Lucy & Georgia live in Australia. They reached out to me a year ahead of their planned wedding date with the idea of having an intimate, small destination wedding in Moorea in October 2018. Back then as a same-sex couple they could not get legally married in Australia so they wanted to have both a celebratory beach ceremony (the two of them love the beach) and a legal City Hall wedding in Moorea.
The Marriage Amendment Act 2017 was passed not long after in Australia which means all same-sex couples who married legally in a foreign country previously were now automatically married legally in Australia as well! This made me very happy for my past Australian same-sex couples who married legally in Moorea with me over the years.
Since they were planning on inviting about 30 people to join them in Tahiti for the wedding, we looked at and secured a lovely private rental place (which could hold 28 adults comfortably + kids) for an entire week – read more on this topic here, so that they could spend quality time all together.
The venue sits right on a beautiful white-sand beach, which makes it the ideal location for swimming, kayaking, stand-up paddling or snorkeling at any time of the day, but also was so perfect to set up and hold the ceremony on the wedding day.
On the wedding day, we went to the City Hall first (casual style & flip flops is totally fine for the City Hall in here!) for the legal celebration by the Mayor – in France, and as such in Tahiti, only a ceremony taking place before the Mayor at the City Hall is deemed legal – and then back to their rental place, the girls got their hair & make-ups done.
Lucy & Georgia wanted to do a photo and video shooting in the lush nature of the island so they left with their photographer and videographer for a couple hours, while all the other girls in the party got pampered and had their hair & make-ups done as well.
After the girls had returned from the photo shooting in Opunohu Valley and up the Belvedere lookout (over the two bays of Moorea), guests gathered on the beach for the girls’ bespoke wedding ceremony that I had to honor to write and officiate… best man and maid of honor walked down first, then Georgia walked down the aisle with her dad to her side, followed by Lucy who also walked down the aisle with her dad.
We had incorporated the traditional Tahitian blessings into their personal ceremony, which were performed by the Mayor who had solemnized their marriage in the morning at the City Hall! Lucy & Georgia were given “Raihere” as their Tahitian married name which means “the love from the sky”.
The late afternoon colors over the lagoon turning yellowish as we were getting closer to sunset time were fantastic! After the ceremony they did some more beach photos and video, and then we started serving drinks and some appetizers.
Set up photos © wedOtahiti
Once it got dark, guests were surprised with an amazing fire dance show on the beach, which was a hit!
They later enjoyed a lovely family-style dinner.
Set up photos © wedOtahiti
I would highly recommend planning your wedding through Nelly. We knew we wanted a unique wedding in a beach location and came across Nelly and the beautiful place of Moorea. As soon as we started contacting her we knew she was who we wanted to go with to plan our special day. She was extremely patient and went through all our options and told us a bit about the area and the island. She made us feel extremely comfortable and relaxed through the whole experience. She made our planning very stress free and fun! We sent her many inspiration pictures of what we wanted our set up to look like, our hair and make-up etc. and she put together something better than we ever could have imagined. On the day I couldn’t even remember what hairstyle I’d looked at 9 months ago but she had the photo on her phone and was able to show the ladies which was really good! She dealt with all the vendors and was across every little detail of the day. Any request we gave her was never too hard and she’d always reply to us extremely quickly. Nelly and her team made our wedding something truly unforgettable. Our family came over to share the day/week with us and everyone said it was by far the best wedding they’d ever been to! All the vendors she used were the best on the island. Our day was more than what we ever could have dreamt of and imagined thanks to Nelly and wedOtahiti
Thank you ladies for trusting us with your special day in Moorea!
• Destination Wedding Planner + Officiant in Moorea: Nelly at wedOtahiti
• Villa décor: Weddings in Moorea
• Photographer: Helene Havard and Flying World Pictures
• Hair stylist: Maryline
• Make-up artist: Audrey Bodilis
Want To Read More Stories Of Tahiti Same Sex Weddings ? Head To The Following Love Stories Of Couples Who Celebrated Their Gay Wedding In Tahiti :
- Laurent & Jordan from France
- Marissa & Alisa from the U.S.
- Melissa & Kat from the U.S.
- Tarnya & Denise from Australia
Do You Want My Help To Plan A Stress-Free Same Sex Destination Wedding In Moorea? Contact Me Here To Get Started!
