Amanda Wyatt Destination Wedding Dresses

When your planning a destination wedding, the dress is one of the most important things to think about. There are a few questions you need to ask yourself when looking for a dress, such as, is it going to be very hot where we are getting married? What look do I want? What type of fabric should I be looking for? (this will pretty much be determined by the weather in your wedding destination) If you are getting married in the carribbean, you don't want a big heavy dress that you are going to boil in! The last thing you wan't is to look back at your photos and see you were looking a bit sweaty and red faced!
I've been looking for a dress for a while now, but I have come across some beautiful wedding dresses from Amanda Wyatt...and fear not...theres actually a wedding dress for every destination in the WOW (Women of the World) collection! Amazing!
These are some of my favourites!


Wedding dresses for Greece & Italy




The Seychelles Dress  & The Spain Dress




Cuba & Fiji by Amanda Wyatt



Images Courtesy of Amanda Wyatt

Booking a Villa

There is just over 6 months to go until our wedding in Rhodes! It's sudenly hit me this week that it's not actually that long off and i've been in a bit of a panic because there is so much more we need to do and probably one of the most important things was to actually book our accommodation for the wedding!
We booked the wedding months ago but hadn't decided where we were going to stay....I know....some people might think this is pretty crazy not to book a hotel as soon as your wedding is booked but we were trying to decide whether to book a villa, apartment or a hotel.
We had spoken to our best man and bridesmaids and thought it would be cool to book a villa together for the week of the wedding, which seemed like a fab idea but organising everyone and getting them to make a commitment to booking was proving more difficult than expected.
One word of advice, when planning a wedding abroad you can be fooled into thinking it's the easy option but as I have found out this last couple of weeks, some things can be rather difficult. If your planning to stay with friends or family, it might be worth thinking about it further and just booking yourself and your husband to be into a nice hotel and let the rest sort themselves out!

After 2 whole weeks of trying to oragnise everybody and find somewhere which suited everybodys budget we have finally booked a villa and flights! We booked our flights with easyjet, flying from Liverpool to Rhodes. Flights to Rhodes from the UK are generally Saturdays and Wednesdays and then Ryanair also fly on a Thursday.

As we are getting married in Lindos, you have to be there 5 days before your wedding, so for the first 3 nights the two of us are staying in apartments actually in the village itself, then on the 4th night we are moving to Villa Galini at Vlicha Bay just outside Lindos, where two of our bridesmaids and best man will be joining us.

The villa looks amazing! I can't wait to get there! We booked this Villa through Owners Direct . We spoke to the owner of the villa and confirmed the booking directly. At first I was unsure about booking a villa directly with the owner and paying the desposit direct to them, but there is private villa insurance available through the Owners Direct website which covers things like cancellation, fraud or if the villa is not as described when you get there. I would reccomend getting this insurance when you book a private villa, if only to put your mind at ease!
Now that the filights and villa are booked I can cross that of my long list of things to do and I can now start looking for the little things like favours, flowers, decorations, bridesmaid dresses and shoes!

Images via VIP Villa Rhodes

Our Wedding in Rhodes Reception Venue

We have now confirmed our reception venue and menu which I'm very, very excited about! It's possibly the most beautiful venue in Lindos...we'll thats my opinion anyway.
We have chosen to have our reception at the Melenos Hotel Lindos which is perfect for us for two reasons, firstly because it's right next to the Chapel where our ceremony will take place and secondly because we have eaten there on two occasions when we visited Lindos previously, so we know that the food is excellent! and the staff are very friendly and welcoming.
The Melenos also has fantastic views looking out over the Aegean sea and also the Acropolis!....Perfect!


Fantastic views from the Melenos




Melenos Hotel, St Dimitirios Chapel & The Acropolois Lindos




Where we will be dining on our wedding day, overlooking the sea

 Images from Melenos Lindos

Problems Planning A Wedding Abroad

Planning your wedding abroad should be the most exciting thing you will ever plan! However, ultimately it's probably going to be a smaller wedding than if you were to have your wedding at home, which means smaller guest list.... which can cause a few disagreements when it comes to family politics. Some of these problems I am currently experiencing.
After a whole load of tears and upset yesterday I thought I would share with you the issues that have surfaced whist planning my wedding.
The max number of wedding guests we can afford to invite to our wedding is 50....and no more and this is something we have had to stick to otherwise, where do you draw the line? 50 is already well above the average for a wedding abroad!
So we put together our guest list firstly making sure our close family and best friends were invited first. These people will always come first and thats your parents, siblings and bridesmaids, best man etc. Wider family and other friends, you may need to have a think about. We sent our invites out when we booked the wedding but we had given people warning last summer that we would be getting married abroad to give them time to have a think about it.
I will be honest with you when I say that the guest list has been the most difficult thing so far as there are people we haven't been able to invite and there have been people we didn't really want to invite which is actually one of the reasons we chose to get married abroad.
We both have relatives who we are on speaking terms with and we probably see them once a year...maybe twice?? but these said relatives have caused upset in the family on many occasions, mainly at weddings and Christams etc and have ended up ruining family events for everyone else, so it was really a no brainer not to invite them. It's our wedding day after all and we don't want it ruined by people who simply cannot behave themselves. I may sound harsh but I am being totally honest.
Over the weekend everyone received their invites and yesterday all hell broke loose!
I spent most of the morning crying because of phonecalls and text messages...."It's very unfair of you not to invite them"......."I won't be coming to the wedding because he's/ she's not invited" ....."You are selfish"......and you get the idea!
I'm sure it will all sort itself out, but in the meantime I'm sticking to my guns. I've been very upset but I've had to take a step back and think about it. As long as my husband to be is waiting for me at the chapel, then thats all that matters. The people who really love and care about you will respect your decisions and they should be happy for you on your big day.
So, if your planning a wedding abroad, these things can flair up and family politics can be an issue with any wedding. Other than that remeber IT'S YOUR DAY! ENJOY IT!

Our Lindos Wedding

So we've decided on Lindos in Rhodes Greece for our wedding destination so I thought I would share a few pics from when me and my H2B went out there for a holiday.
It's a really beautiful place with lots of history and some gorgeous beaches and we fell in love with it instantly. I think it's going to be the perfect destination for our wedding in September this year! Eeek! I can't believe it's not that far away!
Must start looking for wedding dresses and we need to finalise the guest list!

Here's a few pictures from our beautiful wedding destination!

St Dimitrios Chapel in Londos, where our wedding ceremony will take place.



Lindos Streets



The fantastic sea view from the Chapel

Lindos Donkeys

The Acropolis Lindos

A Wedding In Rhodes Greece

I've been talking with various wedding planners in a few destinations over the past few months to get ideas as to where we should get married and how much it will cost etc so last night me and my H2B decided we had to choose where we wanted to get married.
Our favourite places were Havana in Cuba, Florence in Italy and Rhodes in Greece.
Decision time. . . . . .
We pretty much ruled out Cuba because I really want my Grandad to be at the wedding and he's 82 now and there is no way he could fly that far, he can probably manage around 4-5hrs at the most. For a wedding abroad we still have more guests than usual, the avarage being around 25, but we have got 40 on our list, so we thought it's probably quite far and costly for some people to go.
We then ruled out Florence in Italy becasue that's where two of our best friends got married a couple of years ago so we wanted to do something different to them, so we picked Rhodes.
We had thought about France and we looked at some stunning venues but what put me off was the fact that you would need to actually get married legally back at home first.
We have decided to have our wedding in the beautiful village of Lindos, Rhodes. We went there in May last year and fell in love with the place! It's beautiful and it's got that kind of rustic feel that we like so much! We have chosen a gorgeous little chapel called St Dimitris which is located in the village just under the Acropolis. We had a look at flights and accommodation keeping our gusts in mind and there is something to suit most budgets.
The wedding is booked for September, so it's not actually that far away! At least it's booked now and I can start looking at dresses!!!!!

We Decided to Get Married Abroad

So the search begins!
We have decided to get married in September of this year.......yes, I know it's not long, but it should be long enough for a wedding abroad, or so I've heard. Just one major thing to decide on.....a destination!!!
I always knew I wanted to get married abroad since I visited Mexico with my parents when I was 21. We saw a wedding on the beach and it was simply beautiful, I just thought you couldn't beat the sunshine, the clear blue sea and the whole idea of not having to invite everyone and anyone. The idea of a big wedding in the UK with 100's of guests from distant relatives who you havent seen since you were 4 years old to your Grans next door neighbour has never appealed to me. All I want is the people I love the most, the sun, the sea and my amazing husband to be.
There are so many places your can choose to get married in, it can be a little confusing. I've been trawling the internet for weeks looking at everywhere from France and Spain to the Carribean and as far away as Thailand! It can be quite daunting especially when your looking at a destination you haven't been to.
In the 7 years we have been together we have been on holiday to some lovely places, so naturally we will probably choose one of our favourite locations: Italy, Mexico, Cuba or Greece, but for now, I'm still weighing up the options.