Renewing their wedding vows in the exotic surroundings of the Maldives was meant to be a memory one couple would savour for ever.
But this hapless pair were instead humiliated when the man presiding over the ceremony took advantage of the language barrier to publicly brand them “pigs” and “infidels”.
The supposedly spiritual service was captured on video and beamed around the world via YouTube.
In the 15-minute clip, employees at the Vilu Reef Beach and Spa resort abuse the couple in their native Dhivehi tongue.
The hotel’s food and beverage manager Hussein Didi is heard hurling insults at the pair as he conducts the service pretending to be the celebrant. He even declares their marriage to be illegal.
At one point he is heard reading verbatim from a script which, on closer inspection, is a document outlining staff employment regulations.
Chanting in a tone favoured by religious scholars, Mr Didi says: “You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine.
“Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage.
“One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel and, we have reason to believe, an atheist, who does not even believe in an infidel religion.”
The unfortunate woman, wearing a white dress, and her husband, also in white, smile at each other lovingly and remain oblivious as Didi calls for the marriage to be enshrined in Islamic law.
Despite more than 10 employees watching, none of them attempts to stop the event and some even take photographs.
As the bride bends down to plant a coconut tree, a man shouts: “Can see her breasts.”
Another responds saying: “My beard has gone grey watching those things… I have seen so many of them now that I don’t even want to look any more when I see them.”
The video, uploaded by a hotel employee as a joke, concludes with a voice repeatedly urging the “celebrant” to make the couple “suck mouths, suck mouths” - an expression used by Maldivians to denigrate the act of kissing.
Although the woman speaks English in reply to the “officials”, she is believed to be Swiss.
In a statement, the resort expressed its “deep concern and regret” over the incident.
Set on its own exclusive island in the Indian Ocean, it is a popular destination for couples to renew their marriage vows. A stay there costs from £1 700 per couple.
Ahmed Shaheed, the Maldives’ foreign minister, said he was “horrified” by the video.
He added: “I could not see the entire video because my children were around and I didn’t want them to hear the bad language that was used.”