Tell us about the gorgeous bridesmaid dresses?

Due to the small size of our wedding party I wanted my bridal party to be fairly small, so I had my sister as my maid of honour and our two nieces (3 and 5) at the time as my flowers girls. We actually purchased the flower girls dresses many months before the wedding as they were a great price on sale so we had a guess on the sizes that they would need and they fitted perfect. They were plain white satin dresses with a simple bow detail to the back. My sister didn’t want a typical bridesmaids dress and as we weren’t following a strict theme we were quite relaxed with this. In the end we chose a beautiful full length white lace panelled dress from Hush online and paired this with a beautiful pair of yellow summer floral Ted Baker heels.

Tell us about your bouquet.

We wanted to keep flowers simple yet elegant against the stunning Santorini back drop and so suggested white roses and various greenery. I wanted this to be a bit rustic in style and chose ribbon to be wrapped around the stems. I loved them so much!

Did you have a theme?

We didn’t follow a strict theme as such, from the beginning we both agreed on a simple a yet elegant palette of white and greens to be used throughout. We knew that the venue and views would be so stunning that we wanted to keep colours etc. subtle to show this off to its maximum.

What about the smaller details of the day?

We chose various additional items that we knew would look great to add that special touch for our guests on the day, these were as below: –

A welcome sign with a floral arrangement above – purchased from thevowweddings.com

We ordered leather luggage tags with everyone’s initials on as wedding favours from a seller on Etsy called Betsy A Jones – our guests loved these!

We ordered hand written calligraphy place names from another Etsy seller called Gracie Belle Studio.

As we had some children at our wedding we also ordered a few bits to keep them entertained, including personalised colouring books from Etsy seller called Paper Ballards and some small activity packs including make your own bride and groom peg dolls from a really cute little online store called Cotton Twist.

For our wedding cake we chose a simple two tier iced sponge with fresh flowers on top and a wooden Mr and Mrs cake topper which we purchased and took over with us.

We decided on one long table for all of our guests with us seated in the middle. It was so perfect for the intimate group we had and meant that the evening had a really sociable and relaxed atmosphere which was just what we wanted. For our table flowers we chose a long garland that ran down the centre of the table with white roses and mixed greenery with candles in varying sizes spread along – it was beautiful!

How did you find the planning experience from booking to the big day?

I can honestly say that the planning process was the most enjoyable, smooth and stress free we could ever have wished for. From the day we booked the wedding with Lisa at The Bridal Consultants to just before we flew out for our wedding, she was always on hand to quickly reply to emails and made sure that we hit deadlines for organising and making important choices throughout. I only ever had one telephone conversation with Lisa at the very beginning before we booked and never met in person, all was done via emails and the whole process was amazing and everything taken care of – we would highly recommend Lisa to anyone wanting their dream wedding abroad!!

What’s your best memory from the day?

It’s so hard to pick just one as the whole day was just amazing and everything we could have dreamed of – everyone says it but it was literally the best day ever! For me as the bride, it was the excitement of arriving at the venue knowing that everyone was on the terrace waiting, putting my wedding shoes on once I had walked down the steps and walking in with my mum, my sister and my nieces and seeing Andy there waiting for me. I felt like the luckiest girl! Listening to my entrance song now always brings back the most happy memories.

What do you think makes a wedding abroad stand out from a wedding in the UK?

We just couldn’t have imagined a wedding in the UK. From the moment we got engaged we both always wanted a wedding abroad and for us having not even visited before, seeing photos of Santorini for the first time, we both just knew it was the place for us. It just looked breath taking, like a bucket list place that would just be perfect. We always wanted to get married abroad to guarantee the weather which was perfect. We really wanted to enjoy the celebrations over a few days, rather than it all being about just the one day after such a long build up. We were in Santorini for two weeks so we were able to meet up with our friends and family for drinks, meals, beach days etc. which was so much fun. It was so much more intimate having just our closest family and friends with us and meant that we relaxed more and just enjoyed the day!

We wouldn’t have done anything different and would recommend an abroad wedding to anyone.

What advice would you give to future brides and grooms who are getting married abroad?

A few tips that we could give would be: –

We would recommend pre-booking additional luggage before you fly out, we didn’t and nearly got hit with a 30kg excess luggage bill which caused a bit of stress before the flight. On that occasion, we were lucky however and the lady on the check in desk was really nice and let us off, we made sure we pre-booked extra luggage before coming home.

Last and most important bit of advice would be to just enjoy each and every day you are on your wedding holiday. Treat the whole time you are there as part of the wedding and meet up with friends and family for drinks, meals etc. Relax and soak up every second!