Destination Weddings
After my now husband and I got engaged, we decided on a winter wedding and that we would like to go abroad to get hitched. Weddings can be so expensive nowadays and easily spiral out of control with who to invite issues, table plans, and of course what will the weather be like.
This week sees our tenth wedding anniversary so I thought I would share with you a bit about our destination wedding. We married in the beautiful Lake bled in Slovenia and if a fairy-tale wedding is something that you're looking for then Lake bled is a perfect destination - it's absolutely magical. My mum and my nan had been on a coach trip round Slovenia and told me about a church in the middle of Lake Bled and a Castle on the cliff overlooking the lake, so I started to research weddings in Slovenia and fell in love immediately with the beautiful setting that would be for our wedding. Sprinkled with snow it looked even more spectacular, so I set about organising a destination winter wedding.
EasyJet offered flights that we needed and gave our guests the flexibility to come out for 2 or 3 nights. I liked the idea of us all staying at the same hotel and the Grand Hotel Toplice right on the lake was the perfect place to stay and allowed us a group rate on accommodation. I organised coaches to pick up all the guests from the airport and take them to the hotel.
A tip if you’re thinking of getting married abroad is to get your invitations out early to give people enough notice to enable them to come along if they wish.
On the day of the wedding our guests where transported over to Bled Island, to the church via traditional Pletna boats which are large gondola-like row boats with a canopy. The church is sat at the top of 99 steps and according to the tradition, the groom must carry the bride up these stairs, in order for their marriage to be happy! Not sure my groom was so happy about that task! After the ceremony we rang the famous Wishing Bell in the church, and it said that when you ring the Bell if you make a wish you wish will come true. It was quite difficult to ring the Bell and took a while for us to hear it much to the amusement of all our guests!
After the wedding ceremony we had photos with a beautiful snowy backdrop and then made our way back down the steps to the Plenta boats to go onwards to the Castle perched atop a steep cliff which overlooks the lake for the wedding reception. As newlyweds we had a horse and carriage ride to the castle which was very romantic.
On arrival at the Castle we were greeted by the Lord and Lady of the House and they invited us to “do what we came here to do” which was to celebrate our wedding. As we had a Catholic ceremony in the church, at the time in order to make it legal, we also had a civil ceremony inside one of the medieval castle rooms. After our second service we had a champagne reception on the pavilion on the top terrace outside overlooking the magnificent surroundings of the mountains and the lake. We had fire breathers, traditional dancing and even opened a bottle of champagne with a sword! As part of the package that we did we also got to bottle our own bottle of wine in the castle wine cellar and print a wedding certificate in the old castle print house.
We had a traditional wedding breakfast and danced the night away! All in all, Lake Bled is truly a magical setting for the most wonderful fairy-tale wedding I could have ever hoped for.
There are so many different destinations around the world to choose from to get married. Short or long haul, there are places to suit all types of budgets and number of guests and themes – if you are considering getting married abroad get in touch and we can start planning your wedding of your dreams.