Silver Wedding in Yalıkavak
Our surprise silver wedding celebrations in Yalıkavak.
We recently celebrated our silver wedding in Yalıkavak, Bodrum, Turkey, with many family and friends. This was a total surprise to my wife Karen. How did this all happen, let me tell you the story....
It all began when I asked Karen where she fancied going for our Silver Wedding; literally the sky was the limit. Expecting the Caribbean, or Maldives, Seychelles, the usual paradise resorts, I was taken aback to hear that all she wanted was to go to Yalıkavak and stay in the apartment we had bought two years earlier. ~It should not have been a surprise really, since to us, Yalıkavak WAS paradise, we love it. So OK this was what we decided to do, but I still had to do something that little extra special.
I then had the idea, maybe stupid at the time, to arrange for as many family and friends to share this with us, keeping it totally secret from Karen. The first person to ask was Karen’s mam Muriel, who had been with us to Turkey many times but would never travel in august because of the heat and to my surprise, she thought this was a great idea and said yes immediately. I then moved on to my sister Pat, who also shared the same enthusiasm, I must say, with a devious glint in her eye. My 3 daughters were the next to be asked, well I say three but could only really ask two, the middle daughter Natalie, has Down’s Syndrome and I know is just not able to keep a secret. Her story is a little sub plot of its own. The only way we could get away ourselves, was to have someone look after Natalie because of her learning difficulties, and Pat came up with the idea of taking her on holiday with her and her husband, this would seem so much of a surprise to Karen since the other two girls had been on holiday with their Aunty Pat in the past. So this plan was hatched, Karen asked if Natalie could go to Corfu at the same time we were planning on going to Turkey. So far so good. My daughters had such a terrible time trying to keep the secret, it was so hard and the cat was nearly out of the bag a few times. Karen’s sister Denise and her two boys also decided to come along, which itself was fantastic for Karen, since she had always wanted her to see our Turkish place, but being a lone parent, had never been able to do so. My other sister, Kath, who had never flown before, also decided to brave her fear of flying and come along too. The stage was set, I would also ask many of the friends we had in Yalıkavak to join us, which I would do when we were there at Easter.
Something I had not accounted for though, was how was I going to pay for the party, the food, photos etc. as well as getting my kids to Turkey without Karen knowing, we did after all have a joint bank account. Big problem. Then out of the blue, I received a large tax rebate, I had been paying too much tax, someone was looking after me! I had to pretend I had been overpaid and withdrew the money from the bank, to pay it back to work but secretly doing some money laundering.
Decision made then, planning to do. The family decided to stay at the Cimentepe apartments in Yalıkavak, we had stayed there before, they are very nice and about 25 minutes away from the centre of town, but more importantly 25 minutes away from us, a good place to hide. The flights were booked which left us to book ours. Karen had a look around on the internet and was just about to book flights on 22nd August at 18.00 from Newcastle, just a slight problem with this, 12 of her family were on the same flight! I only just caught her in time and stopped her pressing the “pay now” button. Visions of everyone in disguise with false beards, noses etc. What an escape. I manage to persuade Karen that we could do Newcastle to Gatwick and then Gatwick to Bodrum, easy enough for us, but previously difficult with Natalie’s mobility problems, easy for just the two of us. That was sorted, flights booked, we were to go in the morning and the family at teatime, this gave the kids a few hours to pack, they could not do this before without arousing suspicion.
Plans made to get there in August, now to plan the night itself. We had gone out to Turkey at Easter, so I secretly met up with Brenda at Musti’s steakhouse in Yalıkavak. In fact, subsequently met up loads with Brenda in secret, you would think we were having an affair. How Karen did not suspect anything I will never know. I used to “nip” out to the shop for something and make some excuse that they were busy. I would come up with all sorts of excuses to get out without Karen. My most common one was to go out for a haircut, as any visitor to Turkey knows, a visit to the barber’s is not like home, you are there forever, shave, haircut, earwax, massage, the works, absolutely fantastic, but also a great excuse to stay out a while and make plans. I did however, shoot myself in the foot when Kipa (Turkey Tesco’s) had hair clippers on offer and bought them, since Karen often did my hair (well what hair was left) at home normally. Thankfully they were not much good and I could carry on visiting Oscar for the treatment.
Plans made then with Brenda, she was fantastic and organised just about everything, we were to be given a table for two on the balcony overlooking the most beautiful sunset over the sea, Karen was in on this bit, this was to be Brenda’s gift for our special evening, our Shirley Valentine moment, just the two of us. Brenda even offered to pay for a photograph to be taken, an excuse to get Karen dressed up. ( This did not really work because Karen did try on a few dresses at home in preparation, but felt so uncomfortable and thinking about the heat, opted for trousers and a top, still looked great but felt underdressed on the night, there was no way around insisting on a nice dress without giving the game away.) Brenda’s husband, Musti, who owns the restaurant, offered to pick us up, this was to get around the problem of going through the village, because everyone knows Natalie and if they had said they had seen her to us, the secret was out. Natalie speaks to everyone as we walk through the village, in Turkish I might add and it takes an absolute age to get very far. The excuse was then that because it was a special occasion, Musti would pick us up. Karen could not understand this but went for it thankfully. So Brenda was arranging the food, the flowers, photographer etc. and also managed to organise a local priest to conduct the service, all plans were going well. I scoured the internet and wrote some vows to be read out, planning to print them out and get them given out, but managed to leave the memory stick with them on in Turkey, I could not risk them being on my PC at home. Quick panic resolved when I managed to get a friend, Chris, who lives in Turkey to print them out and circulate for me, thanks Chris.
Stage set then and off we went to Yalıkavak, via Gatwick, from where I phoned Natalie and told her she was not going to Corfu after all but to Turkey, very much to her delight, she loves it there and has so many friends. The family could now start packing and scheming in earnest.
On the morning of Sunday 23rd. August, I sneaked out to Cimentepe apartments to see the family, pretending this time that because I had bought new sandals, I needed to test whether I could drive in them, two hours later I was sure they were OK.
A big regret was that the family needed to avoid the village in case we either bumped into them or we saw someone who gave the game away, so to get around this I arranged to take Karen to Altınkum all day on the Monday, just to get as far away as possible, this was awful, we do not like Altınkum, like Blackpool with sunshine, OK for those who like that sort of place but not for us. On the way back, Karen wanted to go to Musti’s for an evening meal, but I knew the family were there and had to make more excuses and lies, ending up eating well out of the village in Gündoğan. The first day, Sunday was taken care of, friends invited us to a traditional Turkish breakfast in the hills which lasted nearly all day and we had a meal with our neighbours downstairs, again, all to avoid going out and risking meeting up with family. Just the Tuesday to avoid town now. I decided to get the pool cleaned which meant we had to wait in all day and not go out.
The night of the anniversary celebration finally arrived and we waited for Musti to come. Text message to say there was a slight delay, which I later learnt to be a very major delay. The priest phoned to say he could not come, fifteen minutes to go. Brenda had a quick panic, a couple of vodkas, then came up with Martin, who lived in the village. Martin used to work for the British Consulate in Bodrum and was able to give the service an official feel, not that it really needed it, it was just pretend after all, but at least he was used to performing official ceremonies and was great.
Friends and family now secretly entrenched in a room of the 
balcony at Musti’s and we were now going up the stairs. The table was nicely laid out, champagne flowing when Martin was introduced a as a surprise and Karen told we were to renew our vows. The service was about to begin, when Brenda announced another surprise, and out came our friends who live in Turkey, our “Turkish family”, much to Karen’s shock. The surprises just kept coming, Karen’s mam, Sam and Lucy, two of my daughters, which made Karen cry, to think they were there and Natalie was in Corfu, then out came Natalie, not a dry eye in the house, including the men. Rest of the family followed, and last was Denise, Karen’s sister, again more tears.
The service continued with the reading of the vows and again many a tear because there was reference to those who were at the original wedding but had since passed. Service over, photos taken, more photos taken, followed by more photos and eventually time to eat. Fantastic buffet, mezes galore followed by several main dishes. The dessert was a huge cake with our original wedding photo on it.
An absolute fantastic, never to be repeated night was had by all. Heartfelt thanks to all who made this possible, family and friends, especially Brenda for all of her hard work, the new Yalıkavak wedding planner, she even sang a song for us, Eva Cassidy, “Fields of Gold”, if ever you go, get her to sing it, she would impress Simon Cowell.
I can now breathe a sigh of relief and sleep soundly!