What a Difference a Day Makes

Not quite a day, more like 36 hours……the fastest life changing 36 hours I have ever lived, thank God for Rum….!

We’d decided a long time ago that we wanted to be married but we hadn’t named a date, we felt it was more important that the venue was right rather than all the arranging that usually goes into the big day……make no mistake, it was still a big, huge, fantastic day and there were times when it didn’t look like we would succeed but you know what they say…..Fear Not England, Tim is at the Helm….!

Having been in Dominica for a couple of days we both knew it was the place. The people were so friendly, not wealthy by any means but willing to help with anything. Upon arrival, we tried to contact the Port and stay on the right side of Immigration, but being New Year’s Day, there was something wrong with their radio and no-one to fix it…! We called for a radio check and got a response from Pancho Services and that’s where the fun started.

Pancho told us how to clear Immigration and was waiting for us a one of his mooring buoys. We rarely use mooring buoys, but he was so helpful and we knew the anchoring was poor here that we decided to use him. Actually, Immigration were the nicest officers we’d come across anywhere when we saw them the following day.

Back to the story, we started at the Magistrate’s Court who told us that we needed to go to the Community Development Dept. on the other side of town, so we did. They informed us that we would need:

Passport photo each
Birth Certificate
Sworn Oath in place of Decree Absolute for Tim
$300 EC dollars
$7.50 in stamps to be affixed to two of the forms that we were given
A ‘G’ form to be signed and sworn in front of a Magistrate.

Having completed all the above (not easy) we trolled along to the Magistrates office and waited until we were told that Sam needed a certificate of Non Marriage….? We went back to our original lawyer, who was out, so we went to another lawyer. One Affidavit later and back to the Magistrate (I hope none of my relatives are as full of their own self importance as this guy was) where we sat and waited. Eventually after all sorts of warnings about perjury and imprisonment for Sam he signed and we had 15 mins to get back to the other side of town for it all to be rubber stamped. ‘Come back at 10am tomorrow, but you can go and organise a time with the Registrar now’. We did, 2.30pm on the 6th of Jan was the appointed hour.

The Registrar is a lovely man. His name is Reginald Winston and he is a staunch Royalist (pictures of him with Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Edward) and he was very chatty. It seemed everything was on course so we went to a local bar, ‘The Ruins’ for a celebratory Rum Punch, where we met the waitress, Rachel, who we realised we’d seen before at a local hotel with her daughter Freya.

We got chatting and suddenly we had an eight year old bridesmaid, Freya who was so excited as she’d never been to a wedding before.

The next day dawned and we needed a gift for the bridesmaid, a false finger nail for Sam’s ring finger as it was that finger she’d chosen to break, flowers (Rachel knew somebody) and ah yes, the marriage licence, nothing could have been simpler. Off we set for the Community Development Dept at 10.30am to collect it. Ah, not signed by the Minister, who was in a Cabinet meeting with the Prime Minister “come back at 12”. We got everything else done and went back. Ah, not signed, “come back at 2” at this stage it was apparent that timings could be tight as we still had half an hour each way to the boat and the bride had to get dressed…!!!

Change of plan, go and get ready first, send Tim for the licence and go straight to the ceremony, simple. We had arranged for a water taxi from Pancho and his driver would run us to town. The driver was very late. Tim hailed a passing taxi, already occupied (by people whose wedding anniversary was the 6th Jan-spooky) and left Sam on the side of the road with Pancho. As it got later Sam decided to get on the local bus (crowded with people and chickens…!). Sam got to the Bridesmaid where she just sat and waited for Tim, the bar owners made sure she was kept supplied with Rum Punches.

At 3pm and still no licence, Tim felt the need to tell Sam and the Registrar what wasn’t happening so he legged across town to do so. Found Bride to be very mellow! Why not? The flowers had arrived 5mins earlier and so had the elusive driver with our luggage. When Tim got to the Registrar he was told that 3.30pm was the deadline or it couldn’t happen today. The Registrar’s secretary said why not try one more time, so Tim legged it across town and blimey, it was signed! By the time it was sealed (the glue had run out too) it was 3.25pm so Tim really legged it across town to the Registry Office and then to get the Wedding Party. Upon arrival paperwork was completed, Tim stripped off his sweaty shirt and replaced it with a dry one that Sam had ready in her green carrier bag (planning) and the ceremony started at just after closing time at 4pm. Witnesses were volunteered from the office, bridesmaid had the rings and it all worked like clockwork and was wonderful! Tim cried in place of Sam’s Mother and Sam forgot to speak when it was her turn. Freya also doubled as our photographer.

Back to ‘The Ruins’ to return the bridesmaid and have a Rum Punch which they kindly gave to us free as a wedding gift. We bought a round of drinks and left for our Frog Encrusted Bamboo Love Shack up in the Rain Forest. Actually it had natural sulphur hot spring pools with temperatures of 30 degrees at least which we indulged in prior to our Wedding Day Meal and it just happened they had no other clients that night so we listened in peace to the frog chorus and waterfall…..wonderful.

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