Wedding Date on Feb 14, 2019

From the filmmaker's perspective: “What?! …you’re getting married in…Tanzania? At an orphanage?!” Shortly after I congratulated Austin on his engagement, those were the next few phrases that exited my mouth. And no, this wasn’t a made-up pipe dream wedding..this was part of Austin and Rhiannon’s story. Austin is a great friend of mine from college who has gone on to travel the world for a living. During one of his breaks as an international tour guide, he decided to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with a few friends. In the meantime, they wanted to volunteer and make a film for a non profit and stumbled upon Neema Village. Neema Village began as “Neema House” in 2012 as a rescue center for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa. During that time, more than two hundred babies have been rescued, many abandoned babies have now been adopted and others who had lost their mothers during the birth were saved and have now been able to return home to an extended family member. We love the idea of “Families not Orphanages.” While volunteering he met Rhiannon, a beautiful British girl traveling the world and also volunteering her time at Neema. They hit it off immediately, and they quickly parted ways. Austin to Hawaii and Rhiannon to her next adventure. They continued to date long distance..like the "half-way across the world" kind of long distance. And somehow, they made it work for a few years before Austin proposed..to which I discovered they landed on the east coast of Africa to have their wedding. They reached out to all their friends and families, and managed to get 70+ people to globe-trot across the world and celebrate with them for 10+ days filled with Africa safaris, pirate ships, ATV jungle tours, beach olympic games, dancing, Africa caravan wedding parades, and much more. This was not your ordinary wedding to celebrate, but a life experience that turned strangers into best friends. The best view on the hillside where Neema Village rests is on top of a sewage container. And that’s exactly where the wedding ceremony was held. Everyone from Neema attended the wedding as a guest, and of course, all 30+ babies were in the audience being loved on and held by volunteers and wedding guests. This may have been the coolest and most unique wedding I’ve ever been a part of. Hope you enjoy the film!