Exclusive: Sealed with a Cup Match kiss

This year’s Cup Match festivities will hold life-long memories for a young American couple.

Matt Salka and Veronica Neil had no hesitation choosing Bermuda as the venue for their wedding celebrations.

And they deliberately made their arrangements to coincide with the Cup Match holiday to make the most of the party atmosphere.

Mr Salka, who spent his childhood in Bermuda, told the Sun: “I lived here in the 1990s up until the transfer of the Baselands.

“My father [Stephen] was in charge of the airfield at Kindley Field and so we left in 1995.

“But I look back on the years I spent in Bermuda as the best of my life. So it’s amazing for me to be able to start my life as a married man in my favourite place.”

Mr Salka, an IT worker who lives in Colorado, has been coming back to Bermuda every Cup Match for the last four years.

He added: “It’s always such a lot of fun. It’s a non-stop party.

“I have bored all my friends with stories about how amazing Bermuda is for years now and I’m really pleased that so many of them will be here for our big day.

“It should be a lot of fun and we’ll be looking forward to Non-Mariners’ day. When we first came here as a group in 2010 there were six of us, while last year there were 15.

“We had an absolutely fantastic time.”

Mr Salka and his fiancé first met when they were at college in Durango, Colorado, and remained in touch once they had left.

But it was not until 2006 that the couple finally got together and began to plan a life together.

More than 30 close friends and family will join them to celebrate their wedding day this afternoon at Stonehole Bay on the South Shore.

Mr Salka added: “We have people coming in from Europe and the US. There is even the son of the old captain of the Kindley Field Base.

“We have stayed in touch ever since we left Bermuda. It should be a great week and we are so happy to be celebrating this special occasion in Bermuda.”

Wedding planner, Claire Anne-Raynor from Rose of Sharon Event Planning, told the Sun: “Matt first contacted me through our Facebook page early last year. We talked about his love of Bermuda and his connection with the island.

“I knew that this wedding was not going to be the typical destination wedding, but one would have a physical tie to the island and would leave  a significant deposit in their memory banks.”