Walking barefoot down the aisle… Feeling the ocean breeze in your hair while exchanging the vows… Putting the wedding bands on with sunset as your silent witness… What can be dreamier and more unique to celebrate your love, than the intimate beach ceremony? If you have dreamed about all that, Maldives are a perfect destination to make your fairytale wedding a reality.
Idyllic Maldives as a cluster of tiny islands are made up mostly of the water areas. In between this ocean landscape there is 1,190 islands and about 90 of them are developed into picturesque tourists resorts. Therefore, this exotic location offers plenty of options for a wedding ceremony out of your dreams. And what is also important, it will be definitely less stressful, less hectic and less absorbing to organize than any traditional wedding. The celebration of binding your love forever is a priceless moment that you will experience in the most serene way.
Ask yourself first – is an exotic beach wedding for you?
Taking the decision of having an exotic wedding far from your friends and relatives, must be a really well thought idea. The scenery is truly beautiful, weather is fantastic and beach ceremony itself is definitely among the most romantic experiences. But before you will start booking your trip to Maldives, ask yourself few important questions. Is the intimate beach ceremony with no guests for your? Will your family and friends be happy with your decision and the fact, they will not be present at the wedding? If not, are you able to handle that? And will you regret later of not having them with you during your big day?
It took me and my husband about 2 minutes to make our final decision. We knew immediately that intimate beach wedding for only the two of us is something we really wanted. We personally did not like the idea of getting overwhelmed with traditional big wedding that is preceded with weeks or even months of stressful preparations. All we wanted was to focus on our love. From the very beginning we also knew that both our families will support our decision. And that they will be as happy with our idea as we were, even if they could not take part in the ceremony. After coming back home from the Maldives we organized a family and friends meeting so we could still enjoy moments of celebrations with all our beloved ones.
Legal side of the wedding in Maldives
One of the basic and crucial things you need to know, is that wedding in the Maldives between two people of foreign nationals is not legally binding. The closest place were you could possibly have a legally binding wedding procedure is Sri Lanka. But that would of course require additional flights, time and cost. The easiest and most convenient option is to have a civil wedding at the place of your residence, right before or right after your trip to Maldives.
At the time of our wedding we lived in Vienna, Austria, and this is where we had our civil ceremony. Just the day before we headed to Maldives. Of course, it is totally up to you and you can also have the legal wedding at your chosen place once you will be back from Maldives. Even though the Maldivian wedding is a symbolic one, it doesn’t make the ceremony any less beautiful or less meaningful. Together with my husband we both keep it in our hearts as the most precious and romantic memory. Something that we will cherish forever.
How much does Maldivian wedding cost?
One of the most common opinions on wedding in Maldives is that it’s a luxurious, fancy and expensive event. Yes, it is luxurious, yes it is fancy, but surprisingly not expensive. And definitely much cheaper than a big traditional wedding. The price of the ceremony fully organized by our Maldivian hotel was much lower than we expected. The cost of our wedding was 1000$ and that price included the venue, all the beach decorations, wedding cake, wedding photographer, flowers to decorate our room, wedding bouquet, a bottle of bubbles, marriage certificate and wedding photo album. On the top of this the price covered also beautiful private dinner at the beach. The hotel organized it for us in a remote part of the island, so after the main ceremony we could celebrate our day in an intimate atmosphere.
Of course you need to add to that price the cost of hotel accommodation and flight, but you can treat this as a part of your honeymoon that you will start right after the wedding. The cost of hotels in Maldives can significantly vary depending on the type of accommodation and time of the year. Water villas are always more expensive than beach bungalows and the most pricey option is usually a honeymoon villa that offers the best possible view and highest accommodation standard. For our stay in Maldives we chose the water villa with jacuzzi in the Paradise Island Resort & SPA.
About the venue
What definitely makes things easier is that all resorts offering weddings have on-site wedding coordinators. They have already mastered the wedding art so you can trust they will do the job well. Also,
At the day of our arrival in Maldives we had a meeting with wedding manager to agree on all the details. There are some standard solutions that will be proposed to you but all is flexible and adjustable to your needs. You can basically have the wedding scenery and venue you want as everything can be customized. You can choose the location, wedding cake, flowers, decorations and even the agenda of the ceremony. On the other hand, if you do not want to be bothered with all that choices, you can just leave everything on the wedding manager who will make all the decisions for you.
I did some changes in the offered wedding scenery at it was not a problem at all. So I asked to not to display a carpet on the beach as we wanted to walk on the sand, I changed the color of my flowers to white and the taste of our wedding cake to chocolate. Everything else I was happy to accept as it was proposed by the wedding coordinator.
How to dress for a beach wedding
Every bride to be knows how important is to find that one and only wedding dress. And what are the struggles with choosing one. In my case I had a pretty clear vision of my perfect dress I wanted to wear in Maldives. Boho style, easy going piece with open back and no veil. The hunt took me a lot of time and few moments of frustration, but finally, one month before our ceremony, I finally found it.
My dress was a custom made gown from the atelier of a Spanish designer Ze Garcia. I felt beautiful and chic but not over styled for the beach wedding occasion. I totally resigned from any accessories as my wedding band was the only accessory I wanted to wear. Also, the good side of walking down the aisle on sand, was that I did not need any shoes.
My husband had a light linen suit in beige color combined with white shirt and he was also bare foot. At the end it turned out it was a bit too hot for a full suite so having only a shirt and trousers is the best idea.
If you also love boho style dresses you may want to check these brands too:
SPELL
MARTA TROJANOWSKA
JUSTIN ALEXANDER
ATELIER TWARDOWSKA
DREAMERS AND LOVERS
JUNE BRIDAL
When is the best time to plan a wedding in Maldives
The climate in Maldives is generally warm and sunny year round. Average temperatures variate from 23ºC to 31ºC and there are two main seasons. A dry season and a raint season. Of course you would not like the rain to spoil your dream wedding so the best months to plan the wedding in Maldives are from November to April. These months constitute summer in Maldives with best weather and little or no rain showers. Just bear in mind that this part of the year is considered high touristic season in Maldives so rates for flights and hotels will be higher than in a wet season.
If you love dreamy beach locations perfect for an outdoor wedding you may also want to consider Tulum in Mexico.
No matter if you choose a wedding in Maldives or in any other place in the world, I’m wishing you a beautiful ceremony that will fill your heart with joy and leave you with the most moving feelings. I am sure you will keep this day in your memories as the most precious souvenir.
With love,
Betty
Kwiaciarnia Gaja says: