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Tahiti in French Polynesia offers romantic – and now legal—backdrop for ...

22.02.12

MOOREA, FRENCH POLYNESIA—When my friend Miles and I decide to investigate this heart-shaped island near Tahiti, we don’t expect to get married. But it happens.

We stumble into a wedding photo shoot at the Moorea Pearl Resort & Spa that’s meant to document the festive, Polynesian ritual, as well as spread the word that weddings are now legal for Canadians in Tahiti and throughout French Polynesia. (For years, couples could only undergo a symbolic ceremony in paradise.)

We’re planning to be bystanders, like the cadre of others gathered on the beach and grouped across a wooden footbridge that leads to a line of thatched-roof, stilt-bottomed, over-water bungalows — all interfaced with an indigo-kissed sea. But when the bride and groom don’t show up for the party, somebody needs to stand in for them.

Miles and I are delighted to comply.

Attendants swathed in Tahitian wear escort us into a bungalow decorated for the faux wedding as artfully as it would be for a real one. A trail of flowers leads to the bathtub, where more flowers float and bob, emanating the heady aroma of frangipani laced with gardenia. A heart, sculpted from red blooms, covers the bed. From the panoramic window, I see an oceanscape turbulent with blues. They mottle the water like smudges — bits of sapphire, jade and rich turquoise splayed out in a frenzy of van Gogh-like brush strokes. I’m offered a skewer of pineapple and a glass of champagne, and reckon I’ve reached heaven.

Source: Toronto Star