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I Do Fiji sits down with newly wed couple Kelly and Aiden who worked with our very own Paula Faundez to plan their dream wedding at Shangri-La Fiji. Here’s the low down on how the day unfolded.
Our wedding was everything we imagined it to be and more! From the moment we arrived we knew we had made the right decision. Shangri-la is absolutely stunning!
I’m a big control freak so deciding to get married in Fiji was a big deal for me.
But as soon as we sat down with Mosese I knew we were in good hands. I let go of the reins and trusted in him and he didn’t disappoint. I’m so glad we decided on a destination wedding. Fiji is such a calm, relaxing place and we just took that into our wedding day. It was a beautiful day full of emotion surrounded by so much love and support in the most magical place.
We got married at 3.30pm (better being daylight savings) on the right hand side of the chapel lawns with the beautiful clear water as our backdrop. The weather was perfect other than having some strong winds which blew off my veil just as I’d made it to Aiden at the end of the isle.
But this was just something we laughed about and included as part of our day. Thankfully the wind passed come reception time and it was perfect.
We had the reception on the lawns, left hand side of the chapel commencing at 5pm and we extended the package to be 5hrs which I’m so glad we did as the night still flew by!
Styling was by Fiji Weddings and everything looked stunning! The night ran smoothly with no issues whatsoever. We went with the roast buffet which was delicious and there was plenty of it.
In between the ceremony and reception we put on a bar tab for guests while we were off taking photos.
Resonate played some music to keep guests entertained and Shangri-La provided some bar tables for them to use.
The cake was cut after our ceremony and served to guests instead of doing canapes which worked really well as there was so much food for dinner canapes weren’t needed and the dessert buffet was delicious so had we have not done the cake early it wouldn’t have been eaten.
We flew over to Fiji in February of this year to look at some wedding venue options.
We looked at 6 different resorts and Shangri-La just won our hearts.
The beautiful beach you can’t get on the mainland, the friendly people and seclusion of the chapel lawns is exactly what we were after. We didn’t find that same privacy from a wedding point of view at any of the other resorts. We didn’t want to get married on the beach but wanted a garden feel overlooking the water so Shangri-La suited us perfectly.
Nothing compared to how breath taking Shangri-La was.
We used Zee & Cee photography who are based in Sydney and flew over for our wedding. They were amazing to work with.
Paula was beyond amazing! From our initial contact, I knew we were in good hands. My lack of knowledge about Fiji and info on a destination wedding paula made up for.
Any questions we had or our guests had (and we had a lot!) Paula answered and if she didn’t know she made sure she found out for us. She booked accommodation, meal packages, village tours and flights for majority of our guests which made things so much simpler for us all. There were times we had Paula working like crazy to sort some things out for us but not once did she complain. Everything was handled in such a calm, friendly manner which always put my mind at ease.
She followed up with Shangri-La when I needed her to and constantly kept me in the loop.
Communication was always fantastic. Responding to my emails, texts and phone calls so quickly whenever I needed her.
All of my guests who had contact with Paula were so happy as well and commented on how lovely paula was to deal with. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to plan this wedding without paula and am truly grateful I found her.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Paula for helping make our dream wedding come true. We will always be so grateful for all of your help, kindness and support.
To anyone planning a holiday or wedding, I Do Fiji Holidays is your go to place. We highly recommend Paula and Dee!
