wedding and the whole gang of staff at the Uprising who by now have become good friends with Anna and Derik. Even though only six of us were able to make the journey to Fiji for the wedding, there were far more friends and family present (in person) to view the actual wedding and even more back home who were there in spirit.
After the ceremony, Andy took a few sunset shots on the beach and then it was time to party. The Uprising had prepared an absolutely amazing feast for the occasion. I am really surprised with the quality, quantity and variety of food they were able to prepare as the “hotel” is really more of a glorified hostel than a traditional hotel with elaborate kitchen. Anna’s website has a list of all of the food that was served, but I recall an amazing lobster salad, some kind of smoked mackerel, chicken and lamb that had been baked in the ground in a traditional Fijian fashion, fruit, salad and much more…I am truly not doing the spread justice. We all enjoyed the food and atmosphere…it was a truly joyous occasion.
Later, we moved from the covered restaurant area to a table closer to the beach that had an amazing dessert waiting for us. I cannot tell you exactly what the dessert was, but I would describe it as a very light version of cream and custard mixture drizzled with a raspberry sauce. It was the perfect ending to a very large, wonderful meal. At this point, the massive bonfire on the beach was lit topping off a perfect evening.
Everyone was so full that they decided not to cut their cake until the next evening and soon we all retired to our respective hotels/rooms/bures as 9 PM seems to be our bedtime here.
Related posts:
- Fishing in Fiji We spent the morning in the best palapa in the world which Andy is now dubbing “the love shack”. After...
- Wedding on the Riviera We quickly found a restaurant to eat at complete with a tourist menu and a pretentious guy two tables over...
- Introduction to Fiji One final note about our driver…apparently his wife is big and mean and she beats him with the ubiquitous broom...
- Hanging Out in Pacific Harbour Later Anna and Derik met up with us at our hotel and we pretty much spent the day hanging out...
- My Little Sister is Legally Hitched At lunch today, I received a text message from Anna, my sister, saying, “We are getting married at 3 pm...
