COLORFUL TAHITI WEDDING IN MOOREA: HOW MATHILDE + GILLIAN EMBRACED THE TROPICAL LOOK
Mathilde & Gillian live in the capital island of Tahiti, French Polynesia. They married back in August of last year on Tahiti’s sister island Moorea, with 77 guests in attendance. The bride’s family along with a number of their friends traveled all the way across the globe, from France, to be there on Mathilde & Gillian’s side as they exchanged their I do’s in the most beautiful setting.
I sometimes get inquiries for Tahiti destination weddings where the couple is contemplating a Tahiti wedding with 100-150+ guests, but really, you don’t want to go over 80-85 at the most for a destination wedding in Moorea. Moorea is a small island, and venue options are extremely limited – actually there are less and less options as vacation rental properties especially stand firm on not accepting events of any kind and of any size on their premises (more about this here), so with more than 80 wedding guests I simply won’t have any good option for you; by good option I mean one that sits in a pretty environment, is well equipped for catering that number of people, and offers a viable backup plan in case of inclement weather (or at least, allows for one). With 79 people total, Mathilde & Gillian’s wedding in Moorea was the perfect size.
While you’d typically start planning a wedding in Tahiti about a year out, Mathilde & Gillian reached out to me 2 years before their planed wedding date. This early in time, the only thing you can work on really is the venue but given what I just mentioned above, securing your ideal venue early is a safe and wise decision indeed.
Their venue can accommodate 19 people on property (read more on this topic in this post) – so some of their friends actually stayed there for a couple nights. Other friends and family members stayed at nearby vacation rental properties and hotels.
Mathilde & Gillian wanted a colorful Tahiti wedding and decided to go the tropical – yet elegant, route. They had envisioned lots of very colorful tropical flowers around their reception space, with a color palette ranging from purple, orange and greeneries being the dominant colors, red and yellow as the secondary colors.
The month of August being our Winter time in here when the wind picks up quickly and can be very strong, it was essential to set up the reception under a tent in a way that we could roll down clear walls if needed. A note on tents: as much as I would love to see those beautiful wedding tents you can browse on Pinterest becoming available in Tahiti, the only option we have in here are the standard, frame tents. No draping companies either. So being imaginative with how you dress the tent, use lighting, and most importantly how you design the dinner table centerpieces/florals, is the key to creating a memorable experience.
The ceremony was held by the water, with the ocean waves crashing on the reef and the verdant mountains in the background… a truly magical setting for exchanging your vows in Moorea.
• Moorea Destination Wedding Planner : Nelly at wedOtahiti
• Design and Set-up : Weddings in Moorea
• Blooms : Florever
• Moorea Wedding Photographer : Marc Gerard Photography Tahiti
More photos of this beautiful Tahiti wedding here under the ‘Destination Weddings’ tab.
The first time we got in touch with her, it clearly became obvious that Nelly would realize our dream. It was difficult for us to begin this project by having no clue of “How do you set everything for this big day”.
It is thanks to her that we had the best day of our life on our D-day, our vision literally came to life. She have been so helpful during this journey, providing us with precious and priceless advices.
Nelly, we would like to thank you for having been so helpful, responsive, available for us and professional. Thanks to you, we have enjoyed every seconds of our weekend with our families and friends without stress, as you and your team were there to handle E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
Thank you for your patience, your kindness and simplicity.
We would have never had a wedding like this without you! These three days were more than what we ever could have dreamt of .Note to everyone : if you are expecting this day to be perfect, you should definitely get in touch with Nelly !
Mathilde & Gillian