Waipuna Wedding✨

Twas a beautiful day at the Waipuna Hotel, a beautiful scenery and a beautiful bride and groom. In the Waipuna garden was a isle made of tapa cloth and chairs covered in white fabric, sat on by the groom and bride's family.

At the end of the isle was the Groom, Dario, dressed in his navy blue tux, handsome as always. In walked the best man and the groomsmen. Soon the brides maids (Sandra’s 4 sisters)and her maid of honor(her best friend) also walked in. Their elegant navy blue dresses matched Dario’s tux. The cute little flower girls walked in throwing the rose petals on the isle and took a seat in the front row. Later on the alluring bride walked down the aisle hand in hand with her father. Phones were pulled out and flashed continuously at the bride. Sandra looked stunning in her slim white laced dress, with her brunette hair pinned up. My Aunty had never looked so dazzling.

When Sandra reached Dario, the marriage ceremony started, and all I could think of was of how happy I was for my Aunty. The marriage conductor started with the opening statement, then to the reading and carried onto the vows. Dario and Sandra’s vows were very heart touching and very emotional, (yes I cried). "Do you Dario, take Sandra to be your lawfully wedded wife, promising to love and cherish, through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, and whatever challenges you may face, for as long as you both shall live?" , “I do”. They exchanged rings later on and placed it on their fingers, one at a time. As soon as the conductor spoke the words “You may kiss the bride”, they kissed and cheers of excitement shot out of our families mouths. Before they continued on with the rest of the wedding events, the bride and the groom had to sign their marriage licence.

As soon as that was finished, Dario and Sandra walked around to their family members to greet them and to take photos too. Finally Sandra  approached my family and I and we congratulated her and her husband. It has been a while since we’ve seen each other and a wedding was such a great way to reunite our families. Dario and Sandra arranged for a family photo in front of the river. The view was dazzling but my eyes couldn’t break off Sandra.

Later on we were ordered to go to the Restaurant for the after party and the traditional ceremonies. Everything in the restaurant was colour coordinated, it matched the groomsmen and bridesmaids outfits. The party started off with speeches from the parents of the groom and bride. Later we moved onto the prayers for the food. Speaking of food, the entree, main and dessert were very delicious and fancy. We were offered drinks and given chips and nuggets for the little kids. There was a bar at the far end of the restaurant where we were allowed to order drinks (soft drinks)in see through glass cups. I would continuously go back and forward just to get a drink and pretend as if I was taking shots ;).

We moved on to the traditional part of the party which was the ceremony of the cake, and the money offering (Ta’olunga’s). The ceremony of the cake is when you offer 4 or 5 small cakes to the family members of the bride and groom. In this case the cakes were given to the bride's parents and the groom's parents too. The other 3 cakes were given to the their close friends. Moments after the ceremony, my older sister who was saying a speech at that time introduced my other sister (Maryanne), who had to dance for everybody. Money was thrown at her (literally somebody threw money at her), but she continued to dance elegantly. Sandra stood up and danced along with her, grinning and holding her hand to her heart. At the end of the dance, my sister donated all the money to the married couple (there was a lot of money!). Afterwards there were other performances from the groom’s family who were Samoan, more performances from the bride’s family and a performance from the bride herself. All dances were entertaining.

It was getting late, so us little kids (pff little?) had to go home and sleep for church. We said our goodbyes to Sandra, Dario and to Sandra’s sisters (my other aunties). We were very tired but we wanted to stay. I enjoyed my day at the wedding, surprisingly it was the first wedding reception I've ever been to!. The first and the best so far. I can’t wait for my wedding and my other 12 sibling’s weddings too, yes 12 weddings!! (well that depends on if they get married at all), that ought to keep me busy over the years.