Bula, bula, (hello) as the natives say. Today we spent the day preparing for John Oliver and Jennifer Okumura’s wedding. The wedding was scheduled for 5 PM in an attempt to use a beautiful Fiji sunset as a backdrop for the wedding pictures . . .
but the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry: The specific location on the beach changed several times to accommodate the high tide. A couple of hours before the wedding, workers with a back hoe managed to dig up the power line to our bure and took the power down for the whole resort. Everyone got their power back quickly except for us. NO lights or AC made for a sticky time waiting in our wedding clothes. Note: we did get power back at 8pm.
Kaylin is leading the procession as tiny drops of rain are beginning to fall–so much for the hair and make-up preparation.
Jennifer walks down the metaphoric Fijian aisle. The tiny rain drops metamorphose into larger rain drops . . .
And the waves come crashing in. Robbie (the closest thing to a wedding planner) was quick to try and set things right. He had to do this several times.
The staff quickly finds us some umbrellas, but by this time we are all wet and frizzy. The pastor’s script is so soaked that he cannot read the remainder of the vows John and Jennifer wrote; he has to improvise the rest of the service. Everyone breaks out in uncontrollable laughter.
Annie and Kaylin, barefoot in the sand, await Jennifer and John.
The wedding party–all soaked from the cloudburst–are still in good spirits.
Mr. & Mrs. Oliver take the weather in their stride and pose joyously for the camera. Below are a few post wedding pictures.
The couple’s daughter poses for her photo…
A Fijian box was used by Kaylin to carry the wedding rings.
Girlfriends forever…
Annie holding a bouquet of tropical flowers
Glen, Fran and Jennifer Okumura
A beautiful wife / mother and daughter
Pete, Jill, Annie & Jason, all smiles. Jason changed his clothes, so he is the only dry person at the party.
Ann providing the toast at the wedding banquet. We are supping on lobster, shrimp, mahi-mahi, chicken, beef, Fijian sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, salad with balsamic dressing, and . . .
a cake, of course. This one is a banana cake.
Pete’s photo notes: The photos above were taken by Jill, Pete and Diederik (our bure neighbor). A GoPro provided the video. Diederik, a professional commercial photographer, shot 188 Canon RAW photos with his 5D and long lens. Pete used photoshop to combine two of Diederik’s exposure bracketed shots to provide a bit of sky color to the wedding group picture.
4 Comments
Looks like everyone is having a grand time – soaked or not! Anne looks so lovely and the bride and her daughter do, too. What an adventure you are all having.
Nice wedding shots. Despite the rain, the photos came out great, and honestly if you hadn’t talked so much about the rain, I don’t think viewers would’ve even known it was or had rained.
I didn’t include all the pictures with umbrellas…
It looks beautiful, and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, rain or sunshine.