Twice married in Bora Bora : the story of a wedding
wedding post by Megan Dowd
Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa
We decided to get married in Bora Bora as just from seeing it from photos, we knew it was going to be the most amazing place we had ever seen. It had been somewhere we had wanted to go for many many years and was top of our “bucket list“, so once we had decided that having a wedding back home in the U.K was not for us, we knew that Bora Bora was going to be the place to say our vows and start our married life together. We are so pleased we did as it was the most breath taking place we had ever seen and if possible looks even more amazing in real life than in the photos .
Organising the legal wedding was more tricky than we had first thought it would be. It requires a lot of paper work being translated from English into French and back into english again, paper work being sent to Paris and back to make sure it was all official and legal. However, as long as you leave yourself enough time to do this, there should be no problem and as much of a nuisance it is, being able to get married in Bora Bora far outways any of it.
The Polynesian Wedding is so different from the legal wedding. We did not want to legally get married at home in the U.K so with that we had to legally get married with the mayor of Bora Bora before being able to have the beach Polynesian ceremony. So we decided to split this into two days.
Day 1 : Civil Wedding in Bora Bora
We were taken by boat to the mayor to legally get married. We signed all our documents and said some short words and officially became husband and wife. We decided not to treat this as it were our proper wedding day as we wanted the beach ceremony to be the one. So after the official ceremony, we went back to our overwater bungalow and had some really fun photos jumping off our balcony into the water in our outfits. We then had lunch at one of the restaurants and spent the rest of the afternoon in the spa having treatments done.
Day 2 : Polynesian Wedding in Bora Bora
Our Polynesian wedding was very different. As we were treating this as our real wedding day, we wore our wedding dress and suit on this day. This set up was completely different : the beach had been set up with flowers and palm leaves on the sand, there was men playing on the bongos and singing, the dancers were all dressed in red and the priest was wearing a brightly coloured traditional Tahitian outfit. As you arrive, they blow on these shells as a horn and with the music in the background : it sets a beautiful scene for us to say our vows to each other.
Afterwards they get you up dancing and having some photos with them, they were all so lovely so it just made for the most perfect setting.
This day is how you would expect your wedding abroad to be romantic, intimate and magical. We even had a burst of showers once it had finished, which we were told was a good thing as it is a blessing from the mountain
In comparison, they are very different in my opinion. The legal wedding is necessary and the Polynesian wedding is the most amazing experience we could have hoped for on our wedding day.
The day did go fast but not as fast as I thought it would luckily. We started off having our breakfast brought to us in a canoe to our room and whilst that was being set up, they took us out in it for 5 minutes. Whilst we sat there, we opened some cards and presents which we had brought with us from home and spent the morning face timing some family. After that, Danny was taken away to a different room to get ready in. I was running slightly late (as per usual, lol) but I was not made to feel in a rush and eventually Danny was brought over to me in a white canoe to pick me up. This is where he saw me for the first time in my wedding dress. From here, we were taken over to the private beach for the ceremony where we said the most lovely vows to each other and had a beautiful ceremony.
Sunset cruise and Romantic Dinner with Fire Dance
Afterwards, we had some photos around the island before being taken out on a sunset cruise (which for me was my favorite part of the day, other then the actual ceremony). We got to hang our feet off the edge of the boat with a glass of champagne in the most amazing scenery you will ever see and we watched the sun set. It was a moment i will never ever forget! When we arrived back at the hotel, we had a traditional fire dance performance which was so much fun and entertaining, followed by a romantic dinner on the beach which had again been set up with candles and flowers. I was so upset that the day had to end as it was just such an amazing way to spend our wedding day, we were calm and relaxed and everything went to plan without any hiccups, which was also down to the lovely Sophie Jourdan, from Intercontinental Thalasso who helped us organise it all.
I would not change anything about how we got married as I feel so lucky that we were able to have an experience like that and its not something a lot of people can say. We will always have a special place in our hearts for Bora Bora and can not wait to come back one day .
Everybody who helped us over those 2 days were so wonderful and kind, and made us feel at ease with everything. We are so thankful to everyone for making our wedding day an amazing day to remember.
Megan
