I can now finally write my vow renewal report having harked on about it for the past few years. It’s quite long so grab a coffee before you sit down ;O). It took place at the Island resort of Meeru in the Maldives.
As the ceremony wasn’t until 4pm we all got up as usual had breakfast and went swimming and sunbathing for the morning. The local girls were coming to collect me and take me to the spa at 3pm so I went back to our beach villa at 2pm to have a shower, wash my hair and get my daughter ready as well. I also asked my husband to phone reception as the beach area still hadn’t been decorated by this point and I was started to get agitated, turns out that everything is very laid back and unrushed in the Maldives :o). Two local women in their local dress came and collected me, my daughter and my mum to escort me to the spa to have my hair and make-up done, they also carried my dress for me. For some reason my mum and daughter had to wait outside in the reception area, but where given a cold drink each. I was also given a frozen face cloth (needed as it was really hot) and a cold lemon drink which was really refreshing, then my hair was taken to task – I’m not sure how she managed it but the spa lady managed to work miracles with my (very short) hair, as she was doing it I was having doubts, but it turned out really gorgeous, especially when she put in some fresh flowers. M make-up was then done, which again as I’m not used to wearing the stuff seemed to me to be a bit much, but looking at the photos you can’t really tell how caked in the stuff I am LOL The next stage was then getting into my dress, I called my mum in at this point as she was the only one who knew how to lace it up. I was then given my bouquet which consisted of Frangipanes (I think that’s how you spell it), a local white flower, the stems of which where placed inside a green vine. There were gorgeous.
Once in the dress (which seemed to take an age), my husband was allowed into the room (he’d been sitting outside for the past 15 minutes), we were then walked down to the beach surrounded by 4 singing girls all in local costumes and throwing petals and 4 drumming boys. My daughter was also given a small plate of petals to throw as well which she loved. The actual area of beach that our ceremony was to take place was decorated by palm leaves in the shape of hearts, we were asked to sit under a gazebo where the wedding vows were first read out in the local Maldivian language and then read out in English. We gave each other our rings again and were then given a coconut drink which was needed at this point.
Once this was all done and dusted we then proceeded to the waters edge and put on a small boat – not as easy as you’d think in a long dress with a train!! We were then taken for a small boat ride which was lovely as all the other tourists/sunbathers/snorkellers stood up and waved, clapped and shouted out their congratulations, I felt like a celebrity! Once back off the boat were excorted back to out villa by the singing girls and drummer boys to find that our bed had been beautifully decorated with palm leaves and rose petals. After that the photographer took us around the island on the local buggy for more photos and I have to say the end result of the album is so much better than I thought it would be and considering it only cost $350 (about £200) excellent value for money. We were also given a DVD with all the shots so that we can get some re-prints and enlargements now we’re home.
I stayed in my dress (I didn’t want to take it off tbh) and we had an evening meal in the Asian Wok(an over the water restaurant), we chose to have the Tepppanyki which is where they cook the food in of you, they also make it a lot of fun and it was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.
I had a wonderful day and it went far too quickly (don’t we all say that?) but I still get to wear my dress again for our early morning photo shoot in Richmond Pak in October. I’m really glad we did the vow renewal abroad rather than in the UK as originally planned, it was much more intimate and romantic. Anyway I'm just uploading the DVD to photobox but it looks like it could take a few hours, so I'll post just the one to keep you going and then post the link once the upload is completed.
