Linzi & Ben invited us to film their Cyprus destination wedding in Paphos, Cyprus.
In their own words;
Tell us about your Cyprus destination wedding
Our wedding day was spent with friends and family at the beautiful Olympic Lagoon Resort in Paphos, Cyprus. A not too intimate bunch of 50 ?? travelled to be with us on our special day and the best part of a week beforehand. It didn’t just feel like a wedding day, it felt like a wedding week. It was soooooo much fun being on holiday with everyone and soaking up the sun. I credit this to the chilled out, relaxed vibe of our day as everyone was just in holiday mode.
Tell us the story of Linzi & Ben
Ben and I met almost 6 years ago at a dinner party hosted by his sister Laura and well, as they say, the rest is history; we’ve been together ever since. We became engaged on 31/5/14 while on a stroll down our favourite part of the Thames nearby where we live. Ben wanted to propose here as he knew it would be somewhere we would go back to again and again. Sure enough he couldn’t have been more right, it truly is such a beautiful spot.
What led you to choose a destination wedding, and Cyprus specifically?
When deciding where to plan our impending nuptials this didn’t take much agonising over for us. Having already been at a wedding in Paphos for two of our friends we knew we would go abroad. Once we picked up the brochures for destination weddings almost 30% of the pages were taken over by Cyprus, the decision was made. Olympic lagoon resort was not open at the time of us booking, as it was undergoing a huge revamp and was opening the following year as a brand new resort, they were offering a great deal and the wedding coordinator Elena, seemed so on the ball, it was a win win situation for us. Now we are back from Paphos I don’t think we could have made a better decision or have got such great value for our money.
Where did you find inspiration for your wedding style?
My wedding inspiration came from where the wedding was going to be, well that and a lot of help from Pinterest. The olive leaves in the flowers were a huge nod to the Greek theme and easily sourced in Cyprus, the olive leaf theme was carried through to the stationary, the table plan and even the cute little wreath we managed to get our flower girl to wear. The aisle and tables were scattered with olive leaves and the florist placed a beautiful olive garland over the ceremony table, I loved it all. Rea Flowers of Paphos was our florist and I would thoroughly recommend her to anyone traveling to Cyprus to get married.
How was the build up, make up, etc on the day?
The actual day itself was very relaxed. The grooms day started with breakfast and a 6 man pool dunk with his friends at their villa in the Aphrodite hills, my day started with a family breakfast. Us ladies, made a leisurely start to the day getting ready from about midday and one of my best friends who had travelled from New York to be with us did our make up in the room. We were lucky enough to have brought so many handy friends with us for the wedding day, Peony Films included ??. I did my hair myself as I’ve never been too much of a fan of the overdone salon look. We sipped champagne and danced half the day away in the room while watching the goings on outside, it was a lovely way to spend the wedding morning and all felt very calm and relaxed.
Your choice of attire for the bridal party was superb, tell us about them.
About half an hour before the ceremony I slipped into my Alice Temperley dress which I’d bought from her boutique in London. The dress was the dream, loved every minute of wearing it and it was so light and comfortable which was perfect for the warm climates of Cyprus. The groomsmen wore suits from next and Ben wore a suit by J.Crew which we picked up while on a visit to NYC. The bridesmaid dresses were by Adriana Pappell and a complete fluke that they tied in so well with the wedding dress and even more of a fluke that the mother of the brides outfit looked totally coordinated too, her dress was by Gil Harvey and picked up in London.
What made you decide to commission a wedding film?
We decided to have a video after a pipe dream of bringing Peony Films to Cyprus became a reality. Rob had made my sister’s wedding video a year ago and her video was so amazing that we decided no one could do such a good job in Cyprus so we resigned ourselves to the fact we probably would just leave it out, if you can’t do it properly then don’t do it at all.
However when Rob mentioned that he might be interested in working with us and coming to film our Cyprus destination wedding we jumped at the chance. There was no way we couldn’t take him up on the offer, we still love watching back my sister’s highlight clip, he truly caught what an amazing day she had. I’m so excited that we are going to have this from our day too. Rob worked relentlessly in Cyprus and I know both he and our photographer Christine Constantine will have every moment of our day that we didn’t catch or can’t remember in the blur of the big day. I can’t wait to look back over it all.
Lastly, any advice for brides & grooms to be?
If I could give any advice to future brides and grooms it would be; stick to your budget as best as you can, while its an amazing day, it will be amazing regardless of how much you spend and it truly will be the happiest day of your life as long as you have your love and your friends and family around you. Finally enjoy every minute ’cause it is over in a flash, I loved every second of it and wouldn’t do it again even if I was given the chance because I firmly believe we couldn’t do it again as brilliantly as we did on the day!!
If you’re planning your own destination wedding and want to capture all those details for years to come, get in touch with us today.
