Party Like it's 1999!!

With the ceremony over, and the obligatory meet and greet and group photos taken, the bride and groom headed off with the photographer and the rest of the wedding party on their own private safari photo shoot leaving the rest of us to catch up and reflect on a day that was as unique as it was memorable! 

Table seatings at weddings are always an awkward affair to plan, family here, friends there, work colleagues over the back, but with Adam and Collette, friends, family and work colleagues we pretty much one and the same and the seating reflected this United Nations of guests!! People from seven different countries had come together to celebrate this wedding and in keeping with this theme, the table seatings were set out by country too. This caused some confusion initially as we thought that we were to sit at the table by country of origin, however it was soon explained that the country names on each table were not countries of the guests, but the countries that Adam and Collette had both visited together. I did feel a bit sorry for the videographer who landed Singapore though - being the kids table and all!!

MC for the night was Rob/Bob/Robbie/Robert Coran (how do people end up being known by so many names??). Despite the fact that Bob can usually talk the hind leg off a donkey (or maybe a zebra), I got the impression he was a little bit nervous about being responsible for the evenings proceedings!! He needed not to have worried though as he did an excellent job, although he wasn't forceful enough in limiting the time Mac (Collette's dad) had with the mike during his speech! Collette's "Best Chick" Chantal spoke of the deep friendship she shares with Collette and how much of special person she is and I think I'm not the only one of Robbo's mates to acknowledge that he managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat with his speech about Adam too - nice one mate!!

With the formalities over, Rob could finally hit the grog and the party went into overdrive!! Excellent, food, great South African wine and a DJ that took us back to Friday nights at Promises, I'm sure I'm not the only one to say it was one of the best nights of eating, drinking, dancing and general all round partying I've ever had, even Sean and Tim were busting a few moves!! One small downer was that Ashleigh unfortunately fell ill with a stomach bug and we had to take her back to her room soon after the speeches. Although I can't be sure, I don't think anyone was slipping her Bacardi Breezers disguised as peach Iced Tea!!

In some cultures it is said that if it rains on your wedding day it will bring you luck. If this is true, then Collette and Adam will be blessed with luck coming out their respective ying-yangs because during the evening, a storm came over Tala, bringing with it the most spectacular lightning show I've ever seen. Cloud and fog descended over the park and when the lightning struck, the sky lit up revealing striking silhouettes on the ridges of the trees and animals weathering the storm. With us all high and dry in the lodge, the storm only added to this special night.