31st October 2025
I know, you’ve heard about this wedding from two different perspectives already, but indulge me in a third: just a snapshot of what we ourselves had to do to make it all go without a hitch. Here goes.
Thursday 23 October. It’s two days before the wedding. The tents and tables are going up today, and the caterers are delivering their equipment. The dance floor, chairs, lighting, sound system and booze are coming tomorrow and of course the food is all being done on the day itself.
Our first job: raking the leaves. Our trees make Pollards truly wonderful. Mahogany, flamboyant, coconut palm, royal palm, golden palm, travellers’ palm, foxtail palm, ficus, bearded fig, whitewood, pink trumpet, hog plum, jamun, mango, sour orange, frangipani, sea almond…and those are just the ones we know. Naturally we have many many shrubs and climbers as well – plumbago, bougainvillea, hibiscus, yucca, desert rose, passionfruit, giant monstera…I’ll pause for breath and leave it there.
You guessed it. LEAVES! A couple of weeks ago the beautiful sea almond shading the patio threw a wobbly and started shedding. When our trees do this they don’t do it by halves. In March the giant mahogany in front of the house threw off all its leaves and went totally bald in a week. Fully foliaged again by August, of course. The wonder of the tropics. Our gardeners did battle with their industrial leaf blower and rakes on Monday but we knew we’d have to go again before the weekend. So:
After a rather sweaty couple of hours I head over to the pool chattel which houses our toilet facilities for the wedding. We’re inordinately proud of our labours in this building in recent months: we have deep cleaned and painted throughout, replaced all the door handles and toilet seats, painted signs, hung notices, installed paper towel dispensers and bins, hung pictures and, with professional help, replaced all the taps, valves, flexlines, lights, switches, circuit boards, broken windows and tiles. The final flourish a couple of weeks ago was rewiring the pump for the 430 gallon backup water tank in case of an outage. All systems go!
Err…not quite. After climbing a ladder and refilling the tank, I flush one of the toilets. To my horror a large volume of water gushes forth from the foul water drainpipe. Shit on a brick! Well, it will be if we can’t fix this. I place an emergency call to our brilliant plumber Stephen. He drops everything and comes to our rescue, replacing the broken seal and two ball valves, and repairing an unnoticed leaking valve at the same time. Our hero.
Meanwhile the main tent begins to take shape. Immediately Nicola spots that it isn’t in the right place. The planner told them to erect it in front of what I call the African tree, in the middle of the lower lawn. But where is the planner? Nowhere to be seen. Hostess to the rescue. Remember, this is not her job! A phone call and the tent is relocated. Well, sort of. There is a strong smell of weed in the air. Does that explain this?
Turns out the guys are on a break! OK. The caterers arrive – very efficient and professional, nothing is a problem. Just one request – could I mow the lawn again under the tents? I only did it three days ago, but OK – I’ll do it tomorrow. Afternoon turns into evening and the guys are still putting up the tents. Eventually they finish in darkness and…their pickup doesn’t materialise. Poor buggers, they have no money for the bus fare and have to ask us for it. Suitably funded they traipse off into the gloom.
Friday 24 October. One day to go. The chairs arrive bright and early and are stacked in the catering tent. I inspect the lie of the land for mowing. Hmm. The catering tent is full of tables, chairs and equipment. No mowing there. The main tent is obviously held up by poles and guyropes. I mount the Beast (ahem) and do my level best, slaloming between the obstacles. Right. That’s the best I can do.
Loads of groups of people then arrive and start doing their various things. We continue beavering away at our own jobs. All day it goes on. This event is going to the wire. Eventually they all finish up and go. At this point I notice that the main tent has been moved several yards. The patches of grass I couldn’t mow now stand isolated and proud, fluffy green islands on the sward. Nothing for it. Back on the Beast in the morning!
Saturday 25 October. The big day. I saddle up my mount and give the lower lawn a final flourish. Looks grand. Some of this grass must have a headache – cut three times in five days! Next: another round of leaf raking. Oh yes. We love it. And finally: arranging several large, VERY heavy pots in an artful quarter circle around the worst of the uneven flagstones in front of the house and sticking a torch in each. We. Are. READY.
And the rest – is history. Here’s to love ❤️
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