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His ’n’ hers matching camels get couple to the wedding on time
The bride had hoped to arrive on an elephant but her alternative still had guests gasping
IT is the biggest day of your life, planned meticulously months in advance with a guest list boasting your closest family and dearest friends.
So would you want to risk it being ruined by inviting two, 85-stone animals with reputations for being stubborn and who show their displeasure by regurgitating the contents of their stomachs and spitting them out?
But it worked perfectly for Johnnie and Rosh Keegan, from Kentish Town.
Their arrival on camels for the wedding at Highgate’s Lauderdale House at the weekend had guests gasping.
Rosh (née Ratanje) runs a one-woman company making organic somosas and bhajis for health food stores. She wanted to pay homage to her Indian roots at her marriage. Indian brides often arrived on elephants but this was ruled out as there is only one in the country that could be used. She decided then to turn to camels.
“We did pursue the idea of having an elephant walk through Waterlow Park with me on its back but it was sadly not possible,” she said. There were issues, unsurprisingly, of health and safety to be considered.
“Indian weddings often have the bride arrive on horseback, but I wanted something a little more exotic,” she added.
“We thought: what is the next best thing? I had ridden camels before and so we agreed: let’s do that.”
But perching on top of the camel was no mean feat for a bride dressed in her wedding finery.
She said: “I must say I got on it rather disgracefully. It had been raining so the camel couldn’t kneel down. I had to be hoisted up. I had my sari up around my ears.”
The couple’s arrival on camels at Lauderdale House made it all worthwhile. They rode through Waterlow Park accompanied by Indian drummers. None of the guests knew what was happening until they appeared through the trees.
The new Mrs Keegan said: “There were so many gasps from the guests. The look on their faces was just brilliant.”
The two camels, called Omar and Sharifi after the star of the film, Lawrence of Arabia, were supplied by Amazing Animals, an Oxford-based company.
Mrs Keegan said: “The camels were wonderfully behaved – the perfect wedding guests. And the idea worked so well. We are both quite eccentric sometimes so it fitted in with the proceedings.”
The couple first met in Spain – “many years ago”, according to the bride – and now plan to return there for a honeymoon. Mr Keegan, a builder, has a home there and they plan to divide their time between the UK and Spain.
Lauderdale House manager Carolyn Nash said it was perhaps the oddest request they had received from the 40-odd weddings they host each year, but one they were thrilled to help make happen. She said: “It is wonderfully bizarre, fantastic and frankly, why not? We thought the idea was hysterical.” |
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