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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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Fiji Elopement

There is a growing trend of Fiji Elopements – and to be honest I don’t blame couples for choosing this option. Elopements are perfectly intimate, a special moment shared between just you and your partner and a perfect way to indulge yourselves in small but amazing wedding – your very own Fiji love story.

The money you would have spent on a big wedding can be put towards a luxury elopement experience for the most amazing week(s) of your life. And once you’re hitched it’s straight into the honeymoon – you’re already there!

  • Main Image above: Ocean Studio Fiji Photography
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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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Bula Bride’s Tips for creating your dream wedding cake 

Hi Brides! Let’s chat about your Wedding Cake!

Your wedding cake is one of the centrepieces of your wedding reception, and will wind up featuring in a number of photos. Picking your cake can be tricky! You will want it to make sure you keep the following things in mind, especially if you are planning a destination wedding.  

1. You need to finalise your guest list (and wedding menu) first.  

First things first ladies….PLAN AHEAD! Picking your guests, finalising your guest numbers and organizing your wedding menu are all crucial to deciding what kind of a cake you will end up choosing. We suggest making sure you have all your guests dietary needs noted down as well. (Having a gluten free, or sugar free option like cupcakes is always nice for your guests that have strict health and diet restrictions.) 
 
Cakes by Taste Fiji

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Tennille & Conor – InterContinental Wedding

At the end of September last year, a month that is usually warm and dry in Fiji, Tennille and Conor were instead delivered a rather wet day. They chose to embrace the rain and elected to continue with their ceremony outside at a spot on the lawn they had handpicked as the perfect place to say their vows. The colour of the skies didn’t affect their joy at getting married, and as they promised to love each other forever they also got ready to reveal a special secret to their guests later on in the day.

We catch up with Bride Tennille to get the details on her destination wedding in Fiji:

BRIDE & GROOMS NAME: Tennille & Conor Murray
THE DATE: Sunday 30th September 2018
THE LOCATION: The InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 146

Conor was raised in Sydney, NSW Australia and I was raised in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, we are both half Papua-New Guinean. Conor and I met back many years ago when we were teenagers, when he and his family were visiting family in Goroka, but nothing ever amounted of us being together. We fell out of contact until we were both in our early 20’s when we met again at his cousins 21st birthday party. Conor went on to live in the UK for 2 years and I went on to study Interior Design in Brisbane, Australia. It was only by chance that we got back into contact again after a couple of years when Conor sent me a message via Facebook. It makes me laugh thinking about it now and how easily it could have been to not keep in touch at all. 6 and a 1/2 years later and after the arrival of our beautiful baby boy Cillian (pronounced Kill-Ian), Conor asked me to marry him on a secluded beach on a drizzly summers’ day in southern NSW Australia. It was absolutely magical.

We both had visited Fiji several times and fell in love with the culture and the people as it reminded us both a lot of Papua New Guinea

We chose The InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa after spending the day playing golf and relaxing on the beautiful Natadola Beach. It made sense for us to have it at a location where all our guests could stay in one location but with enough space to spread out and enjoy their holiday as well as catching up with friends when it suited them. The InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa was perfect for that.

We did a lot of internet searches and reading up on wedding blogs such as Bula Bride. I also visited a wedding expo in Brisbane when I was in Australia. Pinterest was also my best friend leading up to the wedding. We only used the resort’s wedding planner team, everything else was sourced and organised by me. Living in Papua New Guinea it made it very difficult to tie things together with such poor internet and phone connections on our end due to hush heavy rainfall but with perseverance we succeeded.

Video: Phoebe Galloway Films
Photos: Kamacatchme

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Alesha & Stuart – Sheraton Tokoriki Island

Presenting our first Bula Bride wedding feature with the groom in a kilt! How has it taken this long?!

The unique wedding attire caught our eye and then we were equally impressed by the beautiful sunset images captured by Ocean Studio Fiji at Sheraton Resort & Spa, Tokoriki Island.

Many of you may not be familiar with this resort as it is a fairly new addition to Fiji – opening just a few years back and then reopening again after the resort was devastated by Cyclone Winston. Boasting an upmarket resort situated on the island of Tokoriki, it’s not hard to see why Alesha & Stuart choose this location for their wedding. It’s easy to get too, has stunning beaches and turquoise water, plus the 5-star Sheraton Resort make wedding dreams come true. We catch up with bride Alesha on what went in to planning her Fiji destination wedding:

BRIDE & GROOM: Alesha Stone & Stuart Davis
THE DATE: 11th of March 2019
THE LOCATION: Sheraton Resort & Spa Tokoriki Island
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 12

We met in 2011 at a Birthday party for Stuart’s Nephew who was turning 3. We had our first overseas holiday together to Fiji in 2015 and fell in love with the people, the culture and the Fijian life. We felt that returning to the place of that first holiday for our Wedding would be the perfect way to celebrate our union. We chose Sheraton Tokoriki Island because of the proximity to Nadi for guests to travel and the child friendly nature of the resort.

We spent a lot of time selecting where to stay and the logistics of getting everyone there as well as who we wanted for the various aspects. All in all it took about 4 months to organise however the help of our wedding planner Lavenia of Paradise Bride Fiji and the Sheraton staff made the process very simple.

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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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Rachel & Michael

When we saw Rachel and Michael’s 120-guest wedding at Leleuvia Island Resort over on photographer Zoom Fiji’s page, we knew instantly this would be a stunning feature! Not only is it the first time for Bula Bride to feature a wedding here, but the set up is simply gorgeous. Add the stunning background and the romantic story and we were hooked!

We catch up with Rachel on her wedding day:

Michael & I met in Suva about 16yrs ago at a poetry reading session. It was a whirlwind romance where we dated, got married and had our 3 beautiful girls and in the time it took to raise our girls and build our businesses we never found the time to have a large wedding ceremony. So finally after 16yrs and after much prodding from our girls, we decided to have a wedding.

Whilst it was a wedding ceremony, it was also a renewal of our vows and our 16 year wedding anniversary, which was made even more special because we were able to have our 3 girls involved.

We chose Fiji, because I’m from Fiji and all my kids were born in Fiji. My husband is also a Fijian citizen now. And we chose Leleuvia island resort because we are one of the owners of the resort, and also it’s one of the most beautiful and magical islands in the Pacific and a place where we have shared and created many beautiful memories with our families and friends.

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Where is the best place to get married in Fiji?

So, where is the best place to get married in Fiji?

Deciding on the location to have your Fiji wedding or honeymoon can be a tough choice, with so many options available. Naturally your budget will help to narrow this down, however, ultimately this is going to be a one-off and very special experience, so putting some thought into what you want to get out of your trip is very important. And if you are having guests, thinking about what will also be the best experience for the group is also important.

    Main image above: Ocean Studios Fiji Photography

We have put together some suggestions that may help you choose the best place to get married in Fiji, or find the right location or just help you to think about what can make the experience special no matter where you go in Fiji. The good news is, from small budgets to large, Fiji has a range of options to cater to everyone.

1. Choose a location that matches your needs
Checking into a resort full of kids or embarking on a trip to a too-remote island, when it was not exactly what you expected from your wedding holiday could throw a spanner in the works of your much-desired Fiji wedding or honeymoon. The atmosphere at the resort will be crucial to the success of your trip, so it is important to choose a resort that is suitable for the type of wedding you want to have, and matches your budget and needs.

Luxury resorts that specialise in romance and couples getaways offer a unique experience and an intimate atmosphere. If you are looking for a personalised experience, take a look at a 5-star resort and book a stay to include your wedding or elopement, plus several extra nights on an all-inclusive package. You can’t go past the serenity and luxury of resorts like Turtle, Raiwasa, Namale, Savasi, Tides Reach or Laucala and if your budget does happen to stretch to one of these options for your wedding day, you won’t regret it.

Images: Raiwasa Grand Villa, Matei, Fiji offers luxurious weddings and honeymoons