Weddings without bells.

The groom waits patiently, with his best man, and the priest tries to keep the groom calm. Here comes the bride, all dressed in white. Graced by the bowing palms. But, she has sand in her shoes and her dress is wet from the lapping waves, and I suspect from being caught by one of the many showers that we had this morning. Very odd this dry season.

The crowd that has gathered shows remarkably little emotion. That could be because none of them know the couple, but just happen to be trying to have a quiet holiday.

Now, the couple are together and ready to be joined and never put asunder. The cameramen move the scenery a little so that the moment will be better captured for the albums and videos.

We get to see about 3 weddings a week on the beach below our balcony. They usually time them a little before sunset so that they can get some sweet shots with the background of the setting sun. Today, we got a daytime wedding: I presume it was not washed out from another day, like the cricket. This time, the couple managed to have a wedding where there were no sunbathers in the area where they set up the bridal arch. It's really tacky having half naked tourists stretched out like overgrown cherubs at the bottom of the pictures. But the cherubs were there first, and their "all inclusive" packages didn't mention any activities that involved playing as wedding guests. It's equally strange if you're trying to take your evening beach walk and you find these ceremonies in the middle of your normal route.

To us, the ceremonies are really sterile, and we've never seen any where lots of real guests were present. But, the couples usually look happy, and at least one of them must have thought that what they wanted was a beach wedding in beautiful Barbados. I don't know where they get the priests: whether they are real or on the staff of one of the hotels and just there to "do the deed". The cameraman has his studio just a few hundred metres from the beach area and it's obviously good business for him. I guess that if you come to Barbados for the wedding, you stay here for the honeymoon.