Wedding woes….

As you know his nibs and I were engaged and for some time we’d been talking about actually getting hitched. We’d already had 2 dates that we’d had to cancel; we’d actually booked a holiday for that idyllic beach wedding, first in the Seychelles and then Mauritius. Due to, lets just say, delayed paperwork, we had to first postpone then cancel these plans! So we looked at the possibility of getting married here in Dubai. Well as non-Muslims we cannot have a civil ceremony, that’s the thing that surprised me most; I’d have thought that they would prohibit other religious ceremonies not a civil one. It’s just another example of the strange rules that are a part of everyday Dubai life. The only way for us to get married here was in Holy Trinity C of E Church.

Though I’m Church of England and Christened, I’m a devout atheist, as is his nibs (he’s even worse a Catholic atheist!). We didn’t want a church wedding, but it was Hobsons’ choice really, so with the Zappy Explorer in our hands we headed to Holy Trinity. There we met with the vicar, a rather genial bloke who ‘interviewed’ us about our relationship. Though I didn’t admit to being an atheist, I’m not stupid I know he would have sent us packing in a heartbeat; I couldn’t lie to the man. So when he asked if I wanted a church wedding I answered honestly, that I’d prefer a civil one but had no option. That was the cue for his mission to bring us both back into the fold. We left the vicar with a list of documents he required, his promise to restore our faith and no intention of ever returning!

Bring on the great wedding search…. We looked on the internet at other places to tie the knot, India, France, Italy, almost the entire world, they all required residency for a specific time and signed permission from the Pope, the Queen, the Canadian embassy etc, etc, etc! I had a trip to the UK planned and even though we’d been adamant that our wedding would be just the two of us, no family or friends, it looked like Blighty was our only option. So I called the registrar in Liverpool. She very politely told me that we’d need to be in the UK for at least 3 weeks. Where could we just call in get hitched and leave? Ah ha… at last a Eureka moment….Las Vegas…… I thought it would be cool to go to the little wedding chapel and be married by a Chinese Elvis impersonator. Well his nibs was not too keen on the idea, so suggested New York, no where near as far and Emirates had just started a direct flight there. So after a bit of investigation we discovered that bless the good old U S of A, they need only ID and in New York 24 hours later you’re husband and wife. In typical his nibs style, the same day the flights and hotel were booked, and 3 days later just over 2 weeks after our last holiday we flew to New York for another!