Elaine, a Destination Wedding Photographer, from Reel Life Photos in Yorkshire is preparing for a Destination Wedding in Africa in April 2010, www.WeddingPhotographyWorld.co.uk will be following Elaines preperations and progress in the build up to her trip to the Gambia, and following her progress whilst there.

Check back here in the days and weeks ahead to see how Elaine gets on.

This update in from Elaine today..............it's not everyday we get asked to cover a wedding in Africa, here's how Elaine is preparing for her adventure in Gambia.

29 March 2010.....Wow! How exciting.

Well, today I collected my prescription for Malarone anti-malaria tablets - 23 little pills at just short of £60! Add to that a Deet impregnated pop-up mozzie net for my bed, as well as insect-repellent, plenty of fully charged batteries and I'm almost ready for off. Just waiting for a basic unlocked phone to arrive so I can use a Gambia Sim card for local communication during the wedding week and a few last-minute ideas like a solar charger as may not have electricity everywhere during my travels but at around 35 degrees sun is likely to be a constant!

Denise met Bax while she was working in Gambia a few years back, as an Operations Manager. Despite now working in France, they are building a house together in Gambia so might actually be able to see each other a bit! Denise is a happy person - and with a great sense of humour!

The ceremony was to have been held on the beach, but to conform to local legalities, will now take place in a hotel, but straight afterwards the party will get into the wedding cars and head for the beach bar! However their wedding cars are likely to cause some amusement and high-spirits, as rather than the standard-issue British style elegance, these are in true Gambian style likely to be held together with bits of string - but the horns are sure to work! Noise goes hand in hand with wedding celebrations in this lovely climate.

Bax himself drives the local truck-bus, so is sure to have loads of friends! In fact on the second day, when the Gambians are hosting the celebrations - invitations don't need to be issued, as the whole community is expected to turn up. Catering is in giant cauldrons out of doors, so there will be plenty for all - however many the feast is for!

I'll be meeting up with most of the UK guests at Manchester airport as we all fly out a crack of dawn on Monday to arrive into the unknown around lunch-time.

Elaines report to date 9 April 2010. Enjoy!

I arrived in the Gambia on Easter Monday and was treated to a visual display of local musicians who traditionally perform in the streets on this day, but obviously made sure they came past the house where I am staying!
See pics
A trip to Serekunda market also drives me crazy with my camera, capturing all the beautiful women in multi-patterned African dress, soaking up the ambience with my lens!
See pics
Tuesday 6 April
We have a power cut so I can’t finish working on my photos, however Mr Cham, a friend of the Best Man Adama, arrives to tell us of a traditional naming ceremony taking place about a mile up the road, so that fills the rest of the day.
There is a compound of little houses, with access to a large communal yard where the ladies are preparing the feast. They are all dressed in their celebration outfits, beautifully tailored and sculpted around their bodies. I meet the baby girl’s Aunties, Mum and Grandma, as well as around 60 other guests and family members.

Mr Cham is a teacher at the local nursery school which he founded with help of a British couple a few years ago. He is rightly very proud of this achievement of his dream! He wants to use some of the pictures I am taking today to go on the walls of his school.
After the food - rice with chicken, aubergine and another vegetable - one of the women asks for money to buy some condensed milk so they can make sweet minty milk tea to share with the other women. One asks for the fancy bobble in my hair so I take it off and give it to her. They all like my banana necklace, but I don’t give that away as it is the only one I have with me. (I bought it in a charity shop many years ago!). We are also offered sweet sticky black tea that tastes of figs, called Ataya, that comes in a packet ready-made.
Two of the women wash up the big cooking pots, even scrubbing the soot off the bottom, as these pots are only used for big celebrations.

We arrive back after dusk to see a neighbour platting a girl’s hair in the dark. At that moment though the lights come back on!
 
Wednesday – Day 3
We are all meeting up to go on a trip out in Bax’s big minibus. As usual I keep everyone waiting so am not too popular! Along the way we pass a huge children’s village for orphans, or needy kids, called the SOS village Hermanminer – a German sponsored project - then bump along red dirt roads till we arrive at Tanji Fish Processing Centre along the beach. The policeman at the entrance gives me a personal guided tour, starting with their lifeboat station that was set uses 3 or 4 British donated fibre-glass launches powered by outboard motors and covers a distance of 800 nautical miles!
See pics
Here they sun-dry all sorts of fish, and smoke the rest for export. The light streaming through the open window-holes in the roof creates a visually exciting atmosphere as I video the man in charge as he describes the whole process.

The boat builders are busy on a new fishing canoe made out of a variety of wood such as “Gmaliner” (not sure of spelling) or Mahogany. The master boat builder wants some carpenter’s pencils that he says he can’t buy here, and that German tourists usually send him. “I’ll see what I can do”, I say.
We the go to Sanyang Beach for lunch. They have an array of exotic birds under the trees, including birds of paradise, hence the English nickname of Paradise Beach. They cook the food over a wood-burning fire set in a huge hearth. We arrived unexpected but they still manage to feed us all!
See pics of fire and cooking...
A few guys are selling tourist trinkets, but because most of the guests are seasoned travellers they don’t feel tempted. I want to support them so soon spent up!
Next stop is a parking lot for minibuses and other commercial vehicles, called Brikama, next to the market where the wedding guests wish to purchase material to make African dresses ton wear for the wedding. I wander off and buy all sorts of unusual things, like a bunch of dried green leaves the size of bay leaves – used to make a kind of tea called Nana.
The final stop is at Bax and Denise’s house they are still building, set in a delightful walled garden with sweet-smelling trees on the right and newly planted banana trees on the right. A band of around 20 musicians is playing their hearts outs out as a surprise welcome committee! We are here to meet Bax’s many brothers, sisters and other relatives.

If a visitor comes to a village, the Alkalo (headman) will arrange for a room for the guest free of charge. This is part of the Gambian hospitality for visitors who don’t have any family connections or friends in the village.