I returned from a two week holiday in Bali, my sister married her Balinese partner of 12 years, which was really exciting.
We had the traditional ceremony in his village and my sister also opted for a commitment ceremony which was held at Jimbaran Bay a week later.
Bali Weddings, I think was the company, were absolutely fantastic and did a really good job and looked after my sister and her husband.
My sister was offered the option of having the reception at Jimbaran Bay through Bali weddings but she opted to have it at our favourite restaurant and bar - Legends in garlic lane.
What can I say; this was the biggest mistake of the whole wedding. We have supported the bar and restaurant staff for years, not to mention the bands that play there.
Ketut, the manager, took it upon himself to close the restaurant down for our function - we did not ask for this. I told him that this was silly that we didn't want the restaurant to lose money and I said once we had all sat down to dinner he could let people in.
My sister advised Ketut that there would be 50 people there. I decided to help them out as everyone was going to pay individually for their meals which were 65,000 rupiah each for a buffet dinner. I sold tickets to everyone that was there and took the money. We had 40 people there that purchased tickets, some Australian friends just didn't show up but we had extra Balinese family there which took it to 48.
Ketut got up on the stage to make this big speech for my sister and her husband; he was calling her by the wrong name.
My sister paid for the yellow band to play at her wedding so they were there and everyone was having a good time.
During the bridal waltz Ketut came up to me asking for money for the people that didn't show - he was asking for 500,000 rupiah because there was so much food left over. I just looked at him because I thought he was just rude and after I did a quick head count there was 48 people, 2 shy from what my sister had advised. I told him that I would need to speak to my sister to discuss the whole situation.
I spoke to my sister and she advised Ketut that there would be 50 people, including kids, which took the number over 50 people that were there.
I was called out to the back room by Ketut to discuss this situation as he didn't want to discuss it around the guests, but he was happy to ruin my evening as I missed our good Balinese friend singing a traditional Balinese song. He told me that he wanted 500,000 rupiah to cover the cost of the food and that we could take what was left over with us. There was enough food there to feed an army but they kept cooking and cooking even after we told them to stop.
I left the back room to speak to my sister again. There was a group of us standing there talking about it and all the guests said that if he was going to cause such a fiasco over 2 people than they were leaving as he had ruined my sisters evening by asking her for money.
I went to Ketut and advised him a number of the guests were angry and that they were prepared to go back to our hotel to drink and he just shrugged his shoulders so with that everyone threw in the 500,000 rupiah and we left, taking all of our food with us of course.
As my sister paid for the band we asked them to pack up because there were tables of people sitting in Legends eating dinner and listening to the music, which he let in before we even sat down to dinner.
On the way back to Garden View Cottages we gave out all the left over food to the people sitting around the streets who thought all their Christmases had come at once.
Ketut made us so angry and we vouched never to return to that restaurant because my sister didn't get to throw her bouquet or for them to do the garter and all because of a man who is so greedy and full of himself.
In saying that the night picked up with the sight of all our guests and yes my sister walking down Garlic Lane with her wedding dress hitched up and everyone staring, clapping and laughing this made all of us laugh.
We did all stick to our guns and never returned to Legends but the sad thing is that whenever anyone of us walked past the young girls would make sure that no-one was around and they were all waving and calling out to us.
I will be personally sitting down to write a letter to Antonio with regards to what Ketut did and how unacceptable it is. So before you think about having a function at your favourite restaurant in Bali just be careful because it might not go according to plan.