By Kathleen Lee-Joe
In a faraway land … Daniel Boud and Cybele Malinowski opted for exotic Thailand over a Sydney wedding.
A tropical beach, a Tuscan castle, Elvis in Vegas?... Four travelling brides share their stories.
Koh Phangan, Thailand
Cybele Malinowski, 30, married Daniel Boud, 32, in June 2011
We were originally going to get married in Sydney. I just wanted a cool party in some warehouse with all my friends. And then, within two months of planning, we were having a wedding on a private island in the middle of the harbour, and organising caterers, chairs, sound systems. It suddenly became an OTT $30,000 wedding for one day in Sydney and we thought, "Why not make it an extravaganza in a tropical paradise?"
We invited 80 people and about 50 made it. We pretty much knew straight away who would come and who wouldn't. And the people who really needed to be there were there. A few people, especially uncles and aunties, were like, "Why don't you just have it in Australia? Why do you think you're so good?" But most of our friends were excited to go on a holiday. It was like schoolies all over again!
Like a horse and carriage … Emily Shera and Ramon Pollach's Tuscan wedding.
Daniel and I were taking our guests overseas, so we had to put on a killer party. Six months before, we went on a reconnaissance mission to scope out options. We settled on The Library on Koh Samui for our meet-and-greet cocktails and Santhiya on Koh Phangan for our reception. We organised our guests to travel by speedboat between the islands and were married at sunset. When I was a little girl, I always wanted to walk down the aisle in bare feet on a beach, and that's what I did. I was this close to having a baby elephant give me away.
In the evening, we had a banquet and 10-tier cake, everyone lit beautiful peace lanterns, and we put on a fireworks display to rival that of Sydney's New Year's Eve. It ended up being a festival of great expectations. And then, after the wedding, half our wedding party joined us for our honeymoon!
When I was organising the wedding in Sydney, I was starting to freak out. I started to see the wedding day as something to get over - a hurdle, a massive stress ball. Of course, with Thailand, there was still a lot of organising and the logistics of getting everyone over there, but once the day came, I didn't have to worry about a thing. We're already planning to return for an anniversary!
Viva Las Vegas … Elvis does the honours for Amy Griffiths and Alex Moore.
Tuscany, Italy
Emily Shera, 36, married Ramon Pollach, 40, in July 2011
I was asked to get married three days before the wedding. We were in Milan and had just been on a cycling trip from Passau, in Bavaria, to Vienna. While sitting in a cafe, Ramon asked my son, "What would you think if Mum and Dad got married in Tuscany?" We'd been together for 14 years and I never thought it'd happen. I thought I'd be engaged forever, so when I realised he was serious, I was blown away.
We went to a beautiful old farmhouse, Libbiano, near San Gimignano. When we arrived, he said, "I have your dress!" and had organised the flowers, a hairstylist and make-up artist, so I didn't have to do anything. When Ramon does something, he likes to do it really well.
When he said it was time to go, I expected a van but found a beautiful horse and carriage waiting outside. I couldn't believe it. I'm a mother and don't usually have these glamorous and exciting things happen to me!
Lei, lady, lei … Bridget Kelly and Andrew Gillott in Hawaii.
We were married in the town hall of San Gimignano. All the locals stopped and waved and shouted out their well wishes. We had 18 guests, including relatives from Germany and Madeira, although my parents weren't able to make it.
After the ceremony, we hopped on a bus and went up this long, winding driveway to a stunning castle. It completed the whole magic of the day. Our guests stuck around for the week. We'd get together every day and every evening and had a wonderful holiday.
San Gimignano is so beautiful and so different from anything we have in Australia. Weddings here involve getting married in a church or the botanical gardens, before a reception at the local five-star hotel or reception centre, but to get married in a foreign country is just amazing.
Las Vegas, USA
Amy Griffiths, 28, married Alex Moore, 29, in May 2011
I'm of Italian heritage and always thought I'd get married with all my family in a Tuscan villa or somewhere beautiful, but I've changed as I've gotten older. I didn't want a $30,000 white nightmare. I wanted something fun and I really love Elvis.
It took me a while to pick which Vegas chapel to get married in. We could've had strobe lights, smoke, a big pink Cadillac and a gazebo in the car park! I picked our chapel, Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, because it looked like Graceland. It had a whacky inside with coloured glass, jungle rooms and fabric everywhere - basically, it was like a '70s shag den.
We had 25 friends from Australia fly over for the wedding. In the morning, my girlfriends and I had a champagne breakfast at the Bellagio before getting ready. I dressed as Priscilla Presley on her wedding day – having pieced together my outfit from eBay – and did my hair in a big bouffant. We got to the chapel early, got a case of beer, admired the celebrity wall and waited for our turn. Before Alex and me, there was a double wedding starring obese twins in matching blue and pink cowgirl outfits!
The ceremony was the best 15 minutes of my life. We got the deluxe $499 package that included three Elvis songs. As "the King" walked me down the aisle, he sang Love Me Tender, and when he pronounced us married, Viva Las Vegas started playing. Everyone got up, jumping and screaming. There are some great photos, although I didn't pull one beautiful face the whole time because I thought it was so hilarious.
The whole thing was live-streamed so everyone in Australia was tuning in and popping champagne on a Monday. I did feel guilty about not letting people share my day with me, but I think getting married is more about you, and I wanted our wedding to be about us and not about everyone else.
We ended up having our reception in a mall restaurant; apparently it's a favourite of Justin Bieber. We were on a patio, right next to Zara, right on the strip, but it was lovely. Afterwards, we honeymooned in New Orleans and, without my husband knowing, I booked us an overnight stop in Graceland, Memphis.
Waikiki, Hawaii
Bridget Kelly, 29, married Andrew Gillott, 33, in January 2011
We got married on Australia Day, which happened to be our 10th anniversary. We waited so long because I could never imagine myself organising a big wedding. That's just not me. As a couple, travelling and seeing new things is what we like to do, so it was very much our style to go overseas. We were going to elope, but when we mentioned it to a few friends, they all wanted to come, too.
At first, Hawaii was a practical choice because we wanted to go skiing in the mainland US. But when we started looking into it, it just seemed amazing. We had about 35 guests, 15 family and 20 friends. My mother was a bit shocked and worried that our extended family wouldn't be able to come, but in the end, everybody loved it. Mum just went back for a holiday, she enjoyed it so much!
We organised the entire wedding from home and it was the easiest thing. Hawaii has a lot of wedding planners who take care of everything - the celebrant, the flowers, the music, whatever! You just rock up and it's all there. I didn't have very high expectations; I was sure things would go wrong, given we did it on the internet, but we got there and it was all fine.
We had a beach ceremony about half an hour from Waikiki and a posh dinner at the Moana Surfrider, which is a beautiful hotel surrounded by old banyan trees. We didn't have a dance floor, so we went out clubbing until 4am with all our guests.
The wedding ended up being much cheaper, given we had about a quarter of the people we would have invited had we wed in Australia. That meant being able to spend more on our honeymoon, which was our priority. Most of our friends joined us in Maui and Vegas before Andrew and I road-tripped for a month and went skiing around California and Colorado.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.