2013

Jenna & Paul Sayer, June 2013

Hi Andrea and Fiona,

Will start by saying a HUGE thank you once again…

Paul and I have been together for 8 years and have two beautiful daughters so we thought its only right to finally tie the knot. We holidayed in Rarotonga in 2010 and saw 3 weddings take place at our resort in the 10 days we were there and both agreed if we ever got married then Rarotonga would be the place to do it. So as soon as we got home (before Paul could change his mind) I emailed Andrea at Wedded Bliss and got the ball rolling! From the very first email through to the 437th one, Andrea was absolutely amazing, worth her weight in gold! She was very informative about all the different options there were and was friendly, funny and super helpful with all my silly little questions and queries. During this enquiry time Andrea even went off and had another wee baby and still managed to keep up with all correspondence and was totally on the ball the whole time, super woman I kid you not!

Absolutely nothing was a problem from flower options, to cake flavours, to decorated aisles, to chair covers and colours, to music, you name it, it was done for us with the utmost professionalism and absolute perfection. I could never have imagined my wedding day to have been so perfect, every single guest commented on such an amazing job these fabulous ladies did and didn’t want this perfect day to end.

I was a total Facebook stalker and was on Wedded Bliss page on a daily basis checking out the gorgeous photos of previous brides and grooms prior to our big day, each and every one gave me goosebumps and butterflies in my tummy, hoping my day would be just as perfect.

Well I needn’t have worried, our day was absolutely perfect from start to finish and it was all thanks to the amazing team at Wedded Bliss (lovely Andrea and Fiona), Jane and Chrissy at the Muri Beach Resort, Kim and Jane at Pacific Village Salon, Ine and Tim at Angle Photo and Video, Rangi our gorgeous florist, JK our amazing celebrant and G Dub George our awesome DJ who partied with us into the night.

I would highly recommend a destination wedding to all, whether you are inviting guests or having a private affair this is by far the most romantic, relaxing and perfect option. We were lucky enough to be joined by 72 of our closest friends and family who were blown away at how wonderful the whole day/holiday was. We will all be back one day soon for sure!

Once again Andrea and Fiona, we just can’t thank you enough for all you lovely ladies did to make our day a dream come true. Renewal of vows is an absolute must for us in the future because I just want to relive this day again!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Lee & Charlie Whitaker – June 2013

I cannot thank the team at Wedded Bliss enough for making our wedding the most incredible day of our lives. Andrea and Fiona were beyond brilliant, the care and thought they put into our day is what made it all so amazing.Throughout the 12 months+ of email communication, we always knew what was going on with our special day and what options were available to us. Fiona was there as soon as we arrived on the island to go through all of our requirements, set up our consultants and make us feel completely at ease.

The day started with a  stunning ceremony on the beach outside the Moana Sands Villas, with music blaring from an amp, a petal aisle and then a local band with drinks to entertain our guests whilst they sipped on bubbles and enjoyed canapés. We then moved on to a beautiful reception set up at Moana Sands, the room just looked incredible with blue lanterns, fairy lights, fish bowls glimmering with candles, what more could we have asked for. The evening continued on with fire dancers, an island booth and sundae bar. Our guests loved every second! We all danced the night away with  Rosie and her incredible voice.

Wedded Bliss also has selected to partner with what I would describe as best of breed on the Island, the hair and makeup from Kim’s team made us feel and look like movie stars! The photographs by Ine were simply stunning and captured every moment of our day and happiness. Finally the TTD (trash the dress) made our entire wedding party have a day they would never forget

Wedded Bliss you are part of our memories now forever. Your planning, support and dedication made our wedding day the thing of dreams. Not only will we be talking about you for years but so will our guests! I think we may have converted others to having a tropical Cook Island wedding!

So, if you are reading this testimonial, not only do I highly recommend you have your wedding day on the Cook Islands but that you chose Wedded Bliss as your wedding planners. In their hands you will be sure to have the most incredible day of your dreams with no stress or worries

Kind regards

Lee

Feline & Craig – September 2013

Just wanted to say thank you so much for making our wedding truly memorable!  We both had the most fantastic day & our friends & family keep telling us it was “the best wedding they have ever been to!”. It really was the best day of our lives!

Thank you for answering all our email questions & for helping with all the little things that made our day unique for us… including getting Tua to share the celebrant duties.

Will definitely recommend you any friends thinking of tying the knot in Raro!!

Feline & Craig

Katie & Mike Riddock – September 2012

Married life is wonderful. I don’t know where to start in thanking yourself and Fiona on what a wonderful job you ladies did on our special day.
Fiona really made us feel so at ease on the day! What a wonderful asset she is to your team!

The caterers did an amazing job with the food, a lot of guests commented on how lovely and YUM the food was!  The marquee set up by your team was incredible, especially considering we had to fit 93 people in!  Our celebrant was great (He even comes from our home town in NZ) so we had a nice connection with him.

Kim at the Pacific Salon did wonders with our hair and makeup and all the girls there were so relaxed and best of all made it a FUN morning.

Our flowers and button holes were gorgeous!

Ine did the most fantastic job at our photo’s….everyone is commenting on how great they are and she really captured every moment from start to finish. We have some great shots that we love and will cherish forever.

Lastly the people of Rarotonga are so friendly are so willing to help!

So from the bottom of our hearts we cannot thank you all enough on the wonderful job you did of creating our magical day! We will highly recommend Wedded Bliss to future couples who are planning on a destination wedding. Mike and I will never look back and from day one of emailing you Andrea you answered all our questions with ease.

Katie and Mike Riddock x

Stacy & Stephen Wheeler – July 2012

Hi Ladies,

Well, we have well and truly settled back into life here in Brisbane and Rarotonga seems like a life time ago!

We can’t thank you both enough for everything that you done for us regarding the planning of our wedding… A whole years worth emails back and forth with suggestions for the reception, the planning of the courtesy bus, photography, celebrant, music, hair, makeup – we could not have had the magical day that we had without you! And I wouldn’t have been so relaxed or as ‘organized’ as Fiona said if it wasn’t for you.

Everything was perfect, it was the best day of our lives and all of our guests said that it was the best holiday/wedding ever… I think that we will all be talking about it for a very long time. We have so many great memories to last a life time!

Thank you again Fiona and Andrea – our Rarotongan Wedding was a dream come true thanks to Wedded Bliss!

Stacey & Stephen Wheeler

Robyn & Ryan Lamont – May 2012

Aw Andrea. What can I say about you! I’ve written so many reviews and left you till last because I just don’t know where to begin thanking you for the best day of our lives. When the idea of getting married in Raro first popped into our heads two years ago, we instantly thought it would be “too hard, too expensive and too stressful” to try and do everything from New Zealand.

Our dream of getting married on a beach with no shoes didn’t go away though and curiosity prompted us into “just having a look” on good old Google at what Raro had to offer. And there through Moana Sands Beachfront Hotel we found Wedded Bliss.

To put it mildly I am pedantic –  I need to know every tiny detail about a plan, and tend to stress about anything and everything, so I thought organising a wedding via email from another country would be very challenging for me. But it was the total opposite. Andrea was so quick to respond to my million emails, so very patient and calming that she made the process so much easier than had I done it myself. Andrea is just brilliant at what she does, and I am so thrilled that we decided to “just do it!”

Mentions that must be made – Fiona was so lovely, she put all of our last minute worries to rest. On the day we were lucky enough to have the fantastic and “famous in Raro” Melinda to do our hair and makeup. My bridesmaids looked beautiful, and we had such a relaxed day leading up to the wedding with lots of giggles. Ine our photographer, along with Sharon her assistant were just amazing! She captured every special moment and aspect of our day, I am just in love with our photographs and stop motion video!

Our flowers were beautiful! I had a “lucky frog” that was very precious to my late mother, some orchids that were my late father’s favourite, and a locket holding photos of the two of them.  Somehow between the florist and Fiona they managed to incorporate all of my little treasures into my bouquet which meant so much to me! A huge huge thank you for that.

Our cake was simple and elegant – lemon with butter cream icing, topped with gardenias, and it was the most divine cake we had ever tasted! We headed for Aitutaki the following day for our honeymoon and Ryan was most upset when he realised I had forgotten the leftovers’ in our hotel room fridge haha!

In our opinion Moana Sands had the most picturesque beach on the whole island. The staff at the restaurant were just brilliant, excellent service and divine food, and putting up with our “lively” 27 guests was a feat in itself! A huge huge thank you to everyone who made our day run so seamlessly, and for the extra mile you went, making our day MORE than perfect.

Guests who at the start were a little hesitant at having to travel to attend our wedding said it was the best wedding they had ever been to, and the best holiday they had ever had. If you’re hesitating in having your “dream wedding on the beach”, don’t! Wedded Bliss will take such good care of you; it truly will be the best time and day of your life.

Lots of love

Robyn & Ryan Lamont

Cherie & Huw James – March 2012

At the beginning of our relationship with Andrea, she told us that she would exceed our expectations.  Andrea and her team did that in spades!

We were off to a good start when 60 of our nearest and dearest flew in from around the world were wowed by Rarotonga and Aitutaki.  My Dad, who never flies anywhere, is one of many still raving about the Cook Islands.

On arrival were instantly impressed by the relaxed professionalism of Andrea and Fiona.  These ladies are all about the details.  We talked through the day with our wedding team (including celebrant, hair and makeup) so that everyone knew what we wanted but we were delighted by how much they added.   We still had plenty of time during the build-up to get into island life as there were no rehearsals – it’s a relaxed beach wedding after all!  The wedding was held on the beach at Natura Beach Villa where my family were staying for the week.  We had a beautifully fitted out marquee for dinner but also as contingency for rain.   On the day, both hair and makeup were unbelievably good.  I went for big messy hair to offset my knitted John Galliano dress.   The makeup was natural, fresh and photo ready all day even with the humidity.  My bridesmaids looked stunning.  The day unfolded very relaxed but also super chic as Fiona and Andrea unobtrusively coached us though the important moments.  There is a science to holding a posy!  There were still some surprises for us too – in a really nice touch we faced our family and friends during the wedding ceremony.

I’ve got to be careful not to go into gush mode, but our photographer was incredible and our chef who cooked our spit roast pig was brilliant. The morning after the wedding, Andrea had popped back to check on the clean up and took some time out to chat about the day.  I thought that was a lovely touch and I think it demonstrates this is more than a business; these people are passionate about their clientele.

In summary, Wedded Bliss and the Cook Islands comes’ highly recommended!

Cherie and Huw xx

Sel & Chris Leigh – November 2011

We found out about Wedded Bliss through a friend who was organizing her own wedding with Andrea. Contact was made and the planning began.
What I loved about dealing with Andrea was the simplicity. There are the base packages to start with and you just add or subtract anything you choose. For someone who’s really not a girly girl but still wanted to be treated like a princess it was perfect!

From my own experience, there is enough stress with planning a wedding without having to try and workout who the best service providers or locations for ceremony or reception are from another country. Andrea made it easy. I was able to say what we were looking for and then she’d recommend places. If I wasn’t sure on something then she’d answer my questions honestly – and I never felt like anything was a bother, right down to recommendations on our choice of bubbly to toast our wedding to!

Having a wedding in another country is a great choice if you want to keep your special day small and intimate. It doesn’t make everything simple – you can’t have all the little details you would be able to get in your own home town, but Andrea was able to make alternative suggestions that really made the day perfect for us.
We got on incredibly well with all of the professionals we’d been assigned & nothing was a problem for any of them! Our photographer was so easy to deal with (he even had our photos ready for us before we left to return to NZ). Our videographers were quite simply two of the sweetest people we’ve ever met, and oh so patient! We had a dream of a celebrant – got to love anyone who can relax a bride & groom to be that much the day before their wedding! Our hair and make-up artist was fabulous, the hair and makeup was just gorgeous – light but with staying power perfect for the tropical humidity! The Sands Restaurant put on an amazing spread and the owner and staff couldn’t do enough for us. The meal was just divine and I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t go up for seconds. Oh – and to give the hotel a bit of kudos, they did throw a party for us on the beach the evening before the wedding. They arranged for the restaurant & bar staff to man a bar on the beach and arranged live singers (coincidentally our wedding singers – the island string band) for us for a few hours. That was absolutely amazing – and they were just wonderful people too. We ended up at another venue a few days after our wedding and they toasted us yet again in front of that crowd – they made us feel like we were part of their close group of friends, real locals!

The days before the wedding were so simple. Once we arrived we made contact with Andrea and then Fiona (who was our personal planner to make everything go smoothly on the day). Fiona met with us to go over the finer details – who all our service providers were, what time we would meet with them and what we could expect. She talked us through picking the flower arrangements – we’d already picked our flowers but not the arrangement of them – and the set up of the day. Then she took us into town to apply for the marriage license and even helped us to arrange a rental car so we could get around easily.

Both Fiona and Andrea made things so easy for us to deal with, before during and after the event. We had phone numbers to call for both of them, nothing was a bother and they were both there on the day to make sure everything went smoothly. And it does make things so much easier when you can have a lovely glass of vino and a gossip with your wedding planner before the big event!

Georgina & Uala Toamaka – October 2011

Being a control freak, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but it was the best decision I made when Uala and I employed the services of Wedded Bliss to assist in making our wedding the best and most memorable time of our lives. Right from the get go Andrea was there to answer our endless questions; recommended only the best services on the island (from the string band, to the florist, cake baker, hairdresser-well the afro extraordinaire, to the best nail technician and the like).

Not to worry as she is high in demand Andrea also has Fiona on her team who equally was just as helpful. Fiona took us to meet our celebrant ‘JK’ and reassured me all the way through that everything was going to be ok. Andrea was there right from the beginning, planning, implementation and post wedding. She even had a hand at playing MC during the wedding reception due to an unforeseen circumstance…thank goodness for Andrea.

Our wedding day is one we will truly remember and our guests too. Not only did Andrea assist in making our dreams come true but we also gained a new friendship and one we will never forget.

Thanks Wedded Bliss xx

Dean & Becs – September 2011

I had had enough. Whoever said that planning your own wedding should be a happy and fun thing to do? Maybe they never actually tried it. I mean, why was that beautiful Raj tent alone to hire over $2000? Did I want finger food or a sit down buffet? Which of the 37 shades of green did I like best for my brides maids dresses? And why couldn’t I find the dress that ‘spoke’ to me! How many people should we invite? Cousins I hadn’t spoken to in 5 years? Invites, Favours, Decorations, Location….the options where endless and I was fast turning into a paranoid, stressed out and totally overwhelmed Bridezilla! This was so not me.

As I sat and despaired at a seemingly enormous predicament, my husband to be said to me …”Stop!, This is nonsense. Let’s just go to Rarotonga and get married on the beach”. The simplicity of his words, hit me like a thunderbolt between the eyes and I was sold. Just like that. YES! That is what we would do. It was one of our favourite holiday destinations after all.

I instantly recalled someone long ago, mentioning the words “Wedded Bliss” to me and I jumped onto Google and found what I had been looking for all along on one website. The website was easy to navigate and answered pretty much all of my questions straight away. Right there and then, I sent off an email and waited with a mix of nerves and excitement for the reply. I got all the confirmation I needed that we were doing the right thing, with that wonderful first reply from Andrea Rongokea.

Instantly she put me at ease, explained a little more about how it all worked and I just knew this was going to be amazing! Some emails and a few months later, along with 11 of our close family we were married on Muri Beach in stunning Rarotonga. Our day was perfect. Not a stress or worry in sight and the most amazing weather all day. Even the tide behaved itself so we could all be barefoot on the beach. I’m sure Andrea had words with it.

Andrea and some of her fantastic team could not have been more accommodating and supportive and all played a major part in creating a perfect day. Rarotonga is a pretty laid back place and you really do need to adjust to that once you arrive, so with a lovely mix of laid back-ness, total professionalism and fun, Andrea and the guys were incredible.

For such a small island, there isn’t much they can’t get their hands on to make your day your dream one, and rest assured that they understand how important your wedding is, so they treat it accordingly. No question too silly, no request too large. Andrea just makes it happen.

We will remember our special day forever, and our family still talk about it to this day. We can’t think of a single reason why you wouldn’t want Wedded Bliss to be a part of it all!