Wedding trips can be different. In some countries you can just go and get married, in others – have a church wedding, and in third – have a symbolic wedding, having registered the marriage at home first. Or you can do nothing at all, just after the wedding take off and fly to distant lands! You can go anywhere: to a country boarding house or to the ends of the earth. Domestic boarding houses will gladly help loving hearts unite in marriage. But, as "Voyage and Leisure" notes, it is still better to go to the ends of the earth, so that there is something to remember.
In all corners of the Earth, newlyweds are awaited by wonderful hotels, ready to congratulate happy lovers and give them gifts. Because for hotels, a wedding is a beautiful celebration, an atmosphere of happiness and youth that attracts more and more new guests. A wedding can be held in many beautiful places, even in the blue sea on a cruise liner. Or in Paris. Or at the "Golden Goat" chateau in the village of Èze, or in Vienna, to the sounds of a Viennese waltz. Adrenaline lovers can exchange rings in the sky during a skydive, or underwater while scuba diving. Lovers of exotic will choose a wedding according to Balinese, for example, rites. Or Malay. They will go to Egypt so that the veil flutters behind a camel, or to Thailand, where wedding processions on elephants gather hundreds of couples from all over the world.
And there are also silver and golden weddings, which can also be celebrated on a trip...
Having a Real Wedding
Fortunately, the times when you had to go to the local registry office to register a relationship are over. Now almost the whole world is open to those getting married. Firstly, they can register at their consulate in any foreign country. Secondly, they can register at the town halls of some foreign countries and then legalize those documents. Both are easiest to do with the help of a travel agency specializing in wedding tours. They will provide a list of necessary documents, a translator, and take care of certification and other tedious formalities.
An official wedding ceremony can be held in Australia, Austria, Germany (in Baden-Baden), Greece, Dominican Republic, India, Iceland, Italy, France (at the consulate in Paris), Slovenia, USA, Czech Republic, Portugal, Cyprus, Cuba, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka. In addition, you can get married on a cruise ship (Maritime Law documents also need to be legalized). This list allows you to get married according to your taste, both for adherents of good old European traditions and for lovers of exotic, to arrange a wedding in some beautiful city or right on the beach in a tropical paradise.
Having chosen a country for the wedding, look for a travel agency that will organize the trip for a reasonable price (some announce unreasonably high prices, charging $500 for hairdresser services). When ordering a wedding trip, do not forget to clarify with the travel agency what you will get for it. Many hotels offer: a discount on accommodation for the bride; a higher category room at the price of a standard one; room decoration with flowers; champagne. For an additional fee, you can arrange anything: transfer in a decorated limousine or carriage; a hot air balloon ride; a ride in a decorated gondola through the canals of Venice; a beautiful ceremony in their own chapel or some pavilion. Some small high-category hotels take on the organization of the entire wedding. In this case, the newlyweds and their guests rent the entire hotel, where they prepare a formal dinner and ceremony. If desired, you can even rent a small island.
Make Your Fantasies Come True!
A wedding, like a honeymoon, is celebrated with all your heart, with imagination. Carriages and hot air balloons, retro cars and yachts, castles, palaces, waterfalls - an essential setting designed to ensure the event is unforgettable. In search of unknown impressions, fans of extravagance and extreme sports conduct a wedding ceremony in the mountains of Switzerland, dive underwater on the island of Mauritius together with a priest, and on the wedding night freeze in an ice "nest" in the Arctic. Here the most important thing is the consent of the parties!
1 Visitors to the Swiss resort of Saas-Fee, famous for the world's highest revolving restaurant (which offers a stunning panorama of the Alps and the Po River valley) and an ice pavilion "inhabited" by sculptures from frozen water, always pay special attention to a small chapel located next to the pavilion. In the chapel, adjacent to the highest mountain peaks in Europe, wedding ceremonies are regularly held. Clean air (car traffic is prohibited here), cozy serenity of life in a leisurely Alpine village - ideally correspond to the spirit of the ceremony. Wooden chalets, restaurants, and the possibility of skiing all year round determine both the preferences of the newlyweds in Saas-Fee and the prospects of the honeymoon. Snowy slopes, hot fondue, exquisite "Merlot" and "Fendant" provide a pleasant addition to the impressions of a honeymoon in Saas-Fee.
2 The village of Jukkasjärvi (Swedish Arctic) is famous in Europe for the fact that every winter, with the arrival of cold, they build here an ice hotel and a church, which are popular among newlyweds. The beds in the rooms are covered with reindeer skins. Nature itself has taken care of the comfort of the newlyweds here: the champagne is always cold, and the kisses are hot.
3 However, those who like it warmer are always attracted to the south. Newlyweds - fans of the water element - usually go to islands and lakes. In Mauritius, the wedding ceremony (according to Indian ritual) is conducted by a priest at the bottom of the sea, and in Croatia's Plitvice Lakes National Park, it takes place under the streams of a waterfall. Dozens of water cascades flowing down huge terraces fill the surroundings with unimaginable roar and spray. The wedding ceremony is held under the largest of them.
4 Meanwhile, a new type of travel has recently emerged – Fantasy wedding. Organizers offer everyone to participate in a theatrical, very colorful wedding ceremony according to the traditions of different peoples. If, for example, you are madly in love but didn't manage to visit Verona - the capital of all lovers - before the wedding, you can do so with Fantasy wedding during your honeymoon. The ancient palazzo at Via Cappello, 23, where Juliet lived, awaits you. The house regularly hosts costume "wedding" ceremonies. Lovers from all over the world exchange rings here and receive a marriage certificate from the "Order of Montague and Capulet". The atmosphere of the ancient house, a kiss on the balcony guarantee, without a doubt, a Shakespearean intensity of emotions to every participant of the event.
5 After the ceremony in Verona, many couples head to Venice. St. Mark's Square, the wedding gondola, palaces and canals, kisses on narrow bridges over the canals – the intoxicating charm of Venice. In one of Venice's most luxurious hotels, Cipriani, there is a special position: "wedding coordinator." Newlyweds at this hotel are offered a program called "Venetian Interlude," designed for three magical nights in the most luxurious suite – the "Palladio" apartments. They are awaited by a champagne breakfast on the terrace, a romantic dinner in a restaurant by the water, pleasant treatments at the "Casanova" SPA. And then they will walk along a path strewn with rose petals to the festive ceremony. It is held in a charming chapel in the Antique Garden, in the elegant Casanova gazebo, or in the Hall of the Venetian Republic. After the ceremony, a lavish dinner is arranged – for two only or for their guests. And in the evening, fireworks scatter over the garden.
For the young couple, gondolas are always ready here, steered by gondoliers in luxurious attire; before them open the doors of halls in stunningly beautiful palazzos. Music, wine, flowers, and smiles of Venetians. Leaving Venice, one should remember that Italy is vast and diverse, and ancient villas in Tuscany or Lombardy are full of charm. Here they know how to shelter lovers, strewing their path with rose petals.
6 They say that the initiator of the Fantasy wedding trend was the extravagant Salvador Dalí. Once, having visited the island of Bali together with Gala, he participated in a local wedding ceremony. Today, anyone can follow the painter's example – the fairy-tale island of Bali is ready to welcome everyone.
The Balinese are sure they live in paradise. Having been there, you become convinced they are right. This island is incredibly beautiful: lagoons, beaches of white, soft sand, jungles, hotels hidden in greenery, and many flowers (flowers on the clothes and in the hair of girls, garlands in lobbies and on the streets, on cars, exquisite buds on cocktail glasses). Three times a day, flowers, incense, and holy water are offered to the deities. There is an amazing aura here. For centuries, the Balinese have been "cleansing" the space.
Mount Agung (an extinct volcano) located on the island is the center of the Earth, through which, according to the islanders, the axis of the universe passes. This mountain determines the "geometry" of life on the island: the altars of all temples (there are more than 20,000 here) and the headboards of all beds in houses "look" at it. The life of the Balinese resembles a constant carnival; they celebrate New Year three times a year: according to the Balinese calendar, the lunar calendar, and the Gregorian calendar. In the lobby of every hotel, a calendar of local holidays is posted.
The wedding ceremony in Bali is a special event. It is held in a temple. The bride and groom, dressed in traditional costumes (abundantly decorated and embroidered with gold), sit before the priest. After bestowing gifts upon the newlyweds, the priest chants mantras with wishes of health, goodness, and happiness for the young family. The ceremony is extraordinarily picturesque: the temple is decorated with magnificent flowers and fruits, ritual umbrellas. The ceremony ends with the performance of the Legong dance. According to the Balinese, dance is a way of communicating with the gods. By dancing, they entertain the gods, appease them. Legong is a special dance performed only by young girls.
Every hotel on the island has special rooms for newlyweds. Here the beds are of incredible size and surrounded by flowers and fruits; there are mirrors on the ceiling, and rose petals float in the pool.
In Bali, everyone can easily find entertainment to their liking. You can visit a water park, go diving, rafting, hang gliding, take part in an elephant safari in the tropical forest (the safari ends at a lake where you can swim yourself and bathe the elephant).
Local cuisine successfully complements the impressions of paradise life on the island. In small restaurants, they prepare delicious dishes from seafood displayed right there in huge aquariums. A wedding in paradise is a proven way guaranteeing unforgettable impressions for a lifetime.
7 Oceania is exotic. Those wishing to participate in the wedding ceremony on the islands of Bora Bora and Moorea (French Polynesia) must be prepared for a boat journey across the ocean. Here, after the ceremony, the groom, according to local tradition, takes the bride by boat to another island, to a bungalow. However, the abundance of islands in Oceania allows not only to choose a preferred wedding ceremony but also a suitable island (some uninhabited islands are very comfortably equipped, comparable to a five-star hotel).
8 In France, several options for getting married are offered. You can have a wedding in a castle. One of the most romantic is Chateau de Bagnols in the Beaujolais province. It is located near Lyon, in the foothills of the Alps. The castle was built by the Archbishop of Lyon in 1217 and still retains its fairy-tale appearance and heroic spirit: impressive towers, a deep moat, a drawbridge before the gate. The interiors are also impressive: beds with silk canopies, fireplaces in every hall and room. 'Chateau de Bagnols' is considered the best hotel in France, it has a 'Five Stars de Luxe' category. Moreover, Bagnols, situated among the Beaujolais vineyards, is a 'wine castle', and its restaurant Salle des Gardes has been awarded a Michelin star. Once, King Charles VIII and his knights dined there, and the walls were decorated with tapestries of unicorns - the very same that are kept in the Cluny Museum in Paris. Their author lived in Chateau de Bagnols.
Chateau de Bagnols offers newlyweds special programs - wedding and honeymoon. The chateau can be rented for three days to have a medieval-style wedding there - with an appropriate gala dinner, attire, and rituals. The ceremony is held in the church of Bagnols, in the gardens, or in the grand salon of the castle; the dinner is served in Salle des Gardes or in the wine cellars. And in the evening, guests are invited to a disco and fireworks.
9 Castle-hotels on the Loire are perhaps the best place for a wedding ceremony. Newlyweds are usually accommodated in a castle that has everything for royal leisure: luxurious interiors, an ancient park with a lake, paintings by old masters, a riding arena. French wines and delicacies of local cuisine will add a special charm to the gala dinner in honor of the newlyweds at the palace. Choosing the castle-hotel 'Chateau d'Esclimont' on the Loire for a honeymoon, you don't have to worry about transfer. The luxurious palace, located in an ancient park, has its own helipad. This special feature will add a particular piquancy to the stay in the castle and will certainly be remembered by the friends of the newlyweds.