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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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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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Siobhan & Reihana

It’s really great hearing from Brides that have utilised Bula Bride as a resource to help research their Fiji wedding and know we have helped with inspiration and ideas. Equally we love hearing that brides are taking the time to be organised and communicate effectively with their suppliers as often it can be hard to plan a wedding solely by email. (For hints and tips on this please see our blog on communicating with your suppliers)

Siobhan took her time to research her suppliers end ended up with a perfectly planned wedding day married to the love of her life. We share her story and her planning in advance of her wedding day:

We met back at college and through our circle of friends we eventually hooked up. The rest is history and we finally tied the knot after 11 years together.

Fiji was a holiday destination for my parents and I when I was younger. When I turned 21, Reihana surprised me with a trip to Fiji for the two of us. Fiji has always been a special place for us and now after getting married in Fiji, it is now even more so.

The planning for our wedding involved a lot of emailing and very detailed instructions. I picked a selection of suppliers based off recommendations and spent a bit of time researching through Bula Bride to see what advice brides had to give. I had some amazing suppliers, an amazing Wedding Coordinator (Salu) at Mana Island who I worked with and Katie Bouzaid, International Travel Consultant at House of Travel Johnsonville to guide me with travel arrangements.

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Monique & Karel

Karel and I met when we were just 21, so almost 8 years ago. I was introduced to him by a mutual friend at Karel’s 21st birthday party. From the moment we met I knew I wanted to get to know him better, so we went on a few dates, he made me laugh and the rest is history.

I was very hesitant initially when Karel suggested we have a destination wedding – I am a Virgo and a slight control freak so trying to coordinate something as big as a wedding from home in Australia seemed very daunting to me. We decided to travel to Fiji the year before (March 2016) to check out all the resorts and meet with the wedding coordinators to see what packages they had to offer and visualise exactly where our wedding would be held. Once we decided on the resort that best suited us, which was The Hilton on Denarau Island, I had a vision of exactly what I wanted.

I didn’t think it would be possible to pull this off. But with a few (hundred) emails and phone call exchanges, I was proven very wrong!!!

I am so glad we had a destination wedding and I would do it over again in a heartbeat. Everything on the day came together and it was the best week of my life. Instead of celebrating for just one day we got to have our family and friends around us and relax for the entire week. All our suppliers, the resort and friends and family made our wedding day something to remember and I wish we could relive it all over again.

 

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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.