Real Wedding - Bahamas
ABC Member Planner: Paulette A. Davis, Amour Affairs, Nassau, Bahamas,
amouraffairs@gmail.com,
www.bahamasweddingplanner.com.Non-member businesses involved: Nassau Florist, Jonathan Mavila Photography, Sky Beach Club (venue).
The Couple: The wedding was completely planned by groom Christian’s mom, Maria, who was touched to give her daughter-in-law-to-be a dream wedding. The bride, Dasha, and her family are from Russia. The family was traveling out of Russia, for the first time, to attend the wedding on the Island of Eleuthera. They had never seen the ocean prior to this trip.Wedding Date: July 5, 2012.Inspiration: Elegant and simple.Color palette: Shades of purple with pops of bright pink.Budget: Approximately $15,000.Guest Count: 17.
Most unique design element: The bride did not want to walk in the sand, so a 40-foot platform was built for her to walk to the ceremony arch, which was also set over a platform.Biggest challenge: My role was to help give this couple an elegant and beautiful wedding on an island that thrives on simplicity. I was up for the challenge, which was presented to me about five weeks before the wedding. Because Eleuthera is a small island and has limited services and supplies, many items had to come with me from Nassau, which is 50 miles east. I love working with local vendors whenever I can, but with such short notice on this event, I was more comfortable taking the extra items with me. Flowers had to be shipped over, along with linens, etc. The logistics were a challenge. My assistant and I took the ferry over so that we could be sure that the items we needed
were coming. This required us to be at the boat at 4:30 a.m. We arrived in Eleuthera about noon and had to unload from the boat, load up in our rental, get to the resort, and set up for a 5:30 p.m. wedding. But the bride, groom, and family were happy with the result, so it was worth the effort.Hindsight: It was so difficult for me to know how to bill for this kind of event. Shipping was calculated at delivery, so I could only guesstimate. I learned that I need to be true to myself. Essentially, I started at 2:30 a.m. and finished at 1 a.m. the next day. It was non-stop. In my attempts to be reasonable in pricing, I totally underpriced my services.[nggallery id=25]