Some wore short-sleeved shirts and dress shorts. Nearby was a basket with a sign reading "shoes optional.'' It was pretty much full.
This was my first experience with a Mexican resort wedding. A kind soul at the Azul Beach Hotel, near Cancun, noticed I was dining alone and invited me to join their table.
They were from British Columbia and were there for a wedding. I ate with them the next evening, , and ended up meeting most of the wedding party, including the bride, who insisted I attend the nuptials.
That's how I came to be sitting, slathered in sunscreen, while Katharine, a Brit, and Liam, a Canadian, stood waiting to become man and wife.
It was a civil ceremony, conducted in Spanish with another woman translating everything into English.
It was pretty dry stuff, until Katherine and Liam exchanged vows that sounded like they'd written them themselves. It was those heartfelt expressions of love and hope that made the event intensely personal, and had some reaching for their tissues.
Hotel staff had cordoned off a stretch of beach before the ceremony. Swimsuit-clad resort guests watched from the sidelines. Some even snapped photos.
Louis Armstrong's version of It's a Wonderful World came over the sound system. A little mop-haired boy solemnly distributed flower petals for guests to toss when the time came.
Dark clouds moved in, a few drops fell, and plans for post- wedding drinks on the beach were quickly shifted under cover.
Weddings -- and such followups as anniversary celebrations and renewals of vows -- are a huge business at sun-destination resorts.
One advantage is obvious -- a combined wedding and honeymoon for the bride and groom, a holiday for the guests.
Katherine gave me other reasons for flying thousands of kilometres to say her "I do's'' in a foreign country.
It equalized, to some extent, the distance the guests had to travel. Katherine's mom and dad live in England and Liam's mother lives in France, but there was a large contingent from B.C.
And it relieved Katherine's elderly parents of having to host guests and show them around, something she said they would felt obliged to do had the wedding been held in Britain.
She and Liam picked the Azul Beach because it is small -- a 97-room all-inclusive -- and has a policy of holding only one wedding a day.
Couples interested in a sun- destination wedding can deal with a resort directly or use one of the major Canadian tour operators. They offer discounts for group bookings and some have resort partners that will do the wedding for nothing if a certain number of rooms is booked. A travel agent can steer you in the right direction.
Presentations
Novack's Talks With Travellers, 7 p.m., Monday, 211 King St., London. Yosemite & San Francisco, with James Cowie.
What's new in Britain
- A skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is among the exhibits at the new Great North Museum opening this spring in Newcastle upon Tyne. Local interest will be represented by an interactive model of Hadrian's Wall. The museum will be open daily and admission will be free. Visit www.greatnorthmuseum.org.
- A 65-metre-long sprayed concrete "cocoon'' housing millions of insect and plant specimens will be the architectural highlight of the Darwin Centre, which opens at the Natural History Museum in London, England, in September. The museum is open daily and admission is free. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk.
Nissan launches 370Z Roadster and Nismo 370Z at New York
Treasure Coast lives up to name
