THE LAKESIDE GAMPAHA

The birth of this beautiful, calm environment we call The Lakeside Gampaha comes from my parents’ need to have a place to live surrounded by greenery and nature, allow myself and my brother to pick a fruit directly from a tree to eat and ultimately retire to a calm and peaceful life outside the city. While living in the city, my father wanted to buy a strip of land to develop into a holiday home. He wanted the land to be near water as well. He showed us this piece of land which when we first visited had nothing but overgrown bushes and trees and although we were told we are facing a body of water, we did not witness a single drop of water around us while standing on uneven rocky ground surrounded by an overgrown mini jungle.
My father said ‘trust me, I have a vision’ And so his vision came to life over the next years with the land being cleared up, getting access to the lake and gradually building a home for us and our pets, surrounded by nature. After I finished my A levels back in 2017 we came to stay at The Lakeside for two weeks. Since we arrived, we have not left. Our dogs found their forever home with all the space to run around, we found ducks, chickens and pigeons to live on the grounds with us and we planted many trees and took care of our nature, our animals and more importantly appreciated our new home.
That is until I found my now husband and we had a wedding to plan. Our wedding dates were set in October, a month with heavy rain. Regardless, my only requirement was that we get married at my home, The Lakeside, surrounded by the nature we have built and loved. We did not have a hall back then, we had just the open garden. I was happy to have my function in the garden regardless of the weather. But my parents couldn’t have our guests drenched. So after visiting multiple alternate venue options and coming back unsatisfied, my father said, ‘why don’t we build a hall? We have some land, I can’t promise much but I can give you a roof with four walls’. I was more than happy with a roof and four walls and my imagination back then was just a huge hut where we would eat and dance. Within just seven months my dad had way more than that built, he had this beautiful structure he designed and made into reality with big help from some very close friends.
I had way more than I asked for or even imagined. Only weeks before my wedding, we had this beautiful hall standing where just empty land existed several months back. I would come to look at the hall in between wedding work and just stare at it. The glass walls reflected the trees we planted outside from every angle. The brick is very rustic but blends in very nicely with our environment with the modern industrial touch of the iron work. My father had found his signature style and to this day I still find the hall breathtaking. Of course the work in the hall went on right until my ceremony started. Many family members and friends would come to help around the work and what you are looking at is the combination of love, emotion, care my family and friends poured into my big day. It is my utmost pleasure to share this beautiful output of nurture with you, to enjoy, to appreciate and experience.
I hope you feel the same emotions I feel when you are in The Lakeside. I hope you feel like this is your home. I hope you feel taken care of as one of our own and I hope, if you decide to have your big day at my home, you feel like you are at your own home. I also hope you have the same appreciation I do towards the nature we have built and the animals we have homed. We feel this is more the animals' home than ours. I hope you are kind and respectful and I hope you have a really really good experience. Thank you for reading our story from my point of view, Sincerely, a very grateful daughter.