Tim & Gaby – Koro Sun Resort
Tim & Gaby met in 2016 in Vancouver BC Canada – he’s Canadian and she’s an Aussie girl who took a year off from real life to have an adventure. Gaby moved to Canada and got a job as a waitress at a bar for the summer, and Tim was was the handsome bartender – the rest is history. Gaby ended up staying for 5 years in Canada before they made the move to Sydney, Australia.
We catch up with Bride Gaby on planning their wedding in Fiji:
BRIDE & GROOM: Gaby Stokes & Tim Bueckert
THE DATE: 21 October 2022
THE LOCATION: The Koro Sun Resort
THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 40 guests from Canada, Australia and NZ
Since our families and friends were spread all over the world and we love an adventure, we decided a destination wedding was for us. After doing some research we decided on Fiji as we’d never been there before and felt it would be a place everyone could enjoy.
We got engaged in peak covid lockdown era, July 2021 so by the time we started to plan the wedding, Fiji was just starting to make plans to open back up. It made it tricky as a lot of resort staff weren’t back working as normal and most resorts had been shut for a while. We had faith that things were going to get back to normal so pushed ahead.
We wanted to choose somewhere off the beaten track so one of the other islands from the mainland appealed to us and fell in love with the look of Vanua Levu and the beautiful Koro Sun Resort.
That begun a year of working out the many challenges and logistics of planning a destination wedding over email but the wonderful planners Melaia and Marissa at the resort were so helpful and did an amazing job. We never visited the resort before flying in for the wedding so there was a lot of trust and hoping for the best – and it all worked out wonderfully in the end.
Bula Bride was like my Bible… from researching about wedding documentation requirements, to covid restrictions, to wedding vendors. It was how we found and ultimately chose the Koro Sun Resort and our photographer Konrad Thorpe.
GETTING READY:
Tim and I stayed together in our gorgeous over the water bure the night before the wedding, woke up to a champagne breakfast and finished our vows. There was lots of happy, excited tears and cuddles – then we set off at about 10am to get ready separately.
He got ready with the boys at our bure and I went to my mums bure to get ready with mum, my sister and the flowergirls.
My makeup was done by Lodoviko – I wanted something modern and glamorous that could stand up to the humidity and he definitely delivered. I felt gorgeous and we all had a lot of fun together that morning!
My dress was from Dior by Madi Lane in ivory, and veil was the Cooper Veil. The fabric is so light and flowy and my veil had little pearl details throughout. I loved it! The Groom & the guys wore Linen suits from MJ Bale.
THE CEREMONY:
Location: Koro Sun Resort Rainforest
The resort took care of the set up and the decor at the ceremony and we worked closely on how it would look.
The colours and themes of the natural beauty of the rainforest was what I wanted to capture, with a pop of colour from the flowers.
The flowers and bouquets were done by local woman in the Savusavu village. They were stunning. They also made woven fans for us to give out to guests at the ceremony to keep cool.
We had a musician come over with us to play the ceremony and reception, he played acoustically as guests arrived. We had coconut drinks on arrival and kept it intimate with just a few seats at the front and to mark the aisle with the rest of the guests standing around the back. The natural amphitheater of the rainforest felt very special and kept the temperature down. We had a non-religious ceremony performed by a celebrant named Kalesi who made us feel so comfortable and brought so much warmth and love.
We wrote our own vows and had Tim’s sister Leah do a special reading to make it feel more personal to us.
GETTING PHOTOS:
We chose Konrad Thorpe as we loved his vibe and natural look to his photos.
Nothing to posey was our brief as we both don’t love being in front of the camera. I wanted lots of candid shots of us but also our family and friends so we could look back on them and see everyone enjoying themselves as we did.
We love our photos – the way the colours of the beautiful Fijian rainforest and beach really pop. Konrad got some amazing shots on a black sand beach with the light poking through the palm trees in such a perfect way. He had shot at the resort before so knew all the good spots already which was a great help.
THE RECEPTION:
The reception was held at the Latitude 17 restaurant at the Koro Sun. I absolutely love that it was surrounded by water. We had dinner inside and danced the night away outside under the stars in the warm Fiji air.
Again, I wanted quite natural and minimal since the beauty was in the location. We had 2 big, long family style tables to keep everyone close and involved and had a buffet style dinner.
The wonderful Koro Sun staff worked with us to bring out vision to life and took care of all the set-up.
We had a Lovo, buffet style dinner and an open bar. What made it even better was that we had a full Tiki style bar set up outside near the dance floor which just added so much to the vibe of the night.
We had a pineapple & coconut cake made by the Chefs at the resort, so delicious!!!
We brought over a musician from Australia – Jamie Postle, he is one of our favorite local musicians who played acoustically at the ceremony and throughout dinner and then DJ’s late into the night. He knows how to get a dancefloor going!
The reception ended with a HUGE display of fireworks, it was magical. Being a destination wedding, it was so nice to know we would wake up the next day, still in paradise with our nearest and dearest to enjoy a few more days all together before Tim and I set off on our honeymoon.
YOUR ADVICE FOR BRIDES PLANNING A FIJI WEDDING:
Leave yourself enough time to plan – with the distance and difference in traditions and cultures it can take some time to work through what you want and how you want it. Be specific and most importantly be patient – it all comes together so beautifully in the end and the Fijian people are so genuine and go above and beyond to make your day special. We will always be so grateful to the wonderful Koro Sun staff.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY:
It sounds cliché but the entire day! The special morning with Tim, getting ready with my mum and Sister, the vows, the music, the dancing – it was all fabulous!
After a week with friends and family at the Koro Sun, Tim and I jetted off to Tokoriki Resort for our honeymoon. We absolutely love Fiji and can’t wait to go back.
