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Published: February 12th 2008
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At last we get to the wedding, we've been building up to this for over a year and now we get to see whether all the planning works out.
The day started when Dave picked me up and took Julie and I to join Kerry and the other bridesmaids at K'shani for breakfast, Dave was incredibly stressed out and hadn't slept the previous night, he also made sure that his best man Andrew didn't sleep either, after all, what are best men for if not to keep you company when you can't sleep.
We used one of the chalets for all the girls to get ready in, they really were very luxurious, not our usual camping standard at all! The hairdresser turned up on time and started on the bridesmaids. The make up lady arrived and started with the manicures, she left after a while saying she would be back in plenty of time to do Kerry's make up. Unfortunately she mistimed the whole thing and arrived just as Kerry was leaving for the ceremony, fortunately she was the only person to let us down and one of the bridesmaid's mothers did the make up for us instead.
Anyway to get to the main event, Kerry was a bit late arriving because they forgot to send the car to pick her up but she duly arrived on the game drive vehicle with all the bridesmaids and Andy. The wedding was being held in the open at the side of the dam, this did mean that when Kerry arrived all the guests turned around and watched her alight from the vehicle, much nicer for the guests but she had to make sure she got down in a ladylike fashion, not easy from a high truck in high heels and long train!
The ceremony went off with no hitches, the weather was beautiful, considering it had been raining most of the week before, grey and dismal, we were so lucky that for Saturday it turned out clear and sunny but not unbearably hot.
The traditional dancers entertained the guests while Kerry and Dave went off for some photos to be taken at a lovely lookout point. All was going well, the meat had been barbecued on a spit over an open fire and springbok and pork was served up with a delicious buffet including some traditional South African
dishes.
The wedding was late afternoon to take advantage of the cooler temperature and still have time for photos which meant that by the time the meal was finished it was now dark. Kerry and Dave were just about to cut the cake before having the first dance when the electricity went out. South Africa has been having a lot of power cuts recently as they don't have enough power for everyone so it shouldn't have been a surprise.
We were a little stumped at first and the staff at K'shani didn't seem to have the first idea what to do. One of our guests was about to fetch his vehicle which had a pretty good sound system to provide some music, unfortunately he forgot that at the end of the dance floor was a very pretty fish pond and walked straight into it. He was very lucky not to have hurt himself and was very gracious when stepping out dripping wet, what a thing to happen at a wedding! I have to say that of all the people it could have happened to, we were fortunate it was someone like him who didn't make a fuss. he
just rolled up his trousers and carried on. Well done Craig.
Our next priority was to get some candles and lamps out so no-one else did the same thing and then Rae drove his 4x4 round to the dance floor (good job it was all outside) opened all the doors and the dj (another fantastic person who took it all in his stride) simply played his cds in the truck!
Eventually they managed to get hold of a small generator that could run the music and a few fairy lights. By this time we had cut the cake by torch light, had the first dance by 4x4 and the ice was well and truly broken. Everyone was determined to have a fantastic time and they really did. The dance floor was full all night long.
All the thought and planning that had gone into the wedding was worthwhile, everyone really did their best and the general consensus was that it was a fantastic day, what more could we want.
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