A week of wedding parties

Sri Lankans really do take their weddings seriously. Only now, a week after the beginning of Lee and Leah's wedding festivities, have the speeches, drinking and dancing started to subside. It started with a terrific Mehindi, a lively evening ritual (party) to celebrate the bride and decorate her hands with Henna tattoos (the groom got some too, as did pretty much everyone else).

Hundreds of guests gathered in the beautiful courtyard of the bride's parents house and the hastily rehearsed dance turned out to be a great success, if only due to much laughing from the audience.

Then, a few days later, followed a stunning beach wedding for 250 people on the breezy South Eastern coast, complete with a delicious 3 course dinner, great speeches and unashamed dancing till the wee hours.

Barely had the hips stopped gyrating when it was time to dance again. Last night, to top it all off, another massive gathering, this time with many of the elite of the Country, at a posh country club outside Colombo. The bride and groom arrived to the Club house along the lit 18th hole of the golf course, in an elephant procession with dancers, drummers and fire jugglers. Quite an entrance into the local high society. A few too many strawberry cocktails and a gut busting buffet later we took a cab home.

If the festivities of the wedding are an indication of what's to come for the marriage, then they'll have a great future together. Congratulations.