Nuptials in Kaş

Well summer has really arrived now and fittingly it was ushered in this year with a very happy, colourful and enjoyable occasion as a couple of regular visitors here, our friends Graham and
Sarah, chose Kas as the venue for their wedding. Their nuptials signalled the dramatic hike in the temperature that we usually experience around the beginning of June and needless to say they
were able to enjoy glorious weather for their special day and all the days before and after as event after event was organised for their many friends and family who made the journey to share their
celebrations with them.

Having a wedding in a foreign country is potentially fraught with difficulty especially if you are intending to invite fifty plus guests from England many of whom have children and for whom timing
is of the essence. So, charmed by the location which Kas offers for a wedding, Graham and Sarah set about confronting the logistics of this which involved many things including the negotiation of
Turkish and British bureaucracy, the organisation of flights, transfers and accommodation for all their family and friends. In this they had the advantage of being good friends with Phil (best man) Buckley and his lovely wife Alison who set about helping them with the organisation of the whole thing with gusto and a certain expertise which twenty years of living in Turkey has well and truly sharpened.

(Click here for a link to Graham’s site with all the photos)

Formalities completed, guests arrived and settled, local friends mobilised it remained only for Phil to organise a stag night which would appeal to a full spectrum of the generations and a group of males who were, in many cases, meeting for the first time. He pulled it off with aplomb. We all assembled (dangerously in some people’s opinion) the night before the wedding at Sultan Garden and were whisked away by the Bougainville dive boat to Nuri’s beach in Limanagzi bay where an evening of dining, drinking, quizzing and belly dancing awaited us. Graham pretty quickly pointed out that he would prefer sanity to be the order of the evening and that he had no intention of ending up tied naked to some landmark in the town square. One or two of his friends pointed out that such
matters were not really in his control nor should they be but we’re all getting older so common sense prevailed. A good evening was had by all and everyone remained intact to attend the wedding
ceremony at Asmalti beach the following day.

Graham and Sarah chose the perfect setting for the ceremony to take place and their timing was also bang on, choosing a five o’ clock kick off made so much sense as some of the heat of the day had
subsided. All the assembled guests were able to watch a beautiful bride arrive to be walked through a garland of flowers by her proud father where her husband to be was waiting to be wedded to
her on a wooden platform right on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. The civil marriage ceremony here in Turkey is a short one and this was adapted slightly by the couple choosing to
exchange their personal marriage vows in English (read to them by Phil) in front of all the assembled witnesses. Drinks and canapés were served and everyone agreed a more idyllic setting would have been pretty tricky to organise.

They were wed then and so for a celebration. We all paraded across the harbour, often interrupted by well wishes from intrigued boatmen and passers-by, and arrived at Sultan Garden restaurant
where hosts Apo and Harriet were exceptionally welcoming. In the English tradition speeches and toasts followed one another with contributions from Sarah’s dad Martin, best man Phil and of
course groom Graham. The wine flowed, the food was excellent, the cake was produced and cut, the music played, the people danced and Kas and Sultan Garden did what they do so well namely
provided a fantastic backdrop to a great celebration. Towards the end of the evening, I’m not sure exactly what time things got a little fuzzy for me by then, Graham and Sarah, as is the custom, left the celebration and did so in just about as romantic a fashion as it is possible to imagine namely on their own personal boat (Zem Zem) from Kas harbour to spend their wedding night anchored in Limanagzi bay. If that’s not a wedding day to suit any couple’s dreams then I’m not sure it would be worth continuing to try.

The next day Joe and Trish, who live in Cukurbag (in the hills behind Kas) hosted a chilled out daytime affair at their beautiful house where kids could frolic in the pool and much barbecuing took
place. So if you’re planning a wedding don’t think about holding it in Kas for at least a year as we’ll all still be recovering. It all pretty much fell into the category of “bloody good do” and from that definition I did not hear one dissenting view.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this month’s missive things are now well and truly warm and those of us who are entertaining guests have little difficulty keeping them happy especially as
most of them have fled from the unseasonal weather currently on offer in England. Its beach and swimming time and this weekend saw the Kas festival taking place which, regular observers will
know, features the annual Meis to Kas swim. This year saw a field of two hundred competitors and drew a substantial crowd to watch the returning swimmers arrive back on Turkish soil on what was
by coincidence the day of the Greek elections.

To conclude following on from last month’s reference to the Busy Bees Kas for Kids charity there have been recent developments regarding the provision of educational toys to the newly formed
kindergartens in the surrounding villages. Many of these have now opened their doors and toys have been purchased, transported and as you can see from the photograph already put to good use.
Finally a correction from last month’s article I’m afraid I was given the wrong number to call if you are in Kas and wish to contact the charity for donation, support or queries. The correct number is Gwen Gill on 0242 8397045.