A family celebrated Izmir's first ever Indian wedding at the Turkish holiday destination, attracting the attention of Turkish news media.
Sandip Patel had the pleasure to watch his son walk down the isle on the picturesque coast of Turkey just three weeks ago.
Sandip, who has run the Amersham Post Office with his wife for 20 years, joined his son Krishen and his fiance Raveena to have their dream destination wedding.
The father-of-two brought up his sons in Amersham, where Krishen attended local schools before going to university in the US after winning a scholarship.
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Sandip said: “We’re a typical Asian family, in my house we have three generations living together.
“When I heard my son was getting married my first question was are we having a UK wedding or a destination wedding.”
Before they decided on Turkey as the most attractive option, they considered Cyprus and Portugal, but a lot of places were booked out due to backlog of weddings from the pandemic.
The wedding party decided to chance it with an organiser and a hotel, who had never done an Indian wedding before after they fell in love with Korumar Ephesus Resort in Izmir, and a local wedding company called Sun, Sea and Shaadi.
Sandip said: “The highlight for me was watching the bride and my son walk down the isle. His entrance was iconic, he came on a speed boat with an entourage on jet skis.
The picture-perfect ceremony on the beach at a Mandap (a temple) was followed by a Mendhi night on the first evening, which kicked off three-days of celebration.
He said: "We had dancing and singing, and it was such a memorable evening.
“We did things we couldn’t have in the UK – we had boat parties, a massive display."
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Another big moment for the father-of-two was to have his 80-year-old mother there to witness her eldest grandchild tie the knot.
He said: “It brough all our cultural elements together, and the organisers delivered on every single detail, it was so professional and perfect, like the amazing flower display.
“One of the biggest compliments we had from the wedding experience was how they got the Indian food so right – this is a country that doesn’t deal in spice foods!”
The organisers had built an Indian wedding temple on the beach, and when a sudden storm blew over the resort, the hotel staff and management acted quickly to transfer everything inside without any problems.
“It’s not what we planned, but everyone just carried on partying and dancing indoors!”
Alongside the 250 guests from Amersham and London, Sweden, South Africa, Ireland and Botswana, the resort had alerted the national news to the first of its kind wedding in the area.
As a cherry on top, Sandip’s friend, who owns the Turkish restaurant Villa Mangal on Amersham’s Hill Avenue, was left surprised when the wedding of his friend’s son appeared on his restaurant’s TV screens on Turkish national news.
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