All you need is love in Soller
We love weddings in Soller and the City gets plenty to host and love. Big, formal, beachside, mirador, hotels, churches, gardens are all the locations and forms of a wedding Soller style. Take last Friday evening for instance when San Bartholomew Church was used to host a very grand affair. A beautiful bride and many, many guests in tuxedos looking like the grandest wedding party ever. A little questioning revealed a story I have shared with you before about the Siege of Sarajevo. What has this got to do with a wedding I can hear you ask? Bear with me for the sake of new readers and I will update the story.
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Twenty years ago when Bosnia was in the throes of awfulness and the siege of Sarajevo took place Spain offered sanctuary to refugees. In Spain , fleeing families were offered the choice of Majorca, Minorca or Valencia as the places that would welcome 100 families each. In Majorca it was the City of Soller which held out their arms widest to welcome the families. The group arrived in the winter with nothing and were accommodated at the Brisas Hotel – now renamed as the Citric Hotel. The people of Soller organised a relief team to help this dispossessed group and over a few months work was found for all able to work and children were installed in school. A few more months passed and the people moved into rental accommodation and began to fund their own lives here. This was a highly intelligent group of professional people that numbered, doctors, dentists, architects and many other professions amongst their group
The wedding which was the talk of the City last Friday included the beautiful bride who is from the Bosnian community here. The people celebrating a fine wedding with Bosnian and Spanish links was very special for the Sollerics who remember their arrival in this place. Life moves on and the majority of that community have remained here in Soller, married local people and are integrated Sollerics. This special wedding was more than a beautiful love story but one where the Soller people can be proud of a job well done. The Bosnian community in turn remain grateful for their opportunities in Soller and have repaid their debt over and over with their contribution to life in all its forms here.
I was personally involved on Saturday as another simply wonderful wedding took place. My role was that of the ‘Wedding Officiator’ which meant that I conducted the ceremony. This wedding was held on the Sunset Patio of the Museum of the Sea in the Port of Soller . Flowers adorned the railings and the backdrop of sea and blue sky were only slightly affected by the raging wind! The best man held the lectern down so that my words didn’t fly away and everyone held on to their very fine hats and fascinators. The beautiful bride arrived in a white Rolls Royce which was such an unusual sight climbing the narrow roads up to the Museum that it was stopped by the police. Permits and permission had been obtained and this was soon checked and they were waved on. This was a great occasion and in the end no one noticed that they were being blown away. They, like me were just privileged to be at such a special wedding sharing the moment with two young people who love one another.
The Spanish guitar and champagne set the scene for one of the many receptions this wedding party were going to enjoy from Bens d’avall to Agapanto. The wedding planners of the Avenida Hotel had done a very fine job for this great family and for all the Soller locations they used.
From weddings it was back to Soller Square for music and dancing all the way this past weekend. On Saturday we were in the land of the Xeremiers and Fiabiolers – the drummers and pipers. They had a gathering in Soller City Centre which lasted hours. They paraded the streets and held individual performances on the stage before coming to a glorious crescendo. The pipes and drums are a feature of our lives in Soller and come out at every celebration and fiesta. No sooner as they packed away their instruments then out came the dancing shoes
The Aires d’Sollerics are a dance group who are present at everything we do. They dance the traditional dances in the costumes of Majorca and they fervently keep the traditions alive. They celebrated their 45 th Anniversary on Sunday and at that time Soller square was the place to be. The people of Soller came out in their masses to support their dance group who were augmented by other towns dance schools. It appears that every town and village in Majorca has their own school. On Sunday afternoon most of them were with us. We had a great celebration and sense of shared community. A lovely way to end such a special weekend in the Soller Valley .
