Rob and Olli held their destination wedding in Fiji, with 75 friends and family in attendance (the majority of the crew coming from Australia). The pair shared a bit about their big day with us. “We decided early on that we wanted to do a destination wedding somewhere that was close to Australia. Neither of us wanted a big wedding and given our backgrounds (Italian and Assyrian) we were destined to have a very big wedding had we chosen to stay in Sydney. Fiji is a popular place for Australian’s to get married because it is so close and is about 3.5hrs from Sydney and so it seemed like an ideal location and besides, there were so many beautiful resorts in Fiji to choose from and who doesn’t love a holiday!?”
With the help of Small Guide Travel Pty Ltd in Queensland, the couple selected the Intercontinental Golf Resort & Spa at Natadola Bay on Viti Levu as their wedding location. “It was a no brainer for us – we wanted the best resort for our budget, we wanted a beach with white sand, great location, amazing rooms and we wanted a resort that only accepted one wedding per day. We had not been to the resort prior to choosing it but we trusted our Fiji Wedding expert Mandi, we researched the resort on sites like Trip Advisor to see what reviews were written about the wedding experience there etc.”
The palette was a pretty coral pink and grey to go with the surroundings.
Olli found the perfect presents for her parents online. “The gifts I gave to my parents were pretty special. I wanted to get them a little keepsake and I found custom made cufflinks for my father and a pearl bracelet for my mother – which they were both able to wear on the day.”
The pair also participated in a few fun traditions. “We both wanted to wear blue shoes to the wedding as our ‘something blue’.” While the bride’s jewelry was borrowed from her sister as her something old and borrowed. Then, as a wedding day surprise, Rob gave his bride earrings as wedding present so she had something new (and unexpected) to wear too!
As for a theme, they let the natural beauty speak for itself. “We were pretty casual about the theming of the wedding and didn’t really have anything specific in mind to be honest. We were in Fiji, the backdrop is theme enough! I had my young cousin Amy – who is a graphic designer – design the Save the Date cards and she came up with the design and we carried that theme on through to invites, envelopes, table numbers, thank you cards etc.”
The ceremony was held inside the chapel but with big windows, the beautiful outdoor backdrop could not be missed.
This wedding was certainly meant to be! “We were set up by a mutual friend. She seemed adamant we would be perfect for each other so I agreed for her to send Robert my details. She gave Robert my email address and he contacted me pretty much straight away. We chatted over email for about 2 weeks before we finally met up for a date. One date and we were pretty much inseparable. Wasn’t long before we knew we’d met our ‘one’. 10 months later he surprised me with the proposal in his favorite park on the way to what I thought was a dinner with friends. We went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and we spent the rest of the night sharing texts and phone calls with family and friends!”
Then their wedding photographer, Hilary Cam, took the newlyweds out for some fantastic photos.
At the reception, guests were treated to some local and certainly magical entertainment.
We asked the couple if they experienced any challenges planning from far away in hopes of helping future couples. “The only challenging part of planning a wedding from another country, especially when you haven’t seen the resort, is that you can only trust the pictures you see and the conversations you have with the hotel’s wedding planner. This is particularly hard when all your communication is via email or on the phone. You don’t really get a sense of how things look, the layout of the resort or wedding venue until you get to the resort and do a walk around. We were not disappointed…it was perfect! We used local suppliers provided/recommended via the hotel for flowers, decorations, cake, DJ, lighting etc. We didn’t want the hassle of trying to find anyone ourselves so we just asked to hotel to recommend suppliers. We were very happy with the people they’d suggested. We didn’t want to compromise on our photos so we took a photographer we knew and trusted to do an amazing job, with us to Fiji.”
For wedding favors, at the end of the evening each guest left with a custom made luggage tag from Mr and Mrs Favors.
Congratulations to the newlyweds!
Destination Wedding Photographer: Hilary Cam
Wedding Vendors: Wedding Location: Intercontinental Golf Resort & Spa at Natadola Bay, Travel Agent: Small Guide Travel Pty Ltd, Cuff Link: White Truffle Studio, Photo Jewelry: Kidonas Photo Jewelry, Favors: Mr and Mrs Favors
I absolutely love the bridesmaid dresses. Do you know where they were bought from? x Kate
Awwwwwww, thank you guys, this is lovely. It makes it so much more satisfying when we see the end results of our work…. you were both gorgeous to work with which made it easier for sure. Big congratulations from us…… much love. Mandi