This destination bride planned her whole romantic wedding herself

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 13

Deep into planning my own destination wedding (ten weeks to go!) and hitting that “medium-high” stress level, it’s lovely to see a destination bride success story. Bride Jade relished in being her own planner, despite the occasional stresses, of her hopelessly romantic and rustic olive grove wedding in Cyprus.

The scene is stunning – the old-world monastery decorated with white blooms and abundant baby’s breath (making a comeback!) was surrounded by rows of stunning olive trees, just absolutely portrait ready for a sunset session with Karina Leonenko. We noticed too, the couple even planted their own olive tree on the grounds to commemorate their new life as husband and wife.

Planning from far away didn’t stop bride Jade from pulling out all the stops. The wedding featured everything from lush florals, a string quartet, video tributes, local wine favors, plenty of Pinterest touches, a trendy floral cake and even a fireworks show. Girl, we’d love to see those planning spreadsheets, bravo!

Our Love Story

We met at the age of eleven years old just starting secondary school. It was young love and we dated from the age of eleven – until we went our separate ways at the age of thirteen. However, once school had finished we bumped into each other at a friend’s house and we have been inseparable ever since. We have been together eleven years now and have practically grown up together which is amazing as we have so many funny sweet memories already.

The Destination

We fell in love with Minthis Hills the moment we arrived. The balance between the modern development of the clubhouse where we all sat for the dinner and the old beautiful monastery where we got married was just what we wanted! It was quiet and peaceful and felt very private which we loved.

In Cyprus, due to the hot weather, it’s rare to see green grass. However, being next to the golf course meant the scenery was just amazing for us, our guests and in pictures. Our guests enjoyed drinks and canapes on the lawn watching the sunset before dinner.

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 2

The Dress & Attire

One risky choice was the bridesmaid dress colour choice – I went with ivory, the same colour as my dress. I am so glad I went with my gut and stuck with the decision. In all our photos I feel my dress and the bridesmaid dresses complemented each other and my bridesmaids looked absolutely gorgeous!

I was so indecisive when it came to choosing my dress as I had always imagined going for a fishtail style however now I’m so so happy I chose the dress that I did with the help of my mum. It was the perfect fairytale dress for me.

The Flowers

Annivia did our flowers and created exactly what I imagined. We had a floral arch at the monastery which then got brought into the clubhouse for dinner and put on the head table where she then added the orchids to hang over the edge.

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 5

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 7

“We had a string quartet play during the ceremony and to even think about it now it gives me goosebumps, they were just amazing and really set the mood that we wanted for our big day!”

– Bride Jade, the ceremony

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 8

Favorite Moments

Walking down the aisle with my dad while the string quartet played – I didn’t think I would ever cry walking down the aisle but I was so emotional.

We all laughed so much during our best man’s speech playing ‘Mr and Mrs’ with us.

My husband Matt put together a three-minute video to Ed Sheeran ‘Shape of You’ of all our friends and family dancing and lip-syncing to it as a surprise for me during his speech! It was brilliant.

We loved our first dance as husband and wife on the lawn at Minthis Hills, with all our family on the balcony watching over. No one knew we had six fireworks fountains all around us ready to light up so it was a lovely surprise, even for us as we didn’t know when they were timed for.

The Photography

I emailed my photographer Karina and followed up with a phone call and from the minute we started talking I knew I wanted her to be there on Matt and I’s big day. She was so friendly and helpful and I was so happy to have met someone I felt I could trust. Getting married abroad I feel you have to put your trust into a lot of people you may not have even met until the day – it’s really important to feel confident about who you pick!

Andrew Britton from Limelight Films and his wife Finola were probably the first people Matt and I booked. We had seen their work and were totally in love with the style and feel their wedding videos gave. I used to sit at home watching all these weddings wondering what ours would be like. I couldn’t of been any happier with our video! It was just the last piece of the puzzle. On your wedding day, you miss certain things and don’t get to see everyone’s reactions and Andrew and Finola got everything! The speech! I’ve lost count the number of times I have watched it with happy tears rolling down my face.

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 11

The Details & Decor

I always wanted a very fresh dreamy look for our wedding and decided that our colour theme would consist of an ivory and gold palette. All our wedding flowers were cream hydrangeas, roses and gypsophelia.

One of my favourite things planning was the small details, like the tables and the welcome table. Since my first search on Pinterest after getting engaged I remembered seeing these cute little name cards in little white frames. I ended up sourcing 110 of them from an online gift shop and had them for all my guests, which was a nice momento for them to take home.

For our favours, I found in a small Cyprus wine shop, a small bottle of champagne which I loved (as it was a white and gold bottle) which we then attached an ivory bow to and a gold straw all with a little glue gun.

The Planning

I didn’t hire a wedding planner in Cyprus and I enjoyed every minute of doing the wedding planning myself. At times it was stressful trying to make sure I had given all the vendors all the info they needed from me and making sure everything tied together but I managed it somehow!

However, I did have the amazing Natalie Biryukova at our venue at Minthis Hills. Natalie helped throughout the whole day making sure everything ran smoothly and all our guests wanted! Natalie was always there any time of the day, any day of the week when I needed help! I also gave Natalie a vision of how I wanted the clubhouse to be set up with all our décor and when we came up after the Matt we were blown away by how it looked!

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 16

Advice to Other Couples

I loved getting ideas from Pinterest!

If you can get a videographer you will have the video forever to show all your children and to look back on. I couldn’t believe how much I didn’t get to see on the day. You’re having so much fun and there is so much going on it becomes a bit of a blur.

Romantic Olive Grove Cyprus Destination Wedding | Karina Leonenko Photography 15

The Honeymoon

We just got back from Santorini. We stayed at Canaves Oia which was right on the edge of the cliff, with fantastic views. It was so romantic and perfect for honeymooners. The views were incredible and watching the sunset every night was magical.