Mellissa and Amando

IT was certainly a wedding with a difference. A Trinidadian walking up the aisle to wed an Italian. But the wedding took on a more calypso and Indian flavour with two dancers from Trinidad flying into Sandals all-inclusive resort at Montego Bay, Jamaica, for the wedding last Saturday. Mellissa Lalsingh, 33, the first equine dentist in the Caribbean became the wife of Italian Amando Pizzuti, the Corporate Director, Food and Beverage at Sandals. Amando has been working in Jamaica for the last ten years. The wedding was held at the Sandals Chapel in Montego Bay and attended by close to 200 guests coming from Italy, Miami, Toronto and Trinidad. The ceremony was very simple, unlike normal weddings. For one thing, the bride, groom, groomsmen, bridesmaids, flower girl and page boy all had to stand for 30 minutes during the ceremony. There were no seats for them.

The small chapel was packed to capacity. One wonders what would have happened if the 200 guests had decided to go to the chapel. There were two readings and the gospel before the priest delivered his sermon. Then it was down to the exchange of vows, the blessing of the rings, and the signing of the register. The ceremony was all over before you knew it. But the ceremony was disturbed briefly on five occasions by planes leaving the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. The Sandals resort is situated adjacent to the airport runway. The noise from the departing aircraft was so loud that it disrupted the wedding ceremony. In quick time, the third wedding of the day at Sandals was over. Guests were then transported two miles away to Rose Hall for the wedding reception. That is where all hell broke loose.

The in-house disc jockey warmed up the place with calypsos, the majority of them from Trinidad and Tobago. Kitchener’s “Sugar Bum Bum” stole the party with the Italians having a ball. Imagine an Italian asking if “Sugar Bum Bum” was sung in Jamaica. But more was to come. Two Indian dancers from Trinidad took over the floor and thrilled the guests, many of whom were seeing that for the first time. Guests were left with their mouths open by the hip movement of the dancers. Then came the big surprise. Mellissa changed her wedding dress and reappeared in a gold sari and danced the night away. With her husband at her side, the Trini contingent wondered whether she had been practising.

How did this couple meet? Amando said that two years ago, he was invited to a daytime party in Montego Bay by Bernadette Dunn, aunt of the bride. He said Bernadette wanted him to meet Mellissa. He did go to the party, although he was tired from attending another one the night before. Mellissa was visiting Jamaica at the time as she was living in Miami. Amando said he met Mellissa and invited her to go out with him almost immediately. She accepted and love bloomed. Amando came to Trinidad for the first time in 2003 and attended horse racing at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, where Mellissa’s early day began. Mellissa comes from the well-known De Freitas racing family.