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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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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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Grace & Jack – Sofitel Wedding

We have been wanting to share a wedding at the Sofitel Fiji for a while as we are a big fan of this picture-perfect Denarau location. However we couldn’t quite find one recently that ticked all the boxes, until we came across the wedding of Grace and Jack, captured perfectly by Leezett Photography/Productions. In fact there are so many gorgeous photos that we couldn’t fit all of them into this blog! However we will have plenty of additional inspiration for you across on our social media pages, so stay tuned!

We catch up with bride Grace on what went in to planning her special day:

BRIDES & GROOM: Grace & Jack
THE DATE: 6th October 2018
THE LOCATION: Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 62

We met at a mutual friends 21st Birthday in Adelaide and have been inseparable ever since. We wanted our wedding to not only be about us, but about our children, family and close friends so we chose a destination wedding. We love to travel and after hearing about Fiji from our friends and family we knew it was the perfect place to have our wedding.

We asked friends for location advice, followed Instagram pages, website forums and did lots of internet research. Once you know what you’re looking for, it was easy to find the perfect location and the suppliers we wanted to use. After finding the location and the suppliers we knew we had to have it, it was only a matter of getting in contact with them. The resort and the suppliers were very helpful and able to answer all of our questions.

Bula Bride is also an amazing forum with lots of really good information. We did a lot of research through this website and especially loved reading about the real Fiji weddings.

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Fiji Farm to Table Wedding Inspiration

Bula Bride lives by it’s ethos — Beyond the Package. Going outside of the restrictions or inclusions of a package or the walls of a resort. So when new venues present themselves for a dream tropical Fiji Wedding, the word ‘excited’ is an understatement.

Taste Fiji Events has teamed up with Aviva Farms to offer a unique offering for weddings in Fiji. With a ceremony location looking over the hills of the Sleeping Giants, matched with Farm to Table style reception – a wedding at Aviva Farms would create an unforgettable experience.

While Australian dress designer When Freddie Met Lilly was in town, we thought it was a great idea to showcase Aviva Farms and the latest in bridal.

Captured by Leezett Photography, Hair & Makeup by the ever amazing Hair N Makeup Perfectionist and adorned by AdornFiji. Sit back and enjoy this gorgeous inspiration shoot on the eve of Christmas!

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Courtney & Jack – Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort

Jack and Courtney met each other at High School in early 2009; not long after, Jack asked Courtney to be his girlfriend and they have been together ever since.

They wanted to get married on their 10 year anniversary in July 2019. After a bit of research they agreed the Fiji had the best weather for that month of the year and this kickstarted the planning process.

We catch up with bride Courtney on what was involved in planning her wedding:
BRIDE & GROOM: Courtney & Jack
THE DATE: Friday 26th of July 2019
THE LOCATION: Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 39 adults 10 children

After a lot of researching on Fiji we decided on the Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort. The Outrigger stood out as a very family friendly resort and we knew we would have a few families joining us to celebrate our wedding. Once we had been in contact with the Outrigger we were invited to a Facebook group for Outrigger Brides. It was the most helpful group. They answered any questions we had and being able to read reviews from previous brides made the decision making a lot easier.

We booked our flights through Jenna at B&P Travel & Cruise and the rest we organised ourselves. The wedding was mainly planned through emails with the Outrigger. We used Bula Bride a few times to answer some of the questions I had. It was really nice to read about other brides experiences with their weddings.