Why did you choose to get married in Zakynthos and on Turtle Island in particular?

As soon as we got engaged, we knew we wanted a beach wedding.  In particular, we really wanted the sand beneath our feet as we said our vows and the sun to be shining!  We love to travel, we got engaged abroad, so it felt like the right thing to do.  We didn’t want a big wedding, but wanted to go somewhere our family and close friends could come with us.  That meant we wanted to be in Europe, and with the help of the Bridal Consultant, we settled on Zante as it was here we really could get married on an actual beach.  Neither of us had ever been there, and given we love an adventure, we decided to go for it! We knew it was meant to be when we were shown ‘Turtle Island’ as an idea.  We wanted turtles to feature in our wedding theme, given they are Karen’s favourite animal, and we always try to go somewhere, where we can swim with them.  It seemed to be a perfect match.

How long in advance did you book your wedding?

We booked it about 11 months in advance.  We probably would have tried to get married sooner, but we also decided to fit in completing an Ironman competition! We settled on doing this in Tallinn; given we were now training to complete a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike, and then a marathon, all in one go, we felt we needed to have the wedding after this!

How many guests did you invite to your wedding and how many accepted and attended?

We invited 32 people, and had 26 attend.  One of the ushers initially accepted, but then couldn’t come, as they had a baby due at around the same time as the wedding.  The other usher, who did come, also had a baby just before the wedding, so we had a 6 week old attending too!

Tell us about the wedding dress

My dress was a Maggie Sottero design.  I found it in the second shop I went to with my mum, and fell in love with it straight away.  It was perfect for the beach as wasn’t too heavy, but had a small train, like I wanted.  I was really nervous about getting my dress so far in advance, as I didn’t know how my shape would change as I prepared for the Ironman – I must have been the only bride at my fitting asking her not to take it in, as I was worried once the competition was over, I would put weight on again! I added thin straps to the dress to break up the neck – which also helped with the tan lines!

And your accessories?

I wore flip flops! During the ceremony, I was in bare feet, with the sand beneath my toes, and then flip flops for the evening.  All of my jewellery was from Tenerife Pearl.  Andy and I go to Tenerife each year for a cycling holiday, and he always buys me a piece from there.  So I had a blue pearl twisted bracelet, drop pearl earrings and a pearl necklace.

And the Groom?

Andy definitely went for the casual route, to fit in with the wedding theme.  He had linen shirt and trousers.  It worked perfectly.

We love the royal blue bridesmaid dress, where was it from?

My maid of honour had a royal blue dress from Coast.  It matched the usher and best man’s dark blue linen shirts.  We found the dress within the first hour of looking, when we met up in London!

What flowers did you choose for your bouquet?

We chose calla lilies, as they are so beautiful and were perfect for the simple, low-key wedding we wanted.  Andy’s mum made all of the bouquets and the button holes.  It was quite a challenge bringing everything out!  But it made it really special, having Jill make the flowers for our wedding.  We used olive leaves too, to match the Greek theme.  I also had shells and pearls added to my bouquet, to reflect the beach theme.

Did you have a theme?

The only real theme we had was turtles.  We wanted them on to feature on our wedding cake, as we had purchased two wooden turtles after we got engaged in the Maldives.  We also added the ‘bike’ to the reception, as we love cycling.