It's a long time since I posted on here but as we have just returned from a special trip to Bali, I wanted to share the great time we had.
This trip was special because it was my 60th birthday and also our wedding, we had for the first time all of our family with us, 11 adults and 2 17yr old boys.
The legal wedding ceremony was held the weekend before at the Vines resort in Swan Valley, with just 2 witnesses and the celebrant, then we had a reaffimation in Bali so that all of our family felt part of it, we didn't wear the rings until then.
We had the Bali ceremony at the Sanur Beach Villas, also known as The Mangrove Sanctuary. all of us stayed there and had a ball. The staff made the grounds look beautiful with gorgeous flowers in front of the pool, and the shape of a heart with our initials in on the ground made of flower petals. There were also other decorations around the grounds with our initials with petals, they put in so much effort, thank you to all there. Also the celebrant who married us in Oz flew over and performed the Bali ceremony, we were lucky to find out that he was the brother of the owner of the villas and was happy to do both events, great guy he is too.
After the ceremony there we had bubbly before moving onto the Ducks Nutz for nibbles and drinks, before dinner. The food was fabulous, Gael and Bill had arranged the wedding cake and also a birthday cake, both were great. They had also organised a band for us which was really good, most people were up dancing after the meal and the staff joined in when they could, what great people they all are.
All in all we had a fabulous day and evening, we really appreciated all the help and effort from both venues.
We took the family to lots of the usual places, the Safari Park, Waterbom, Taro Elephant Park and of course the beach and lots of shopping. One thing we did that was different was the Sea Walk in Sanur, I was so happy that we did this as I can now say I have been under water, even though I don't dive or even snorkle. Six of us went, we were given some simple instructions and hand signals before being transferres to the boat from which we went down with bubble helmets on, an instructor was with every person going down, making sure that all was ok, then the 6 of us went walking all holding onto rings attached to a steel pole lead by the instructor, and with 3 divers, swimming around us. One of them was taking photos and doing a vidoe of us all, we had fish food which attracted many beautiful little fishes, who totally surrounded us. It was a fabulous experience and I would recommend it to anyone, even though it was a little expensive at approx $75, well worth it.
Thats it probabaly until next year.
Cheers
Maureen