A family courtyard in Malé, a guest list of three hundred and a plot that measured out at a hundred and forty seated. The first useful thing we did was say so, in the second week, with a tape measure on the ground.
The answer was not a smaller wedding. It was a standing reception with a hedhikaa and tea table instead of a seated dinner, which needs six square feet a guest rather than ten, and a guest flow arranged in two waves with the invitation times forty minutes apart. Three hundred people came and the courtyard never held more than a hundred and ninety at once.
The build was the harder problem. One lane, three suppliers and five hours. The decorator had the lane from noon to three, the caterer from three to half past four, and the sound crew worked from the far side of the courtyard the whole time on a generator because the house supply would not carry it.
Guests started at seven, the food came out at eight, and the lane was clear by half past twelve. Two neighbours were told in writing a week ahead and given the coordinator's number, and neither of them had to use it.
