Olivia and Johannes’ Tropical Bali Glamour Wedding at Villa Pemutih by The Wedding Mood
For Olivia and Johannes, planning a wedding in Bali was about more than just saying ‘I-do’. It was an opportunity for them to reminisce about their trip before and share this special place with their closest family and friends sun, sand, and celebrations. Which is exactly what a Bali wedding should be about!
Due to Covid, they had to postpone their wedding a year later from June 2022 to June 2023 (that didn’t go exactly as planned!), but as for them, it was a no-brainer to choose these dates because everything was more or less back to normal in Bali. Joined by 23 of their nearest and dearest in Villa Pemutih, Olivia and Johannes’s vision of a modern, tropical, and a bit of Boho wedding was truly brought to life through gorgeous styling and beautiful details.
After dreaming of a Bali wedding for so long, it was important for Olivia and Johannes to create a wedding that reflected them as a couple. With the bride wearing an off white Fit’n’Flare with mid-long train, lots of beads, and a low back gown complete with Van Cleef & Arpels Vintage Alhambra Necklace, which was a wedding gift from her parents, their relaxed and intimate ceremony was set in the lush gardens of the villa, against a tropical backdrop of palms and fresh greenery.
Working with the talented team at The Wedding Mood, an incredible ambiance was created in the villa for guests to enjoy a long, leisurely dinner. A selection of beautiful pieces from the amazing collection at Bali Event Hire helped tie the look together, from the relaxed cocktail furniture to the tableware and decor from The Host Table. Black bentwood chairs helped to add a modern luxe element to the styling, with this contemporary colour palette continuing through into the reception.
We spoke to the happy couple about their tips for staying organised while planning a destination wedding, how they found their team of suppliers and the importance of doing what makes you happy in order to create the perfect day!
Bride’s Name: Olivia
Groom’s Name: Johannes
How we met: Tinder
The proposal: Johannes proposed after 4 years of dating in New York in front of the Brooklyn Bridge (Mid of March 2020). Covid just hit, the city was empty and we had it all on our own, it was magical!
The Details…
Wedding date: 06.06.23
Wedding Ceremony Venue: Villa Pemutih, Bali
Wedding Reception Venue: Villa Pemutih, Bali
Total Guests: 23 (originally invited: 33, but you always have to consider that it is quite a trip and not everyone can manage to make it)
Our style/Inspiration: Tropical Bali glamour and a bit of boho. Color scheme was pink & peachy tones with a bit of tropical greens and neutral beige. We also had a custom made neon sign with “Bärchenpärchen”, that’s a nickname from our friends for us. That’s also why our bar had a huge sign with “Bärchen Bar” on it.
Who we couldn’t have done it without (Bali Supplier): Our Wedding planner The Wedding Mood! They went above and beyond with their individual care and guidance. Would recommend them to any bali-bride.
Advice for future Bali Brides: Plan enough time in between your wedding day for quick touch-ups! It’s soo hot ;-)… and have trust in your wedding planner! It will all work out! Relax! Especially as a German, I like things punctual and want every single detail to be planned and organized. This is not really the bali-style, where everything is a bit more laid back. So trust your wedding planner, that everything will work out in the end.
Our Wedding Day…
Wedding Planner/Stylist: The Wedding Mood. It was a perfect match. Since they don’t do too many weddings, it all seems very personal & individual, which was super important to us. I had a clear vision and idea about the style of the wedding. Henny & Jasmin considered every detail and brought it to life. They both are German as well, which made it super easy to communicate.
Décor/Furniture: Bali Event Hire & The Host Table offered a huge range of articles to choose from, which fitted perfectly to our style.
Flowers/Florist: Flossie flowers, was recommended by The Wedding Mood
Hair & Make-up: Anja Brück, she’s German as well and this made it just easier to communicate my needs & ideas. I booked a trial session a couple of days earlier with her as well! I would recommend that to every bride! The Bali climate is so different and this way you can test how the makeup and hair is lasting. I wanted Anja to use a lot of my own products, which she totally took into consideration. But for some hair products the recommended to use some of her special humidity proof products, which was a very good idea!
Photography: Point One, I liked their style and they did such a good job. I hardly noticed they were there because they just blended in with the crowd and took great photos of emotional/funny moments.
Videography: Leura, same as Point One. Both teams worked together very well. I checked a lot of videographers in advance and Leura was just the perfect match for us. Their easy-going style was exactly what we wanted.
Celebrant: organized that on our own. We hired a wedding speaker in Germany to write a very personal and individual sermon (roughly 25 mins). Johannes’ best man, Florian, read that sermon on the wedding day. This was so perfect, because it was very intimate.
Catering: Vivre & Mr.Pong! So tasty! Both were recommended by our wedding planner. We chose scallops, lobster bisque, steak & Indonesian style fish.
In addition we brought our favorite rosé champagne from Franschhoek (South Africa), that we used for the Champagne tower after the ceremony and the cocktail reception.
Cake/Dessert: Butter Bali. OMG! That was the best wedding cake ever. Every guest was mentioning how tasty this cake was. Usually wedding cakes look good on the outside, but aren’t really that tasty and way too sweet. But Butter Bali considered our wish not to make it too sweet! We had a chocolate cake filled with passionfruit and raspberries and covered with vanilla butter cream. I handed in my inspiration photo for the decor (very clean, elegant & simple, with orchids as decor) and Butter Bali created it exactly how I imagined it to be.
Stationery/Invitations: we had no physical invitations. For this destination-wedding I created my own website. Since all our guests were traveling from Germany and some from Australia, there was lots of information beforehand needed. Many of our guests have never been to Bali, nor to Asia in general. A website made it easier to give them lots of information, not just about the wedding, but about traveling to Bali in general.
Entertainment: “Three Flow” Acoustic Trio played during the ceremony and the cocktail reception. For the cake cutting DJ Jimmy Saxophone started playing Saxophone. We originally planned to cut the cake and then return to the table to eat it, but it immediately turned into a party on the dancefloor, while we were cutting the cake. So everyone was eating the cake while dancing, it was so much fun!
Transport: not needed. Guests stayed close to the Villa Pemutih.
Wedding Songs: Ed Sheeran – Perfect, Ronan Keating – When you say nothing at all, Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered
The Bridal Party Details…
Bride’s Dress: Fit’n’Flare with mid-long train, lot’s of beads and a low back. Color: off white.
Bride’s Shoes: J’Adior sling back Pumps in Nude from Dior
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: My maid of honor picked her own outfit. I gave no “do’s or don’t” to her. I just wanted her to feel comfortable and beautiful. Totally by coincidence my mom, my mother in law and my maid of honor wore pink outfits, which looked so cool and fitted perfectly to our pink & peachy colored decor.
Bridemaid’s Shoes: my maid of honor wore some of her own shoes.
Groom’s Attire & Shoes: Black-Tie tuxedo in navy & Belgian loafers in black, both custom made.
Flower girls/Page Boys: all in white
Jewelry: I wore my Van Cleef & Arpels Vintage Alhambra Necklace, which was a wedding gift from my parents. And some simple gold bracelets & diamond earrings, but I wanted to keep it simple to have the whole focus on the dress.
The rings: Johannes has a simple platinum ring and mine is a fully diamond studded platinum ring
Honeymoon Details: in total we spend 6 weeks in Bali. we arrived 10 days before the wedding (to groove in, fight jetlag & get a little tan) and then spent another 4 weeks in Bali & Lombok. As we both work a lot, this 6-week vacation is something very unusual and special for us. We booked nice villas all over Bali and wanted to see as much as possible of this beautiful island.
The final part…
Where did you find your styling inspiration for your Bali wedding? Instagram, Pinterest! I followed a loooot of Bali-wedding Instagram accounts, also The Bali Bride of course 😉 I saved many photos of details that I liked and in the end this grew into our wedding look & feel. But I also researched a lot on YouTube and watched Bali-wedding videos
What was the hardest part about planning a destination wedding? We had to postpone for one year due to covid,… this was a very tough decision, since also all our guests need to plan time for this trip and most of then had also ready booked their flights. in January 2022 we decided to move our original wedding date from June 2022 to June 2023. Looking back it was the best decision, since Bali was still recovering from the lockdowns in summer 2022. By summer 2023 everything was more or less back to normal.
But in general it was tough to make decisions purely based on the recommendations of our wedding planner. Since we couldn’t do a sight-view of our wedding villa, or a wine tasting or food tasting.
Why did you choose Bali as your wedding destination? We are huge South-East-Asia fans and traveled this part of the world a lot. It was clear that we want an non-religious outdoor wedding and and something very special. First, we were thinking about Tuscany, because it’s close to Germany and offered great wine & food. But then we thought: why not Bali? We’ve been there before, it was such a magical vibe and everyone of our guests could combine it with a vacation.
How did you stay organised while planning a destination wedding? Checklists, checklists, checklists!!!
Budget: 25k €
Actual Cost: waaaay more than that 😉 but it was with every penny.
