Wedding Diary of a Destination Bride - Sarah and Jonathan

Sarah and Jonathann wedding dairy of a destination bride, Cameo Island Wedding, Zante Zakynthos

Sarah and Jonathan will be married on the 27th of May 2010 at Cameo Island followed by a reception at Terrazzo Beach in Tsilivi. Here we follow the last few months of their planning. In our first instalment we ask Sarah some introductory questions about the initial planning stages of her wedding.

How did you and Jonathan Meet?

Jonathan and I met at our work place, not the most likely place to find a future husband but never the less we got on like a house on fire and after a year of being good friends, romance blossomed! And seven years on we are getting married (and they say don't mix business with pleasure!).

Tell us about the proposal

The proposal came after a little nudge from me but when the time came it was completely out of the blue. Poor Jonathan had had the ring for a while and was waiting for the 'right' moment and had it all planned one evening, candles, music etc and then I invited our friends for drinks which threw the plan out of the window! The second attempt was to be the one. It was a random Wednesday night and we sat down to watch the film Love Actually and I was rambling on about my jewellery and how I'd love a diamond ring to complete my collection and then he produced a small box and said 'something like this you mean?'. I was blown away and quickly accepted his proposal. That film will always bring back special memories.

How did you decide on a wedding abroad?

From being a young girl I always dreamt about a big white wedding but you never dream about the cost of such a wedding. The budget was getting bigger by the minute and Jonathan was the voice of reason and said we had to cut down. So I started looking at alternative options and came across weddings abroad, it was a perfect solution as it looked so much cheaper and it was guaranteed sunshine... what more did we want, it sounded like bliss! The decision about the type of wedding was made but a location had to be chosen.

How did you choose Zante as your dream destination?

After scouring the internet for hours I stumbled across a ceremony held on a private island in Zante and I just fell in love with it! Thinking that you didn't have to travel hours on plane to have our own private paradise, it was in Europe which meant more guests would travel out. Perfect! Next was to find a planner that would help make our dreams come to reality and I found the perfect company, The Bridal Consultant. From the first e-mail enquiry I sent over a year ago to the final planning stages Lisa and her team have been a godsend. Lisa advised us on a fantastic location for the reception, the Terrazzo Beach in Tsilivi. It has a superb courtyard to hold our very own beach party, Greek dancers and band then following with a disco.

How did you choose your guest list?

After the date was chosen, we were able to form a guest list. We weren't quite sure how many people would come so we sent out invites to all friends and family hoping to get a few replies at least. The invites went out 15 months ahead of the wedding, it does sound a bit extreme sending them out so early but it really has played to our advantage. So far with four months to go we have 61 people booked and ready to celebrate our wedding day, result! I would advise anyone to get the invites out as early as possible to let people have a good think about attending. On the invites we told people to stay in the resort of Tsilivi where the reception will be so everybody is local but what we did stress to them is that they choose accommodation to suit their budget not ours. That has been a very big success as some guests have done it as cheap as chips to ensure that they can come. Everyone is so excited!

Only 16 weeks to go and counting!

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