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Amy and Rick – Turtle Island

A visit to Turtle Island in 2016 for our 15th wedding anniversary remains a highlight for my husband and I, from all the many trips we have taken over more than 10 years of experiencing Fiji. When I came across this gorgeous elopement at Turtle Island I jumped on the chance to share some of the photos that highlight the unique and special nature of this resort. We catch up with bride Amy on what went in to planning her wedding in Fiji:

BRIDE & GROOM: Amy & Rick Markham
THE DATE: July 18th, 2019
THE LOCATION: Turtle Island Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: Amy, Rick & Jake accompanied by Turtle Island Resort staff

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Chanelle and Glen – Musket Cove

We call ourselves ‘wedding stalkers’ here at Bula Bride – we pretty much scan the internet each day looking for the best and most fabulous weddings in Fiji and then track down the bride to get the low down on her wedding. Chanelle’s wedding was one of these – we spotted her photo on Zoom Fiji & Totoka Hair & Make Up’s social media, and we knew we just HAD to make this wedding a feature. We catch up with Bride Chanelle about planning her wedding in Fiji:

BRIDE & GROOM: Chanelle and Glen Angus
THE DATE: April 26th, 2019
THE LOCATION: Musket Cove Island Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 83

We met in 2014 through mutual friends, Glen decided to add me on Facebook and the rest is history!

Fiji has become one of our favourite holiday destinations and on our last trip in 2016 we discussed coming back some day to get married. My family holiday at Musket Cove regularly thanks to my Aunty who got married there about 10 years ago. This made Musket Cove an obvious choice for our wedding.

We were super lucky since we were already so familiar with Musket Cove. The first thing we did was use Bula Bride to help us with inspiration for the style of wedding we were after. Then we began to book local Fiji Wedding Vendors through recommendations from Bula Bride and friends who married at Musket Cove a few years ago. We used Bula Bride a lot, we found the blog very useful as it had real bride and groom experiences and recommendations. There were also lots of photos which helped when it came to choosing our style.

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Lauren & Alex – Sofitel

The day of Lauren’s wedding was simply gorgeous and we had a couple of hours available in the office that timed perfectly with being able to pop down to Sofitel to see her wedding day unfold. Excitement was in the air as Lauren and her family got ready for the wedding, with a helping hand by Vendor Totoka Hair & Make Up. Her wedding planner Mandi from Viva Weddings also called in to say hello and the team at Nadi Bay Photography were there too to make sure lots of great pre wedding photos were captured. It was so nice for us to meet Lauren on her actual wedding day and hear all about what lead to her wedding in Fiji.

BRIDES NAME & GROOMS NAME: Alex Pollard and Lauren Stone
THE DATE: May 20, 2019
THE LOCATION: Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 38

THE BEGINNING:

I have travelled to Fiji many times and it has always been a special place with my family. Two of my cousins have been married in Fiji before and their weddings were amazing. When my husband asked me to marry him, I suggested Fiji as a location and he liked the sound of it so I started to research weddings in Fiji. I found it hard to choose a venue so I spoke to Mandi from Viva Destination Weddings. With her help I was able to narrow down the venue to the Sofitel. I decided on the Sofitel because it was accessible for my guests, they have a number of venues to choose from for ceremony and reception; and my guests didn’t have to stay at the resort if they attended my wedding. They had the option to stay at other resorts.

There was quite a bit of research in the beginning but once I started using Mandi’s service at Viva Destination Weddings everything was a lot easier. It was so great having her to speak to where she could offer advice using her years of experience planning weddings in Fiji.  She has worked with the resorts in Fiji and the vendors many times before which gave me a lot of peace of mind. When I was worried about how things would be she calmed me down and told me everything would be perfect – which it was!

With her list of recommended vendors I was able to narrow down which ones I wanted to use, I also . I used Bula Bride to see photos of other weddings in Fiji. I also used it to see what vendors other brides had used.

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Travel Tips from a Fiji Destination Travel Agent

So, you’ve decided to have a Fiji destination wedding – yay! Great decision guys!

Our brides often comment about the benefits of getting married in the South Pacific and the most common one being ‘the amount of quality time spent with family and close friends’. Your guests will often look at your wedding as a way to have a holiday at the same time, therefore enjoying your special day and the fun and activities on offer in a tropical paradise!

Below are a few tips that we trust will be of benefit when planning your dream wedding, brought to you by Bula Bride Vendor Carla from South Pacific Weddings. Carla has extensive experience planning weddings and group travel to Fiji, so these are collated from years of experience!

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Melanie & Geoffrey – Shangri La

Melanie & Geoffrey have done what so many couple are choosing to do these days – create an intimate family wedding that doubles as a holiday at the same time. The Shangri La is the perfect venue for this as it is a family resort, with adults only options and intimate ceremony locations available for smaller wedding parties. From every part of the resort, the views out to the ocean are simply stunning. We catch up with bride Melanie on planning her wedding in Fiji.

BRIDE & GROOM: Melanie & Geoffrey
THE DATE: 15 May 2019
THE LOCATION: Shangri-La Fiji
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 10 (including us)

We met through online dating and had our first date at a coffee shop about 2 years ago. I remember being so sick prior to our date and almost cancelling on him but my mum pushed me to go and it was the best decision of my life. Geoff always says he knew we would be together from the moment he saw me. We immediately hit it off and could not stop talking, we talked about everything (and we still do!). Geoff is everything I ever dreamed of and more. He is an amazing father to my son and I couldn’t imagine our lives without him in it.

We were going on a family holiday to the Shangri-La and decided to get married while we were all together. We wanted an intimate, family wedding and couldn’t think of a better time or place to get married. Researching and organising our wedding involved lots of googling and emails back and forth between the resort and me. We kept it pretty simple and went with the recommendations of the resort. My mum is a travel agent so she did a lot of the planning for us. There were a few hiccups from the resort but mum was able to liaise with them to sort it out.

I liked reading stories on Bula Bride about other people and how and what they decided to do as part of their ceremony. Seeing photos was also really inspirational.

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How to plan a BIG destination wedding

So you thought getting married in Fiji might mean a small group of 20 to 30 people coming to celebrate your wedding day, but you got your RSVP’s back and they all said YES! If you suddenly find yourself planning a destination wedding for 70+ and are feeling panicked, you are not alone.We often hear from Fiji Brides-to-be being in this situation, and we get emails like this one…..
“Help! My fiancé and I are trying to plan our dream destination wedding with our own personal style but without going bankrupt. Our issue is we have a large invitee list of over 200 people (HUGE families). We obviously know and hope not all 200 can make it, however it is highly likely we will have 100+. Can anyone in Fiji cope with these numbers? Has anyone else planned a destination wedding that they were able to accommodate a large group for? We are open to different ideas on how to manage our wedding; we never thought it would be this big! Thanks in advance for the help!”

In this blog we will explore a few ideas on how to keep the planning under control when the group is big, and enlist some advice from one of our Vendors The Pearl Resort, Spa and Golf Course who deal with large wedding groups and events on a regular basis.

Resort photos: The Pearl
Wedding images: Island Encounters Photography

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Shea & Taylor – Tavarua Island

Ohhhh mannnn – you are all going to just love the romance of this Fiji love story! Surrounded by pristine natural beauty and world class reef breaks, the iconic and ever intimate Tavarua Island Resort caters to all those with a sense of adventure amidst simple elegance. So what better place to meet the love of your life? We catch up with bride Shea on how she and partner Taylor met & wed at Tavarua.

BRIDE & GROOM: Shea and Taylor
THE DATE: May 9th 2018
THE LOCATION: Tavarua Island Fiji
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 50

Taylor and I met 8 years ago, I was on my yearly family surf trip to Tavarua Island, my family has been going there every year since before I was even born, so to me that trip was the same amazing trip as any other year. Little did I know at the time, one of the life guards that was staying on the island would end up being my husband 8 years later. While I was on the island I met Taylor. The island is small, it holds about 45 guest, so Taylor and I got to know each other pretty well over the two weeks I was there. And crazy enough we figured out that we lived only 30 minutes away from each other back in America.

On my last day on the island, he wrote me a love note and hid it in my backpack, and I did not find it until I got home, and the rest is history.

The location was easy for us to chose, Tavarua is such a special place to both of us. From meeting there to all the amazing times that we have both shared there over the years, we knew it was the prefect place to get married. We had a good idea of what we wanted. A beach wedding, where family and friends could go and have a good time. The natural beauty of Tavarua and the ocean make for beautiful backdrops in every picture. We needed flowers, a minister and a dress. Pretty much everything else was handled by the Tavarua staff and our families. We just wanted to have a good time.

Taylor and I planned the wedding and Tavarua made it happen. The islands staff are the absolute best people in the world, they made everything so ease for us and exactly what we wanted! We could not be more thankful for them!

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Alyce & Jai – Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort and Spa

Alyce & Jai met when they were working at their local fast food restaurant at the age of 15. They had travelled to Fiji together before and both had fallen in love with it. They had always planned to have a destination wedding so that the guests would be able relax and enjoy the wedding in a beautiful location. They the Shangri La as it has something for everyone, and felt it was perfect for couples who wanted to relax and also for families with young children; plus it would make an incredible backdrop for their Fiji wedding day.

BRIDE & GROOM: Alyce and Jai Ellard
THE DATE: 22nd November 2018
THE LOCATION: The Shangri-La Resort and Spa
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 60

We catch up with Bride Alyce on planning her wedding in Fiji:

It took a lot of research to be able to successfully pull off our Fiji wedding! In particular there was a lot of research and phone calls around the flowers and the band for the reception. We used Mosese who was the wedding planner at the Shangri-La. He was extremely helpful and we found it much easier to communicate directly with him rather than through a number of different vendors. We also used Bula Bride to do a lot of our research – this is how we found our photographer!

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Planning a Unique Fiji Wedding

For some brides and grooms, the best place to have their Fiji wedding is at an all-inclusive resort. It’s a great option for those that need to stick to a budget, and still include their friends and family in their destination wedding. The upside to having a package wedding somewhere is that you don’t have to do as much wedding planning, because most of the decisions you’ll be making will be simple. Choose bouquet A, B, or C. Do you want wedding cake option 1, or wedding cake option 2? You won’t have to hunt down a bunch of different vendors because the hotel does all of that for you either in house or with a preferred vendor list.

However, the idea of having a “package” wedding is a turn off for some brides and grooms. They don’t want to be one of two couples getting married in the same place on the same weekend (or same day, in some cases), having the same décor and the same cake as everyone else. If you’re looking to be a little “different” from everybody else, there are plenty of great locations in Fiji where you can fully customise your day (or days!) to suit your personalities and get something totally different from a standard package offering.

We came across a great example of this at Koro Sun Resort in northern Fiji, as we watched the wedding video of couple Sarah & Euri with tears in our eyes! We were blown away at how this bride and groom made their wedding so personal and so much fun for their guests. So we caught up with Koro Sun Resort to say Bula! and learn more about how they put together the wedding week of Sarah & Euro’s dreams.

Photography: Allan Zepeda

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Top picks for 2023 wedding venues

    1. Main image:

Malamala Beach Club

Getting married, let alone overseas, can be a stressful occasion. When a couple decides that Fiji is the perfect wedding destination, the next big decision is to narrow down the selection of options and pick the right venue to suit their needs.

If you feel a bit overwhelmed at the choice available, you’re not alone. Many couples now seek assistance from a professional wedding planner or travel agent to help guide them in the right direction for their dream wedding.

Destination Wedding Planners like Anita from Wedding Travel assist couples from all over the world to plan their wedding day. Wedding Planners can help you plan and take care of everything: from the celebrant right down to honeymoon packages that you’ll love. With fantastic travel discounts and great advice on a variety of destinations, you can be assured of a stress-free Fiji wedding you will never forget.

Anita loves a deal and especially likes to find the best price for her customers. She guarantees to make every effort to search all the options to meet your budget requirements. With this in mind, she completed a recent trip to Fiji to visit 25 (!) properties to make sure she is armed with the latest information on the property, has personally seen places she is recommending, and staying up to date with all of their latest wedding offers.

After a very intensive week of travel, here are Anita’s top picks for 2023 Fiji wedding destinations: