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BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

After a great wedding, a honeymoon to match

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The wedding party: Gail Raynor, Niranjalie Romeo, Lianna Masters, Kaitlyn Simmons, Shelle Hendrickson, Grace Yu, Sharmini Samuels, Nicole Huang (Maid of Honor), Bride Belle Huang and Groom Gary, Joshua Samuels (Best Man), Nathan Samuels, Alonzo Johnson, R-Jay Huang, Michael Simmons, Kyle Masters, Roderick Romeo, Ivan Raynor. Flower Girls: Riley Jackson, Malini Romeo, Jaeshri Romeo, and Ring Bearer Vladimir Focke

It was easy for us to conclude that the talk of the town last week must have been our feature on strikingly beautiful wedding of Gary Simons the widely esteemed President of the Cornerstone Foundation and Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Church at the eastern end of Church Street, Hamilton, and his Taiwanese-born bride Belle Shih-Han HuanThe Great Sound Lawn of the Fairmont Southampton Hotel was the setting the previous week of what turned out to be the wedding of the year. Some 600 people, many from Gary’s congregation, were on hand for the 9 a.m. Saturday morning start of this event.In addition there were over 30 overseas guests from Taiwan, Holland, Las Vegas, Haiti, Philadelphia, New York, Nebraska, and Virginia to witness the big day.Ordinary traffic in and about the hotel was impacted as many other people checked out the scene from vantage points. It was just different. So was the reception that followed at the Fairmont.And even more so afterwards, at the Tucker’s Point Hotel was the fabulous luncheon, attended by many of the ‘movers and shakers’ who had helped Pastor Gary raise more than $5 million dollars in pledges in a one-afternoon’s fund raiser for the new Cornerstone church planned for the site a stone’s throw across the street from their present ‘big little worship centre’ in Hamilton.I figured that after such an exotic wedding day Gary and Belle surely must have planned a compatible honeymoon. Taking advantage of the ‘E-World’ in which we find ourselves, I sent the Pastor an email, enquiring about where they were and how things were going“We are having an awesome time,” was Gary’s response. “We are in the French Polynesian Island of Bora Bora, the Four Seasons Golden Triangle Tented Resort in the jungles of Chiang Rai and the rainforest of Koh Samui.Gary took time out to explain how arrived in Chiang Rai in the jungles of the Golden Triangle living in an air-conditioned luxury tent on stilts in the forest with all the modern amenities. They had to travel one hour from the airport then board into a private river boat for a short ride on the Mekong River to get to the Golden Triangle.“Before we met I have been travelling to various countries leading missions trips and teaching various people groups, whereas Belle has also been in various countries doing missions work with Operation Mobilization. Between the two of us we have travelled in over 53 countries. For this reason, I wanted our honeymoon to consist of countries that we both have never visited to share new experiences together. So we will visit three unique areas prior to spending the night in Los Angeles before heading back to Bermuda (next week).“We lived in a Bungalow above the clear waters of the French colony of Bora Bora this past week, now we are in the jungles of Chiang Rai and will end up at the southern shore and rainforest of Koh Samui of Thailand. We are enjoying this special time and we know it will be a firm foundation for many years to come.”Gary also acceded to my request to send a picture or two of the honeymooners. In the one below they are enjoying a ‘chow’ somewhere in a Bora Bora restaurant. And in response to some pointed enquiries from readers about ‘how come you guys (at the Gazette) didn’t show the bridesmaids?” last week, this Zeudi Hinds photo above of the entire wedding party takes care of business.

Belle Shih-Han Huan and Pastor Gary Simons enjoy a meal in Bora Bora.