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A Zimbabwean woman returned home with her foreign husband of three years to renewed their vows at a wildlife sanctuary in Selous and in attendance was the bride’s family accompanied by a slew of majestic elephants.Cory Perkins and his wife of three years, Lynette, decided to come to Zimbabwe from their base in the United States so that she could see her family and build a safe house for young girls affected by the AIDS epidemic.
“First, we went to Tsholotsho to build a safe-house for young girls who have been abused. After a week of building, the project was completed and we went on to Harare to finally meet her family and have our wedding celebration. We then went on to Vic Falls for the honeymoon,” said Perkins.
An event planner for an international ministry, Perkins knew he would travel back to Zimbabwe at some point and took the humanitarian project as his impetus for going.
“I was able to do a humanitarian aid project for the ministry in Zimbabwe,” he explained, finally being able to solidify plans for their exotic excursion.
“So we planned this huge three-week trip.”
It was the first wedding the bride’s family was able to attend.
“Because her family couldn’t make it over to the states, and we were in the middle of a green card process so she couldn’t leave the country until that was completed, we had a small ceremony in Pennsylvania,” Perkins said of his initial wedding celebration three years ago.
The local ceremony was much larger and certainly not ordinary by any standard.
The wedding in Zimbabwe hosted 150 guests with a mix of both modern and traditional.
“We made the decision early on to have a mix of a westernised wedding and the traditional African wedding,” Corey said. ‘We told the people attending to wear African attire and we had traditional dancers which people really enjoyed.”
At a time when almost every othe couple is trying to outdo each other with fancy settings and elaborate decor, this duo decided to let mother nature be their decorator.
They got married beneath a giant tree because they thought the setting was the most scenic. The safari lodge provided all of the elephants.
Everyone had a great time, including Lynette’s grandmother and Corey realised why Steve Kekana said that music was born in Africa in one of his songs a long time ago..
“One of the coolest things was throughout the entire ceremony and reception, everyone from Lynette’s family, even her 98-year-old grandmother who just had hip surgery, was dancing the entire time,” Perkins said of their magical day.
The happy couple met when they were both at college at Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania when they were both on athletic scholarships.
This is the first time Corey has met the bride’s family but he said,’ It feels like I’ve been part of the family the entire time.’ And so he should, because traditionally a son-in-law, mukuwasha in Shona or umkwenyana in Ndebele is a part of the family.
The couple honeymooned in Victoria Falls. – Daily Mail/The Saturday Herald Lifestyle.
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