Love in Action – a wedding at Fivelements
“In Bali, the strong sense of spirit, devotion to ceremony and power of nature stimulates a heightened consciousness, an openness and a desire to experience life and love more deeply. We just need to open our hearts and let Love flow in. And when it does, we can choose to take it, to know it intimately, to be willing to risk all for it, to endure the ever-evolving dance with another – our friend, our lover, our life partner."
Lahra Tatriele, co-founder Fivelements
Hillary and Janur chose Fivelements as their wedding venue back in 2011, and this is how Hillary remembers it:
We were married at Fivelements three years ago. We chose it as our wedding venue for its astoundingly beautiful energy, which emanates from everything, from the architecture and setting to the very people who make its story come alive.
I walked slowly, in full regalia, to the ceremony, the highlight of our wedding. It was held in Mandala Agung, a grand, sacred space of spiraling bamboo 22 meters high, with a channel of light entering in through its crowned center. There were frangipanis sprinkled across the entire floor and hanging like falling starsfrom the rotunda above.
The space felt enormous and yet intimate, the light, extraordinary, the falling flowers like stars, the carpet of blossoms almost too beautiful to walk upon. And the circle of seated friends and family like a surrounding embrace.
As the ceremony unfolded I felt humbled, intensely flooded with emotion, and so grateful for the friends, family and readers who participated in and supported us on that day.
Everything went very smoothly. All Fivelements’ staff were wonderful and the entire event flowed beautifully, especially considering that we had deliberately rehearsed nothing!
At the reception, the five-course raw and cooked vegetarian meal was an exquisite unfurling of delicate flavors that astounded all our guests (even those far from the raw-vegan persuasion). The raw layered berry tart that was selected as our wedding cake disappeared in minutes!
Every year on the December Solstice, we look back on that day. We read through the entire program, through all the passages, poems and memoirs that were shared with us that day. We relive all the beauty and bounty that surrounded us then, and that buoys us now. We remind ourselves of our carefully written vows. And every year the memory of the day becomes sweeter still.
