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Renee & Ngawati – Outrigger

A shared love of their pacific heritage and culture brought Renee and Ngwati to Fiji for their beautiful wedding. Their special day was filled with family and friends, and lots of fun. Mid-year in Fiji is generally known for it’s good weather and our couple were able to take full advantage of this by capturing some gorgeous images up on the hills behind the resort.

We catch up with bride Renee, as she breaks down the details of planning the perfect wedding in paradise.

BRIDES NAME and GROOMS NAME: Renee and Ngawati
THE DATE: 12th July 2018
THE LOCATION: Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 70

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Christine & Oni- Outrigger Wedding

They met in a nightclub in Fiji when Christine travelled to Fiji for work and it was love at first sight. Though Oni moved to Australia to be with Christine, on their wedding day they wanted to return to the island they both now call ‘home’.

We catch up with Bride Christine on what went in to planning her Fiji wedding day in paradise.

BRIDE & GROOM: Christine & Onisimo Rokotuinasau
THE DATE: 27th October 2018
THE LOCATION: Outrigger Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 85

We met at Whitehouse Nightclub in Nadi – I was there for a work trip and Oni was out with friends. We met on the dancefloor and that was it. We dated long distance for 2 years and then Oni moved to Australia.

We chose Fiji because it is our home. Literally for Oni and its home in my heart. We wouldn’t have got married anywhere else and it enabled his family to attend. Outrigger has always been one of my favourite resorts and we spent time there when we started dating, it just has the most amazing atmosphere.

To research and organise our wedding, a lot of hours were spent internet browsing! Bula Bride was one of my go to resources, browsing on apps like Instagram and Pinterest also gave us ideas. I did the majority of the bookings and organising myself with the help of Oni, bridesmaids and my parents.

For the main components I organised this myself as I am a travel agent. I also organised the majority of the Australian guests travel. I enlisted the assistance of a wedding planner and stylist, Charnele from The Wedding Shop Fiji who guided me on styling ideas and setup options and assisted me to make decisions throughout the planning process.

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Sophie & Robbie – Warwick Wedding

Last year we had the pleasure of collaborating on a Bula Bride photoshoot with photographers Rach & Jared from Swift & Click photography and we instantly fell in love with their work again, after sharing a wedding of their on the blog a couple of years earlier. With beautiful shots that capture a couples uniqueness and character in whatever setting they are in, we were amping to feature one of their gorgeous Fiji weddings on the blog.

The wedding of Sophie to Robbie caught our eye with its understated elegance and the creative shots around the old Korolevu hotel, as well as our team ooo-ing and aaah-ing over Sophie’s Fiji-perfect wedding dress!!!

We catch up with Bride Sophie to tell us more about her special day:

BRIDES NAME: Sophie Jane Landman
GROOMS NAME: Robert Andrew Landman
THE DATE: 12th of October 2017
THE LOCATION: The Warwick Fiji, Coral coast
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 40

Robbie and I met at the very last football and netball function of the season in 2014. I was dressed as Daisy Duke and Robbie was dressed as Napoleon Dynamite….I don’t think you would call i love at first sight!! But later that evening when we headed down the pub and Robbie had removed the big orange afro and his moon boots my opinions had changed – the banter was on and the laughs didn’t stop. Robbie noticed I wasn’t at the recovery session the following day, he found out that I was at work and came and bought me a coffee. Best first date!!

Robbie and I have always loved the beach, with most of our holidays revolving around heading to the coast. We loved the thought of having our closest friends and family celebrate our wedding with us not just for the one day, but all get away together and make a holiday of it.

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Emily & Halani – Outrigger Wedding

It was almost a horror story when Emily’s wedding luggage went temporarily missing at Nadi airport – but after resolving the situation they got back on track and had the wedding of their dreams at the Outrigger Resort Fiji just a couple of days later. We catch up with Bride Emily on what went in to planning her Fiji wedding day:

THE FACTS:
BRIDE & GROOM: Emily Uluakiahoia & Halani Uluakiahoia
THE DATE: 11th November 2018
THE LOCATION: The Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 30

Halani and I met at High School. At the time, Halani was only 14 and I was 15. Halani had received my number from a mutual close friend after probing her on who I was.
I received a message that night and it was Halani. We text each other, and hung out every lunch time for a couple of weeks before he finally asked me to be “his girl.”
At the age of 20, we fell pregnant with our beautiful little girl Lily. We have been inseparable for 13 amazing years this year.

We had a pretty large engagement party with so many family, friends and food. For our wedding, we wanted something simple with our nearest and dearest who meant the most to us.

I was actually searching beach style wedding dresses and had come across a wedding at the Outrigger Chapel. OMG I fell in love straight away. I showed Halani and he also fell in love. We knew that’s what we wanted, and what better way to have a holiday with our friends and family with an added bonus of a wedding! I searched Facebook for the Outrigger Resort and had come across the Outrigger Brides closed group which you were accepted into if you were a future or past wedding couple. The group was amazing! Any questions that I had, sometimes 20 people would respond.

Our first message in regards to planning our wedding at the Outrigger Resort was with Darshita who is one of the planners at the Resort. All correspondence went through Darshita, then we were introduced to our wedding organiser Mele. Any question, big or small she always had the answer. Nothing was ever a bother for her. As we arrived at our resort, we were greeted with a warm big hug from Va the wedding co-ordinator who went above and beyond for our amazing wedding and stay at the resort.

Emily & Halani ( Highlight Video ) from Ocean Studio Fiji on Vimeo.

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Chloe & Samson

Coral Coast sunsets are world-renowned and the wedding of Chloe to Samson will show you why. On a stunning Fiji day in October, this lovely couple choose old-fashioned romance as the key to their wedding day. We catch up with Bride Chloe on what went in to planning her wedding in Fiji.

THE FACTS:

BRIDE & GROOM: Chloe and Samson Underwood
THE DATE: 3/10/2018
THE LOCATION: Outrigger Fiji
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 50 guests

Samson and I met on a night out when we were both studying to be teachers at University.  My girlfriends and I took a break from our study and went out on a Saturday night. Samson was there with his friends having a good time. We spotted one another near the bar. We spent the night talking and dancing, getting to know one another. We began to date shortly after meeting. We had been together for 10 years when we got married this year in Fiji.

We have always been drawn to the beautiful country of Fiji. The tropical climate, the friendly locals and the amazing seafood! Fiji has been a country that we have visited many times. Samson and I always wanted a destination wedding, an opportunity to be away with our friends and family to celebrate our long awaited marriage. Fiji was a perfect option for our wedding.

We decided Fiji was the destination for our wedding shortly after Sam proposed. We began to research different hotels and venues for our wedding. We turned to Bula Bride for assistance, to online reviews and to our friends and family for advice. We were fortunate enough to have close friends who had visited the Outrigger Fiji. After their rave reviews, we began to look at our options on the Outrigger website.

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Alison & Louie

We have a big following of American Brides getting married in Fiji so it is special to share this story from one couple who travelled from their home state of California to elope here at the beautiful Coral Coast of Fiji.

We catch up with Alison on why she choose a Fiji destination wedding and what made the day so special:

Louie and I have been together for over 8 years and when it came time to finally tie the knot, we wanted it to be an intimate ceremony between us somewhere memorable. We also still have a significant amount of student debt and eloping to a far off tropical destination like Fiji was the perfect solution.

We did a lot of research on various resorts that would offer wedding packages to make it easy on our end, since we were coming from California and finally settled on the Outrigger on the Lagoon, Fiji. To our surprise, we later learned of the excitement/buzz around the Outrigger as they rarely have destination weddings from Americans.

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Shannon & Neil

Shannon’s wedding made us go WOW instantly – not only is she a drop-dead gorgeous bride but the details of the day were so pretty and the couple shots of her and her hubby Neil were total #couplegoals. Shannon and Neil were married at the Outrigger in November 2016.

Here is Shannon’s feedback on her Fiji wedding:

We had the most positive and seamless experience that a bride could have thanks to the very accommodating and helpful staff at the Outrigger Fiji Resort.

The service, food, venue and atmosphere at the resort was phenomenal and I highly recommend brides looking in Fiji to check out the Outrigger on the very beautiful Coral coast. I had 61 guests in total at the wedding all from overseas. It was truly overwhelming and amazing that so many people flew out for my Wedding.

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Gabrielle & Jason

Gabbi & Jason Fiji Wedding

When I started chatting to Gabrielle about her wedding feature, I was immediately drawn to all the creative couple shots that made up part of her gorgeous wedding collection. There were so many shots captured in different locations, different lighting, and all of them gorgeous – I’m sure Gabrielle will have trouble narrowing down what to print and frame.

And then at the very end of the photos – an intriguing set of pictures caught my eye! I absolutely had to ask more. Definitely a first for Bula Bride!

Keep reading to see Gabrielle’s gorgeous day with a twist at the end.

We met back in 2010 at a friend’s 18th birthday party. The party had an 80’s theme, so we were looking rather groovy, dancing the night away we crossed paths and haven’t looked back since.

The Bride Wore
‘Cinzia’ Gown by Watters. Purchased from Marry Me Bridal, Mosman.

The Bridesmaids Wore
Navy dresses by Shona Joy

The Flower Girl Wore
White dress from Myers

I was stressed at the start with the thought of never seeing the location in real life prior to booking but I let the stress & worry go and put my trust in the Outrigger’s wedding team and they were just great! They pretty much did everything and more!

It was stress free, easy & they made my day everything I imagined.

We got married at Chapel Bure Ni Loloma at the Outrigger Resort, Fiji. The Outrigger provided all décor. The theme was rustic with hessian and white bows around the chairs. With green floral tripods at the altar. We had fake bouquets which a florist back home made & we took over with us.

They were a combination of peonies, roses, fern, queen anne, string of pearls, succulents and gum nuts.

We wrote our own vows, they were short & sweet and captured our relationship just perfectly.

My advise for brides planning their wedding is let go & have trust in your wedding planner/ team. I did, and it was a breeze.

Don’t stress about the small things. Definitely invest in a great photographer that makes you comfortable & captures every aspect of your day, because once that day is over you hope you have a photo of everything to look back on. Be happy, smile and enjoy every second of your day because believe me it’s the quickest day you will ever have.

One of the highlights of the day was our photographer found the most perfect photo location just a 5min buggy drive from the resort. It was at sunset, overlooking the hills one way & the ocean the other. It was just the three of us & it was just breathtaking!

Our reception was at Vahavu Restaurant at the Outrigger Resort, Fiji.

All our decorations were provided & setup by Grace Creations in Fiji. They provided the centrepieces, table numbers, fairy lights, the big ‘LOVE’ sign & little cute signs on the Bride & Grooms chair.

THE MENU
We had a traditional ‘Lovo’ Buffet. All our guests loved the food! And the dessert table was to die for.

THE CAKE
Was also provided by The Outrigger. We provided our own cake topper which said ‘Always & Forever’ purchased from Etsy & the fake flowers to match the bouquets.

Editors note: And for the finale – I just had to ask about the dance! I’ve never seen a shirtless groom doing a bridal waltz!!

Gabrielle: – We ended our night on a high when we did a new take on the bridal waltz, getting dance lessons to perfect it. We started out slow with a ‘Thinking Out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran, and then mid-way through we broke out into ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine, with my Hubby doing his own version of Magic Mike, with a little strip tease. Our guests were so surprised, they were all cheering, clapping along & laughing, it was such a funny ending to our night everyone left with a smile on their faces. A memory that will truly last forever.

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Dan & Tarlia

I do have a soft spot for Outrigger weddings. Can you blame me? That’s where I got married, so every time I see a couple Sealing and celebrating there love there, it takes me back to my day…almost 4 years ago.

Dan & Tarlia decided on a Destination Fiji Wedding as they wanted to combine the wedding with a holiday with our friends and family.

“We decided on a destination wedding because the idea of getting married in paradise and having a holiday with all our friends and family at the same time seemed like the best plan ever!”

Tarlia shares with us the details of their day. Australian photographer Van Middleton was there to capture it all.

The Location

We decided on the outrigger after much debate because it had an amazing package for the price and was a large resort that could cater for everyone. We also liked that there were other cheaper accommodation options nearby. I had never stayed at the outrigger but all the reviews were great and Leanne assured me that I would not be disappointed.

Hair & Makeup

Hair and Makup Perfectionist did hair and make up for, my bridesmaids, my Mum and I. Ash and his team were phenomenal. I was blown away and so were all of my bridesmaids. I would highly recommend these guys they were so friendly and on time as well.

The Dress

My dress my purchased from Luv Bridal on the Gold Coast. I initially had a completely different dress and then had major dress regret and ended up going with this one as it was much more suited to me and a Fiji wedding. Best choice I ever made as my dress was perfect and I couldn’t have been happier.

The Ceremony

This was held at the chapel. Initially, I wanted it on the reef lawn but a couple of months out I changed my mind because I was worried about my guests being comfortable and was worried they would get too hot out in the sun waiting for me to arrive. When I went up for the rehearsal, when I arrived I was blown away. It was so amazing and so much better than the photos. They just do not do it justice. I also loved that you got to ride up on a buggy it was a really cool touch.

We had Dan’s Grandfather officiate the ceremony and we wrote our own vows. This was a beautiful personal touch to the ceremony and I would highly recommend it.

The Photography
We used Van from Van Middleton photography. I had seen his work here in Australia and was blown away there was not one photo I didn’t like so I knew I wanted him before we even got engaged. He was phenomenal and his photos are works of art. I am over the moon he listened to all my crazy requests and we had a ball for three hours exploring the coral coast and finding awesome locations to get photos that we will treasure for a lifetime. My husband hates photos and Van made him feel so comfortable. Half the time we forgot he was even there. He is worth every cent and I would highly recommend him to any other bride.

The Highlight

I honestly couldn’t pick one single thing. Everything about the wedding was amazing. The outrigger was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I was just over the moon to be marrying the love of my life in front of my closest family and friends in paradise.

The Advice

Try to not stress about the communication. They are on Fiji time and eventually all of your questions will be answered. Even if you have questions you are unsure of at your pre-wedding meeting you will be able to clarify everything. They are on to everything and they run through every last detail with you then. Enjoy every second because it goes so fast and really try not to sweat the small stuff because at the end of the day if the flowers aren’t exactly what you wanted or the decorations are a little different to what you planned it doesn’t change the fact that you are marrying your soul mate and that it will be the best day ever!