SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

shar­lene.ram­per­sad@guardian.co.tt

He be­came a house­hold name when he was just 11 years old and lived the brunt of his life in the full glare of the pub­lic.

Yes­ter­day, on Valen­tine’s Day, Machel Mon­tano and his sweet­heart bride Re­nee Butch­er be­came the first cou­ple to mar­ry in the re­fur­bished Red House, ty­ing the knot in view of mem­bers of the pub­lic once again look­ing on.

It came just three days be­fore he holds his fi­nal Machel Mon­day con­cert, billed ‘The Wed­ding’.

He was es­cort­ed in­to the Red House by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al Rawi, who held a white um­brel­la over Mon­tano as he came out of his ve­hi­cle to a light driz­zle.

Al Rawi told re­porters that Mon­tano, whom he de­scribed as his ‘boy’, asked about get­ting mar­ried in the Red House re­cent­ly as his par­ents, Mon­ty and Eliz­a­beth Mon­tano, were al­so mar­ried there.

Mon­tano’s guest, all decked in white, ar­rived at the Red House short­ly af­ter 10 am, while Al Rawi ar­rived short­ly be­fore 11. The two at­tend­ed Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege to­geth­er.

Al Rawi was al­so wear­ing white and joked that it was the first time he had ever worn all white.

By the time Mon­tano’s rel­a­tives got there, there were about ten peo­ple, in ad­di­tion to the me­dia, brav­ing the rain out­side the Red House seek­ing to get a glimpse of the cou­ple.

In­stead of tak­ing place in the Ro­tun­da, the wed­ding was done in a glass-win­dow en­closed ter­race to the front of the build­ing, al­low­ing all those who were stand­ing out­side to get a clear view of the cer­e­mo­ny.

The sev­en-per­son guest lim­it was al­so not en­forced for the cou­ple, who had more than ten guests present.

Mon­tano and Butch­er ar­rived around 11.20 am, him wear­ing a white suit and her in a white pants suit with a long white train.

They en­tered the build­ing sep­a­rate­ly, with Al Rawi al­so es­cort­ing Butch­er in.

The brief cer­e­mo­ny be­gan around 11.30 am and the reg­is­tra­tion was done by Reg­is­trar Gen­er­al Karen Bridge­wa­ter.

Seat­ed in front of his guests, Mon­tano and his bride signed their wed­ding cer­tifi­cate be­fore shar­ing a kiss to the cheers of those watch­ing the cer­e­mo­ny from the side­walk out­side the build­ing.

Pas­tor Clive Dot­tin was al­so present and ad­dressed the new­ly­weds short­ly af­ter they signed their mar­riage cer­tifi­cate.

Af­ter­wards, the cou­ple posed for pho­tos on the steps lead­ing in­to the build­ing with their rel­a­tives. Those pass­ing by on the pave­ment joined the group out­side, to take pho­tos and videos with the new­ly­weds.

When mem­bers of the pub­lic called out to the cou­ple, Mon­tano waved and flashed a ‘thumbs-up’ sign. Asked how he felt, he shout­ed, “It feels ec­sta­t­ic!”

He told fans that he would cel­e­brate with them at his an­nu­al Machel Mon­day con­cert.

He had told Guardian Me­dia’s The Morn­ing Brew host, Hema Ramkissoon ear­li­er in the day, that Machel Mon­day would be the great­est ex­pres­sion of him­self, as he ap­peared on the show Fri­day morn­ing.

Speak­ing to the me­dia af­ter the wed­ding, a smil­ing Al Rawi said this was the first wed­ding to be held at the Red House in 20 years.

“Machel said to me some time ago, my par­ents were mar­ried at the Red House, Faris. Do they still do Red House wed­dings? And bam, the idea was born,” he said.

He said he was in­vit­ed by his long­time friend, Mon­tano, to speak at the wed­ding.

He ex­plained that the sev­en-guest lim­it was breached be­cause of the lo­ca­tion of the cer­e­mo­ny.

“If we were go­ing in­to the small­er room, it would have been six or sev­en guests but we went on­to this lit­tle ter­race over here, which al­lowed us to have a few more. So tech­ni­cal­ly we were just on the out­side. The Speak­er will de­vel­op rules over time to per­mit things. There is a beau­ti­ful idea to name that ter­race that you saw there, the ‘Wed­ding Ter­race’ but that will be up to the Speak­er and the Par­lia­ment.”

Mon­tano has been shar­ing a re­la­tion­ship with Butch­er pub­licly since 2016.

One of the theme songs for Machel Mon­day, is “I Love You”, in which Machel says,

“Look how long me and meh girl dat­ing

And I ent pop the ques­tion as yet

Ah busy chas­ing birds in the fete

This year I not gonna do the same thing

Ah think­ing about mak­ing the big step

Doh wan­na look back on meh life and re­gret...”