Per an announcement earlier in this blog, Patrick Mills (my fourth cousin) and Lisa Gerrard were married in Cuba on January 3rd. Below is an email from Patrick and Lisa to the entire family:
Dear all,
Apologies for the delay in sending this out: it took us quite a while to recover from the return journey. Jetlag, colds, and a general sense of disbelief that we were no longer on a Caribbean island, but were in fact back in Colchester, all delayed our ability to 'get on with everything' again!
First of all, thank you so much for all your best wishes, lovely cards and general support. We attach one photo as a teaser, and if you'd like to see more (be warned, there are quite a few!), click this link.Just to make sense of the photos: as you may know we got married in Havana, Cuba, on 3rd January. All the important things went well, and many unimportant things did not go so well - which was amusing - at least we can laugh about them now!
Eg a mini hurricane on the big day meant we couldn't marry on the roof terrace of the hotel as planned, so the ceremony took place in a rather small room inside the hotel. And although we asked for a band with the style of the Buena Vista Social Club, we in fact ended up with the Mala Vista Social Club...The music was more suited to a sombre memorial service, and the band was rather visually challenged, as is hinted at in the album photos. But we can laugh now....
Everything else was brilliant! Havana has got to be the cooolest city on earth, without even trying. The people are fantastic and whatever you may read in the media - their brand of socialism has produced a better standard of living compared with most of Latin America. The latino jazz bands in the bars were sublime, the ex-mafia hotels were straight out of the Godfather II, and haven't changed since 1959. Neither had the cars, which we both drooled over. Witness, for example, the photo of the 1959 pink cadillac taxi that we casually hailed in the street, for around £7, including a prolonged photo session.
Needless to say, the cocktails were refreshing, and lethal - while the cigars were just lethal - naturally, we had to include some shots of all of us with them to make this 'Our Big Fat Cuban Cigar Wedding'.
We're desperate to return to Cuba - a truly fascinating, funky, romantic country with a big heart!
Best wishes
Lisa & Patrick
Congratulations Patrick and Lisa, and best of luck to both of you from the entire extended Mullen Family!