In Reply to: Suitable villa for wedding posted by Astridm on Thursday, 11. August 2005 at 15:09 Bali Time:
Hi Astridm,
Good deceision re the wedding. I tied the knot in March 2004 in Bali and had 34 family and friends with us. Everyone had a ball as it was also a holiday for everyone at the same time as going to a wedding.
My first recommendation is to make sure everyone can stay at the same place. It makes it much more easy for everybody to mingle and feel together and it means you can get around to spend time with everybody (remember it is big thing for someone to go overseas for your wedding so it is nice to get around and spend some time with everybody).
Secondly, I recommend having the ceremony at the same location as the reception. It is the tropics after all and running back and forwards beween venues can overload everyone with the heat and then people don't enjoy the occasion. For ours we got married in front of the beach, had drinks in the open bar overlooking the sunset and then retired to the restaurant for dinner. No having to rush about just a logical progression from one spot to the next.
As for locations to stay, have a chat to who will be attending and work out what they would like to do. In Bali there are a number of distinct spots that offer different things. If you can get a spot that caters for most peoples taste it can help people relax and have a good time.
Villa's are a great way to do Bali (we have stayed in many over our last 5 visits), but don't also rule out some of the larger hotels. You can offer get everyone into their executive clubs that include access to lounges and extra stuff where you can hold pre wedding parties and all get together.
I would be happy to provide you some details on who we dealt with re wedding planner and some great villa and hotel suggestions.
Just drop me an e-mail with some questions.
Daniel