Couple ridiculed by hotel staff in wedding ceremony

A group of hotel workers in the Maldives are understood to have been sacked after carrying out a phony wedding ceremony during which one of them, posing as a 'celebrant', mocked and insulted a Swiss couple thought to have paid $1,300 to renew their wedding vows.

Speaking in the local Dhivehi language, which the guests could not understand, the celebrant called them "infidel" and "swine" and mocked the fact that the ceremony he was supposedly conducting in all seriousness was in fact without legitimacy.

It has transpired that papers he held in his hands were not marriage documents at all, but hotel employee contracts.

Video of the 'ceremony' has appeared on YouTube, much to the consternation of the luxury Vilu Reef hotel and the Indian Ocean islands' government.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed said he was "horrified" by the video.

Speaking from Male, the capital, he told reporters: "I could not see the entire video because my children were around and I didn't want them to hear the bad language that was used."

The Vilu Reef Beach and Spa Resort charges $400 a night for its honeymoon suite and $1,300 for renewing wedding vows. As its website states, couples may seal their "everlasting love" as "the Maldivian sunset transforms the sky into a kaleidoscope of romantic hues".

In the video, now helpfully translated from Dhivehi, the 'celebrant' - named in some reports as Hussein Didi - asks the couple to hold their hands up in the Muslim prayer position, and then chants:
 
"Fornication has been legalised according to Article six, 1.11 of the Penal Code. That is, frequent fornication by homosexuals. Most fornication is by males."

Still chanting, he goes on: "You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine. Your marriage is not a valid one."

All his fellow employees manage to keep straight faces during the 15-minute 'ceremony' - some even take photographs.

The couple then plant a tiny coconut tree on the beach to seal their magic moment. As the woman bends down, a man can be heard exclaiming: "Can see her breasts!"

To which another man, presumably referring to the many years spent catering to topless sunbathers at the resort, comments: "My beard has gone grey watching those things... I have seen so many of them now that I don't even want to look any more when I see them."

Mohamed Rasheed, general manager of the Vilu Reef, said the hotel had apologised to the couple - who have not yet been named - and taken disciplinary action against the culprits.

However, despite what the 'celebrant' said about the legitimacy of the vows, Rasheed told reporters: "The man had used filthy language. Otherwise the ceremony was OK."

As the hotel website says, "The Vilu Reef Beach & Spa Resort never fails to create a breathtaking first impression". ·