By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE
Tom Smiler was disappointed he had to miss his grandson's wedding at Kensington Palace on Saturday.
Former East Coast shearer and keen surfer Gary Lewis, 33, tied the knot with Lady Davina Windsor, 26, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and 20th in line to the British throne.
"My wife (Julia) couldn't go and I couldn't leave her. Otherwise I would have been there," said Mr Smiler. "I would have liked to have gone but it was just one of those things."
The Gisborne couple, aged in their '80s, were yesterday waiting for reports from family members who attended the wedding.
"All his brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, goodness knows..," Mr Smiler said.
"We're just waiting to hear from someone and see some pictures in the paper."
He said his Maori grandson, a builder-renovator, brought the bride-to-be to Gisborne earlier this year to meet relatives.
"She is wonderful - a fine looking girl."
The pair, who met nearly four years ago on holiday in Bali, had been living quietly in a Grey Lynn villa in Auckland for 15 months.
Lady Davina's Gisborne visit came before she returned to London to prepare for the wedding in the chapel of Kensington Palace. She grew up in an 11-room apartment her family has in the central London palace, where Princess Diana also had a suite of rooms.
The bride's grandmother Princess Alice, who at 102 is the oldest member of the royal family, was too frail to be there but the couple visited her after their nuptials.
Lady Davina's father - Queen Elizabeth 11's cousin - gave her away and her sister, Lady Rose Windsor, 24, was among the bridesmaids. No other royals were present.
Whale Rider author Witi Ihimaera was one of about 40 of Mr Lewis' family and close friends who traveled to London for the event.
Mr Lewis' son Ari from a previous relationship read a Gaelic prayer. The best man was a New Zealand friend Nick Harvey.
The newly-weds, who Tom Smiler says "play it low key," will settle in Britain.
"I think they suit one another. I'm just hoping they have a good life together," he said.
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