• 09/05/2022
• By wizewebsite
• 567 Views

A wedding in paradise and like from a catalog, where the receptionist can also testify to you<

I was horrified at the thought of walking in a huge white robe as red as a crayfish, as fifty wedding guests stared at me, and as tears reached me, as big as peas, dissolved my perfect make-up. It was very clear to me that before I reached the altar, I would not even remember my own name, let alone say a loud and understandable YES.

Fortunately, my dear partner had similar feelings. Mauritius caught our eye, without realizing that it was a famous wedding destination. Wide sandy beaches, turquoise water and no mandatory vaccinations immediately decided. Let's get married in a tropical paradise!

Exotic formalities

Most couples who choose to marry in paradise choose the services of one of the specialized travel agencies. The worry about the wedding is then minimal. You choose a date and the hotel and travel agent will arrange everything else for you, including translations of official documents. If you want your wedding in exotics to be legally valid in the Czech Republic as well, it is good to start handling formalities at least two months in advance.

"There is a so-called announcement institute in Mauritius, where the wedding must be announced at least 31 days in advance. The wedding date and the names of the future newlyweds must then be stated on the official document. Mauritius, but also the Seychelles, is trying to prevent weddings that are known, for example, from Las Vegas, USA, where people often get drunk, "explains Libor Ševčík from the travel agency Deluxea, one of the largest wedding organizers in paradise, about the seriousness of exotic authorities.

Formalities are no science. If you are single, you only need birth certificates translated into English with a court certificate, passport scans and fill out a one-page wedding application for the local authorities. If you are divorced, you also need to add a translation of the divorce judgment, again with court certification, and you're done.

Czech travel agencies focusing on weddings often work with local agencies, which will go around the necessary authorities with you on the spot. It will take one morning or about two and a half hours to Mauritius, when the hotel driver will take you to the capital Port Louis. Accompanied by a Czech delegate, officials from the central registry and at the district office will verify your identity and whether you really want to get married. In addition, our clerk found out if this was our first wedding.

"God willing, perhaps the last one," I joked confidently.

If you do not manage to arrange in English, the Czech delegate also works as an interpreter both at the offices and directly at the ceremony. Paradoxically, most couples who want to get married on a tropical island do not speak any foreign language.

"It simply came to our notice then. A lot of clients say they know English, but several times it happened that we had to order an interpreter ", explains Libor Ševčík with a smile.

"It usually changes the bride's mind a week before the wedding. Sometimes it also happens that one of the couple speaks and the other thinks that his partner will advise him. Unfortunately, this is not possible with the ceremony, "adds Ševčík.

Up to the Indian Ocean

Several companies fly to Mauritius, from KLM, Turkish Airlines, Air France in cooperation with Air Mauritius to the Emirates. We chose the Emirates after a long deliberation and with regard to our son. because the son fell asleep hard during the night flight and would sleep peacefully except for Mauritius).

At various discounts, tickets can be bought from 14 thousand, but around 15.5 thousand to 16 thousand can be bought with a reasonable length of flight almost anytime (they are a bit more expensive in the high season October - April).

We handled the tickets ourselves, although of course it is possible to use the services of a travel agency and thus worry less. However, we wanted to fly to a tropical paradise a little earlier so that we could explore all parts of the island state both on land and in water. The coast is lined with coral reefs and underwater you will find several interesting wrecks.

Captivated by the pre-wedding frenzy, we almost forgot about the rings. At one point it dawned on us that it might be super romantic to buy them somewhere in the Mauritius market, but in the end the tradition prevailed over the free-spirited pose. After all, we wanted to have an engraved date there. The rings need to be arranged well in advance, as their production can take up to four weeks.

And of course you have to bring wedding clothes to the island. Even in a hot paradise, some brides dress in large wedding gowns, but our common sense and the travel agency have come together: we will feel best in simple clothing. I ordered a summer white dress, promoted to a wedding role, online, my partner wore dark coats and a white airy shirt.

Where the president is counting

Of the many hotels in various parts of the Mauritian island that we have carefully studied, the five-star Trou aux Biches Beachcomber Resort & Spa finally won. When a wedding and a romantic honeymoon, albeit with a little boy in one room, with full parade!

The main criterion for us was the location of the hotel on the northwest coast, where the wind does not blow as much as in the east and there is therefore a calmer sea, good reviews and especially a children's corner. So the corner ... It was a big children's super corner, with an outdoor sandy playground, a small pool and a large indoor space full of toys, guarded by a couple of nice ladies for playing and babysitting. Just a children's paradise.

Childless couples will certainly welcome the wide range of hotels for guests aged 18 and over. Hotels offer different stays and wedding packages, which vary in both content and price. Some try to attract future newlyweds with attractive discounts, such as a 50% discount on the bride's stay or her accommodation completely free of charge. It is definitely worth comparing the individual offers carefully.

Upon arrival at the hotel, we felt like a super-important VIP from the first minute, even on the days when the Madagascar President stayed at the hotel with all his security during the Independence Day celebrations. Celine's wedding coordinator was already waiting for us at the reception. We were the first to deal with the wedding bouquet, which must be ordered a few days in advance. I could choose any from a catalog of about twenty pugetta. Mostly it was a bouquet of small roses. However, I imagined something exotic, so we agreed on plumeria flowers, also called frangipani. These tropical shrubs with clusters of white, yellow and pink flowers are wonderfully romantic and also smell intoxicating.

The basic wedding package, which costs around 20,000, includes all official and administrative fees, the wedding coordinator, the choice of venue for the wedding ceremony and its basic decoration, the provision of witnesses and the wedding cake. There is also often an extra room for the bride on the wedding day. Sometimes a wedding bouquet, a flower arch or champagne to a drink is included. The services of make-up artists and wedding hairstyles for the bride are at an additional cost, as are the musicians, the photographer or the cameraman.

Two days before the ceremony, we have an official wedding meeting, where Celine shows us possible places for the ceremony. First we go to the end of the hotel beach, where there are few people and which is wide enough to place a small wedding table and four chairs under the tall palm trees. However, you can also get married directly under the hot sun. Most ceremonies take place around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when it is no longer so hot, but you may still be grateful for every bit of shadow after twenty minutes.

Another option is a gazebo in an open restaurant with water flowing down the wall, which is also a great solution in case of rainy weather, or at a banyan tree - an Indian fig tree, whose branches produce airy roots, which later become additional trunks. You can also choose one of the hotel gardens, atrium, golf green, or take the ankles in the water or on the boat. Just where you like. Each hotel has its own options.

Day D

I've been a little nervous since this morning. So I'm really getting married today! Nervousness manifests itself in me by constantly laughing out loud, whistling, dancing and making hasty movements. However, this can in no way distract our son from the cartoon Mole, nor tear my future husband from his permanent stoic calm. Oppositions simply attract. I'd rather go to the local spa for an hour-long massage. However, it relaxed me so much that I return to the hotel room half asleep and have to pour coca-cola so that I don't fall asleep at my own wedding.

Two hours before the ceremony, I am again entrusted to the hotel experts. Deborah, a hairdresser and make-up artist in one, makes me a make-up and combs a beautiful bun, which is decorated with three frangipani flowers. The day before her makeup test, she painted my eyes black as if I were a passionate flamenco dancer, I had to fine-tune her. I was afraid that my partner would be frightened and run away from the imaginary altar before saying the fateful yes. Otherwise, everything was absolutely perfect.

Local photographer Daniel Villiers, reportedly one of the best at the island's weddings, is trying to get to my room to take a picture of me wearing a wedding dress. Good try, but no! My partner and son have long been in a ceremonial place, so I leave the photographer in front of the door and quickly slip into a white dress. Subsequently, we will manage only a few profile photos and the hotel truck will take us to the beach.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, I'm waiting, hidden in the shade of palm trees between the hotel's villa houses, when suddenly the music starts and Celine tells me from a distance that it's time.

Hotel guests who relax on the nearby sun loungers have a pleasant variety of daily sunbathing routines. Slowly walking down the road to the two best men of my life: a future husband and a nearly two-year-old son. Together, we approach a local clerk who, like a real Muslim woman, has a scarf-covered hair. Mauritius is an island of all religions.

I remember almost nothing from her introductory speech, I watched the whole scene like in a dream. I was woken up by the sentence: "We will make wedding vows."

Weddings in Mauritius are governed by English law, so you hold hands during the ceremony and repeat the wedding vow after the bride and groom. "I ... I take You ... as my lawful husband, to honor, love, protect and care for You, in health and in sickness, in abundance and in poverty, in good and evil. "I try to breathe at least the first part, then tears well up in my eyes. Saying the whole promise and looking that partner in the eye is much more difficult than just saying a strict yes. And this is followed by the ceremony of exchanging rings, in which it is also necessary to say a few sentences: "With this ring I give you myself ......."

Ugh, now just a long kiss, applause and signature in the official book. We chose two locals as witnesses, whom we met during a previous trip to Mauritius. If you have no witnesses, which is quite common and the devotees count on it, the hotel staff will take on this role. It can be a wedding coordinator, a young lady from the reception or a hotel manager. Witnesses here are only formal, but it's still great to be able to meet someone nice and involve them in one of the most important moments of your life.

After the ceremony, we tap with champagne, accept congratulations, even from hotel guests in swimsuits, and cut the cake. Suddenly so much is happening that I don't even think about the cake. Especially photographer Daniel is already appropriately nervous, because the sun will start to set in an hour and he would like to capture us in all possible wedding poses.

We still have to go through a short ritual of mixing sand. We get two small clay cups, in each of them there is a different colored sand, which we mix by slowly pouring into the third bowl. We then take the mixed sand to the sea and pour it into the sea together at a great time, when the wind blows the blue sand on my still white wedding dress.

Final romance

The official part is over and we can throw ourselves into the mandatory photo shoot. Our son Tobík can't think of anything but to take my wedding bag and throw it into the sea, and then throw himself on a box of rings and do the same with her. Apparently bored to horror. My makeup is slowly dissolving, my wedding dresses have not been ironed for a long time, and after two hours of posing, even Photoshop won't help our tired expressions.

When the sun goes down and the photographer Daniel Villires is relatively satisfied with his work, we are looking forward to the shower and especially to the romantic wedding dinner, which is offered by almost every hotel as part of the wedding package. This dinner at the Trou aux Biches takes place on the beach. A beautifully decorated table and chairs wrapped in white canvas are prepared for the sand, and the whole place is adorned with burning candles in the shape of a circle or heart. Romance over romance!

However, we asked for a wedding dinner in the open garden attached to our room so that we could be close to our son, who had long since slept. And as usual: nothing was a problem. At eight in the evening, we enjoyed an amazing four-course menu through the lights of burning candles and the strong Moon, which was slowly approaching the full moon.

But a wedding in paradise at sunset is not over yet! All the newlyweds have breakfast in bed the next morning, and most hotels also offer the newlywed couple a wedding gift: a sunset cruise, a massage, a Just Marriage car rental or dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants.

It's up to you how you enjoy the last days of your honeymoon. And that it's worth it!