Today is the day of the wedding and as it didn’t start until 4pm, we were able to have a bit of a sleep in. I was woken up at around 9.30am to the sound of dad tapping on the door of my room and the smell of another delicious bacon & egg breakfast cooked by my dad. It was really cute and took me back to when I was a little girl!

Viki left super early this morning & as the mother of the bride it is going to be a pretty full on day for her today. Luckily for myself, Luke & dad (who are just guests at the Wedding) means that we can chill out for most of the day and explore some of Seminyak. We’ve spend much of the past few days exploring the outer areas so it’s going to be good to see what’s about via foot rather than in a taxi.

There were some street markets not too far from where we are staying and provided a good opportunity for us to pick up some souvenirs. My dad ended up buying a few little gimmicky things; a Pilot’s helmet and a lovely long warrior headpiece (similar to what you would see in Pocahontas with all the feather detailing) It was pretty nice & would make for a great display piece in his house back home in Aus.

We could tell that dad was secretly loving Bali but his stubbornness refused to admit it, so as we were making fun of him about it, he managed to trip on an uneven pavement roadside and hurt his ankle (it wasn’t a serious injury but enough for him to feel it and for it to make us laugh!) He was cursing Bali out so hard “Stupid, fucking stinky fucking Bali, uneven fucking roads, what a shithole. Who the fuck even comes here!?” Haha. Luke & I couldn’t stop laughing at him, it was hilarious and almost an instant Karma for pretending he hated it. Poor fella.

After checking out the shops and wandering around in the heat for a couple of hours, I was desperate to head back to the villa and fit in a quick swim before getting ready for the Wedding. We made it back to our villa in time to have about an hour swim before having to get ready. The Wedding starts at 4pm, is an hour drive away and our family is notorious for being late to places. All we know is that if we are late to this Wedding, Viki will be soo angry at us! ha.

We were cutting our timing very fine after our swim as usual, and once we had all raced around the villa trying to get ready, going back and forth into each other’s rooms saying “do we look okay, do these shoes work, how about this hat?” we were finally ready. We walked to the end of the street hoping to catch a Taxi and be on our way, however had great difficulty with finding one that didn’t want to rip us off.

Viki had taken a taxi to the venue multiple times already, so we had a fair idea of how much we should be paying & today especially, it seems the drivers are in a right old mood to take advantage of the tourists. This would usually be okay, we’d have a bit of fun bartering them down but we were running insanely late and didn’t want to feel the wrath of Viki should we not make it before the bride walks down the isle – especially because my dad and brother have been drinking for most of the afternoon now and without realising (probably due to nerves about the Wedding & not really knowing any of the attendees) were well on their way to being pissed before we even arrived!

Luke ended up getting into an argument with one of the drivers, we had tried to negotiate with him for several minutes before giving up and walking away. This driver chased us down the street screaming out different versions of pricing, we told him not to bother & we’ll just find someone else as we were in a rush and didn’t have time to play silly games.

We ended up finding another cab and as we were about to jump in, the driver chasing us was like “OK, OK we can do cheaper, come with me for the price you originally wanted”. Ah no, we played that game already and now we have someone willing to drive us, we most definitely won’t be coming back to you! The driver wasn’t impressed with this and started calling us names and screaming out all sorts of profanities, it was actually quite funny. My brother, in his half drunken state was screaming back at the driver, before being told to ignore it and just get in the car because we were running so damn late. Well, as Luke hoped in the front passenger seat, the original driver called him a dickhead and then all you saw, was us in a taxi driving down the street with my brother Luke, hanging out the window in a screaming match wanting to fight the person who called him a dickhead. My gawd, if there was ever someone who matched the “Aussie Bogans in Bali” description it was my brother within that moment.

I felt sorry for the poor driver who just picked us up and was dealing with a crazy Australian hanging out his window raging over being called a dickhead haha. As we turned the corner Luke jumped back in the window and apologised to the driver saying “I’m sorry about that, I appreciate you picking us up but a hot tip, just don’t ever call me a dickhead...I am sorry though, here have a beer” haha.

The rest of the trip went relatively smoothly, the driver had a lead foot (after many promises of a big tip if he gets us there in time) & after an incredibly close near miss accident because of said lead foot, we managed to make it to the venue with 5 minutes to spare. We thanked the driver, gave him a big tip because there is absolutely NO WAY we should have arrived on time (Thanks cabdriver!) and gave him some Bin-Tangs for the road before heading into the Wedding venue.

The venue was beautiful, nothing less of what I had expected in my mind. I’d always heard that Bali Weddings are amazing and this Wedding was truly beautiful. The fairy lights were a fabulous touch, the finishing’s all around were great and the little, attention to detail things just made all the difference. It was a stunning, waterfront location and we had arrived just in time to grab a quick champagne off the waiter’s tray as they were walking around, say hi to Viki to let her know we had arrived (her silent grin showed us that she was pissed, we were only just there on time but the fact we weren’t late, she was going to let go ha) before taking our seat for the Wedding shindig to start.

Viki’s daughter, the bride Aleks looked absolutely stunning and her sister, Jovana who was the maid of honour looked just as beautiful and did everything she could to ensure her sister had the most perfect day. From pulling her dress out so it sat perfectly on the alter, ensuring they all had drinks throughout the reception and giving the most loving speech; Aleks was very lucky to have Jovana by her side throughout the day and night. It was lovely to witness.

The Reception was just as beautiful, it was set on the waterfront with more fairy lights and pretty displays. There was a lovely, traditional fire dance included and definitely a highlight of the night. I’m confident the Wedding was everything that Aleks had hoped for and I’m sure the pictures and memories from the night will stay with them forever.