Astrid & Tom
A luxe garden party filled with whimsical details is the best way to describe Astrid & Tom’s luxe Bali wedding. After becoming totally smitten with each other at first sight, this self-described bohemian couple decided to spend their wedding celebrations in beautiful Uluwatu along with their closest family and friends.
When dreaming up their vision for the day, Astrid & Tom wanted their styling to reflect them as a couple: relaxed, unique and definitely not traditional! With a garden-inspired tablescape complete with trailing moss, wood slices and mismatched florals, it’s safe to say their vision was truly brought to life.
After a breathtaking ceremony which took place against the setting sun (seriously – wait until you see the photos!) guests headed to the Villa lawn for a night filled with love, laughter and LOTS of dancing.
We spoke to the happy couple who gave us a behind-the-scenes insight into their experience planning a destination wedding, the importance of trusting your wedding suppliers, and their essential advice for future Bali brides-to-be. Check out the gorgeous images for yourself below along with their words of wisdom!
How we met: We met at a friend’s house for drinks when we were freshly 20. Before Tom arrived, the girls told me that Tom would be smitten with me and I was a little curious to meet him. Before long we became inseparable spending every day together and it’s been the same ever since!
The proposal: Tom actually surprised me with the proposal and the ring after about 5 years together. We went out on the boat together and it was a really windy day, Tom had hidden the ring in his tackle box so he was a little nervous. We pulled up at a secluded beach together with our dog and I set up a picnic rug with some cheese and biscuits. Tom asked me to pass him something from the tackle box and there sitting in the bottom was my ring! He got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. It was so beautiful because it was just us and our dog on a gorgeous beach together, it was so romantic and completely us.
Wedding venue (Ceremony & Reception): Ceremony – Semara Luxury Villa Resort, Villa Tamarama & our Reception – Seletan Lawn (now The Ungasan)
Our style: We are both very laid back so we wanted more of a bohemian, whimsical feel to the day. We wanted it to be totally unique and relaxed and we feel like we achieved that with the day. We aren’t traditional, so we had a few aspects of the day that reflected that which made it special to us. The bridesmaids wore white and the boys wore light blue, which looked gorgeous against the sunset. Flowers were a huge part of the day and we had an amazing floral stylist behind the whole event. The bouquets were really mix matched and beautiful and the reception was transformed into a luxe secret garden full of flowers and candles. When Tom and I walked into the reception it left us speechless at how stunning it all looked, it was more than we could have dreamed.
Our favourite Bali supplier: Our event venue, Semara Luxury Villa Resort (now The Ungasan) was absolutely outstanding in every way. My husband and I shared a night in our villa Chintamani in the main suite before all of our guests arrived and it was absolute bliss to be able to share that time together and explore its beauty. We kept saying to each other that everyone made you feel like a celebrity, staff went above and beyond to make sure you were comfortable and had everything you needed. It was the little things that set this place apart from the others, and everyone was blown away with how completely luxurious the resort is.
Secondly, I honestly cannot sing enough praise of Janice & Yani from Bloomz Fine Flowers in Seminyak! The only word to describe them is ‘genius’ and they were in charge of the flowers and décor for our wedding. I had always dreamed of a bohemian, whimsical secret garden type feel to the day and loved the idea of using moss as a table runner but wasn’t sure how to achieve it. I gave Bloomz an outline of what I wanted but really left creative reign up to Janice. When I had my last appointment with her a couple of days before the wedding she ran through what she had planned with me and I was completely blown away. She is so unbelievably talented that she was even making creative suggestions at the last meeting that made it that more beautiful. I remember on the day when my mother brought the bouquets to me, I got teary because they were simply so stunning they took my breath away. What they did with our reception and ceremony too was way beyond my expectations and it was hard not to lose focus walking down the aisle looking at how stunning everything was!
Our DJ, DJ Rock was so great as well, he had every single person up dancing all night and took every request he was given. As soon as dinner was over the dance floor was flooded all night and everyone commented on how great he was.
Who we couldn’t have done it without (Bali Supplier): Bloomz Fine Flowers
Advice for future Bali Brides: Planning a destination wedding can be very stressful and overwhelming but at some stage you have to let go and trust that people will surprise you and deliver. I am definitely glad I went over beforehand to choose a venue, food, cake, florist etc before the big day so that I could refer to this when planning. This made it a lot easier when discussing layout for both reception and ceremony and gave me a chance to meet suppliers face to face.
My one little regret was that we didn’t do a run through of the ceremony beforehand as we were all just having to much fun to worry. I would recommend doing a run through before the day, especially when you have a large bridal party like we did, it will put you and everyone at ease knowing exactly where everyone needs to be.
It’s also worth knowing what time your venue has their noise restrictions in place as this crossed a lot of venues off our list. Some places require your event to be over by 10:30 and this simply wouldn’t have worked for us. We ended up hiring the whole of Semara Luxury Villa resort with friends and family so that we could have the party go till midnight then continue having fun in one of the villas. It would have been a shame to have to finish any earlier as our dance floor was still going till midnight!
Finally, just remember what the day is about. I love that my husband and I spent the whole night together dancing with our friends and laughing together. People will want to pull you both in separate ways which is fine but we made an effort to keep meeting up and getting a drink together and reflecting on how truly amazing the night was. One of my favourite parts of the day was after photos were finished and the sun had just started to go down and my husband and I walked over together to see how the reception looked before everyone left the cocktail hour. It was so special that we got to see our vision before everyone else together, it was a really beautiful moment that I won’t forget.
