Hiking

Fiji Four

Saturday was the "western style" reception. It was at Central Cuisine in Suva. Danielle, Balavu, and I went down and spent the afternoon decorating the tables and preparing the last minute details. All the nieces were thrilled to go to the salon in the morning and get their hair done for the occasion. They looked so beautiful in the red dresses that Finau sent down. It was a fun night with lots of food and dancing.

The Reception

Fiji Three

The temple ceremony was Thursday, but the Tevutevu wasn't until Friday afternoon. So after the temple Talei came back to us and stayed with her family until Friday night. The Tevutevu is the traditional fijian wedding ceremony. The bride's side brings mats, blankets, masi, pillows, bedding, mosquito nets, and other various things to the groom's home and they present the bride to the boy's family sealing the match with the traditional presentation of the tabua (whale's tooth). For days prior to the Tevutevu family from all sides brought piles and piles of gifts to the home. It was an amazing process to watch. My favorite gift was the waiwai (homemade coconut oil) Inoke's mom was kind enough to hook me up with a bottle of the sweet smelling oil to take home to Hawaii.

Tevutevu

Fiji Two

Next on our trip was the temple. I will never forget Talei's wedding. We rushed and rushed around to be there for the ceremony at noon. I was yelling at Inoke all the way up the steps that we were going to be late. He just kept telling me to relax, it was Fiji Time. When we got there the Temple Matron told us to relax Talei and Jona went to town to get the marriage licence. Uhh small detail. So we sat and waited and waited talking story with the temple matron. Finally Inoke, Wes, and Sami got tired of waiting and decided to leave to go get some food. Only in Fiji. Talei returned licence in hand and we got started at 3pm. It was a beautiful ceremony and Inoke's dad was able to officiate. The rain even held out for a few pictures afterwards.

The Temple