Marriage ceremony | Caroline & Otto | Castaway Island Resort Fiji Weddings

BRIDE & GROOM: Caroline and Otto

THE DATE: Saturday 1st July 2023

THE LOCATION: Castaway Island, Fiji

THE NUMBER OF GUESTS: 16 marriage ceremony friends plus our household of 4 making us an ideal 20.

We all the time stated if we ever obtained married it might be on a seashore on a tropical island. We’d been to Fiji a couple of instances earlier than and liked it for the spectacular location and the comfortable vibe created by the Fijian individuals. Fiji may be very close to to Australia and so we’d heard nice issues from individuals we knew who’d obtained married there.

We had been to Fiji earlier than and had a transparent imaginative and prescient of the marriage we wished. Selecting the placement appeared an important first step for us. We knew we wished an Island resort within the Mamanucas in June/July. Discovering the ‘Fiji Weddings Bride’s discussion board’ Fb web page run by Bula Bride was a turning level, it’s an ideal useful resource to do analysis with different Fiji brides and it’s the place I discovered my marriage ceremony planner Mandi Forrester-Jones from Viva Weddings. I discovered there weren’t too many latest Castaway Brides on there, so I additionally joined the ‘We Love Castaway Island’ Fb web page however there’s now a ‘Castaway Island, Fiji – Marriage ceremony Brides & Grooms’ Fb web page.

I didn’t know that marriage ceremony journey brokers existed earlier than. Mandi from Viva is a journey agent primarily based in Australia with heaps of expertise organizing weddings in Fiji and can also be a celebrant herself. It made an enormous distinction having Mandi’s assist and experience. She has all of the relationships with the suppliers and is with you each step of the best way. The perfect piece of recommendation she gave me was to concentrate on the marriage that my companion and I actually wished and the individuals that are supposed to be there will likely be.

I discovered it actually useful to learn the function tales from actual Fiji brides on the Bula Bride web site and be taught extra concerning the suppliers too. I observed there weren’t many Castaway weddings featured and that’s why I’m sharing my story.

We’d been to Castaway Island a couple of years in the past on a day journey and had been actually impressed by it. We knew we wished a small intimate island marriage ceremony that was distinctive to us. We had been in search of a 5-star resort the place you might take children and we wanted it to be enjoyable for youngsters too. Having an genuine Fijian expertise was additionally essential to us. We’d heard Castaway was distinctive and it actually delivered.

GETTING READY:

Our marriage ceremony ceremony was at 3pm so we had numerous time to prepare. I stated goodbye to my companion and our sons after breakfast as they had been preparing with family and friends. I met my Aunt on the spa to get our nails completed first, earlier than going again to our bure for hair and make-up with my bridesmaid and mum. We had a lot enjoyable getting pampered and consuming champagne, then all of a sudden it was time for the ceremony.

Hair and make up was by Totoka Hair & Make Up. Stephanie and Palavi had been each so beautiful and actually knew what they had been doing. All of us appeared wonderful and no matter they did with our hair and make-up was magic as a result of it stayed like that every one day!

My costume was from: Tania Olsen, Australian designer, bought from South Coast Brides in NSW. My Matron of Honour’s bridesmaid costume was additionally from South Coast Brides. The groom and our two sons wore matching white linen shirts and beige shorts from Nation Highway Australia.

THE CEREMONY:

LOCATION: On the seashore at Monkey Rock Castaway Island Resort.

Castaway Island sorted the entire decor for the ceremony arrange. We used all the pieces in our package deal and added some extras such because the arbor, seating and flowers. I shared my inspiration images with Laisa, our marriage ceremony coordinator at Castaway, and she or he actually did her finest to create my dream marriage ceremony.

I selected an exquisite arbor with white cloth drapes and flowers plus timber bench seating with numerous flowers. I wished it to look styled and semi-formal however appropriate for a seashore marriage ceremony. The flowers had been largely white with a touch of pink.

I wore white, my bridesmaid wore a pale sage inexperienced, the groom and our boys wore white shirts with sand colored shorts. Our marriage ceremony friends wore shades of blue and inexperienced which is exceptional as a result of we didn’t ask them to try this, nevertheless it does look wonderful within the images.

Castaway supplied the bride and bridesmaid bouquets plus buttonholes for the groom and our boys. We additionally had pastel-colored biodegradable confetti from Australia.

We selected a easy non-religious ceremony related to our island location and wrote our personal vows. It was so particular and emotional to listen to one another’s vows for the primary time in entrance of our household and mates. Different highlights included our youngest son being the ring bearer, one thing he requested and did so fantastically, together with our older son strolling me down the aisle after which completely delivering a shock speech from my brother on behalf of our household that was each heartfelt and humorous. Our Fijian warriors had been superior and had been already recognized to our boys from the youngsters membership. The choir sang fantastically. We had probably the most spectacular blue sky and sunshine day. I wouldn’t have modified a factor.

GETTING PHOTOS:

I selected Videoticz for our pictures as a result of I favored their versatile package deal.

We love candid images and wished to seize particular moments from all through our day. Some household portraits with our marriage ceremony friends had been additionally essential to us as a result of it was a particular bunch of individuals to have collectively in a single place. We had a couple of concepts of our personal for capturing the fantastic thing about the placement and we trusted our photographer to be artistic too.

We love the combination of candid images, household images, and inventive photographs. Reenal was actually beneficiant along with his time. We felt snug with him, so we may simply chill out and belief him to do his job which is essential. He knew what he was in search of, whether or not that was masking all of the completely different shifting elements of our marriage ceremony day and night or capturing these distinctive moments that we’ll treasure perpetually.

THE RECEPTION:

RECEPTION LOCATION: Our reception was at 1808 restaurant with a protracted desk on the seashore, a buffet, pop up bar, and dance space.

The Castaway group supplied many of the set-up decor. I introduced some marriage ceremony favors from Australia plus the welcome signal that they moved from ceremony to reception.

I wished to have dinner at a protracted desk on the sand with numerous fairy lights overhead. On the day of our marriage ceremony, the Castaway group constructed a particular construction for me primarily based on a photograph I’d supplied – and so they even constructed a wall to maintain out the wind! They went above and past to ship my imaginative and prescient.

We had a tremendous buffet with a number of entrees, mains and desserts to select from. The contemporary fish was a stand-out for me and the desserts had been scrumptious! We additionally had a 3 hour drinks package deal.

Castaway made our marriage ceremony cake. I selected chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and flowers. I supplied a photograph of what I wished and introduced the cake topper with me from Australia.

For leisure, we booked the Meke group from the island. Hearth dancers will not be allowed at Castaway however we didn’t miss this. We wished our marriage ceremony friends to have this Fijian expertise and it introduced us a lot happiness to have a non-public efficiency with the wonderful Castaway employees singing and dancing on our marriage ceremony day.

After the Fijian dancers, we had our playlist for extra dancing with our friends to finish the evening. Dancing is an enormous a part of Venezuelan tradition too.

YOUR ADVICE FOR BRIDES PLANNING A FIJI WEDDING:

It’s true what you’ve heard, you do must belief that they know what they’re doing and while you get there it simply will get completed. This was our expertise too. Our marriage ceremony coordinator had all my emails and images and had an in depth run sheet prepared after we arrived.

Use a vacation spot marriage ceremony planner/journey agent. They’ve established relationships in Fiji, and they’re able to offer you a perspective which helps handle any stress. And it helps to have somebody taking care of all of your friends’ journey wants.

Ask somebody in your loved ones to supervise all the pieces for you on the day since you actually can’t do that your self, you’ll be too busy.

One more reason I believe our day was so profitable was as a result of we didn’t sweat the small stuff. There’ll all the time be little issues that don’t go to plan. We saved our concentrate on the general expertise of the day and it was spectacular. We loved each minute. It actually was a dream marriage ceremony.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY:

Between the ceremony and reception, after images, we left our friends having drinks collectively while we went on a Champagne Cruise to Honeymoon Bay. As newly-weds we danced on a ship within the Pacific Ocean at sundown time with a serenader and champagne, our youngsters having fun with it with us, and it was a completely wonderful pinch-yourself second.

There have been numerous little moments like this shared with our family members. We obtained a lot pleasure from having our households and mates from all around the world come along with us to have fun our marriage ceremony day and have a vacation of a lifetime that may dwell in all our hearts perpetually.