 | Debbie
Ward has spent more than 15 years
as a journalist, several as Features
Editor of Travel Trade Gazette.
She now works freelance.
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Weddings and honeymoons: arriving in style
Travel Trade Gazette
There are more inventive methods of transporting your clients
than a simple car ride. Debbie Ward suggests some exciting ways
to get them to the church on time.
Speedboats
Get-away-from-it-all romantics can really make a splash when
they arrive by speedboat to wed on a deserted Caribbean island.
In Jamaica, Couples Tower Isle resort, formerly Couples Ocho
Rios, will be offering private island weddings with a speedboat
transfer for the couple and their guests, when it opens in
March following a $22 million refurbishment.
Elsewhere in the Caribbean, brides and grooms can draw up
by speedboat at a tiny sand spit just off shore from Petit
St Vincent in the Grenadines, ready to wed in the shade of
a gazebo with just a celebrant and witnesses hear their vows.
Couples' Tower Isle wedding package will cost $4,500 plus $200
licence fee. www.couples.com. ITC Classics offers the Petit
St Vincent wedding, with speedboat transfers, for US $900 plus
$200 licence fee. www.itcclassics.co.uk
Traditional craft
A gondola ride is a honeymoon must in Venice but couples can
actually be punted and serenaded all the way to their wedding
ceremony aboard this romantic transport.
For something more dramatic - and the certainty of some impressive
photos to show family and friends back home - how about suggesting
South Pacific-bound couples arrive at their beach wedding
in Fiji in a decorated warrior boat paddled by their very
own traditionally dressed warrior?
Cosmos offers Venice wedding arrivals by Gondola for £130
www.cosmos.co.uk. Several hotels in Fiji offer warrior boats
for weddings. Kuoni can arrange a wedding package at the Sonaisali
Island Resort, inclusive of decorated warrior boat, from £692
per couple www.kuoni.co.uk.
Reindeer drawn sleighs
In Lapland, brides with Snow Queen fantasies can snuggle down
in romantic reindeer or husky drawn sleighs while their grooms
turn James Bond on snowmobiles. Cosmos offers several Lapland
venues for December weddings incorporating these extra special
transfers. Couples can say their vows in a lantern-lit forest
beside the Snowdome - an open faced igloo - with the
groom arriving by snowmobile and bride by either reindeer
or husky-drawn sleigh. At the Chapel of Maria, brides can
arrive by sleigh and grooms by car or, if they'd prefer
Rudolph and friends to witness the proceedings, winter wonderland
lovebirds can wed at a rural reindeer farm -the bride arriving
by reindeer drawn sleigh and groom by snowmobile.
The Snowdome wedding with reindeer sleigh and snowmobile arrival
costs £1,329 www.cosmos.co.uk.
Elephants
Wedding entrances don't come much more regal than those
made by elephant back in Asia.
Stylish new Pakasai resort at Krabi in Thailand can arrange
for the bride and groom to parade to their beach ceremony on
elephant back as an option in its tailor-made weddings. Premier
Holidays can offer a similarly majestic entrance for some weddings
in Sri Lanka including at the Taj Exotica in Bentota, An elephant
ride to a wedding at the Taj Exotica in Bentota cost £66
per person. www.trade.premierholidays.co.uk
Horse Drawn Carriage
An open top ride to a wedding needn't mean travelling
by car. Traditionalists can arrive by horse-drawn carriage
in several destinations. Cosmos offers this sedate transfer
for weddings in Mexico, Kuoni for nuptials at St Christopher
Chapel in Cairns, Australia and Premier Holidays for those
in Central Park, New York.
Planet Holidays will send the bride and groom clip-clopping
in similar style to their ceremony in Cyprus, Skiathos or
Zante, while for something different on Santorini the operator
can even arrange for one or each of them to ride to their
wedding venue on the back of a donkey.
Planet's horse-drawn carriages in Cyprus, Skiathos
or Zante cost from £429
and the Donkey ride in Santorini from £100. www.planet-holidays.co.uk
Airborne adventures
Get couples as close to cloud nine as possible by booking
them a helicopter to their nuptials. Kuoni, Virgin Holidays
and Premier Holidays offer this sweeping entrance for Grand
Canyon weddings with the couples departing from nearby Vegas.
For those in search of the novelty as well as swank factor,
Kuoni can arrange for vows to be exchanged aboard a helicopter
in mid-flight over Vegas's famous strip at sunset. By
contrast, the operator also offers an intimate mountaintop
ceremony in Canada, with the couple arriving by helicopter
from Lake Louise.
For the ultimate film star style entrance, his and hers helicopters
will whisk the bride and groom separately to their secluded
beach wedding on Hamilton Island in Queensland, Australia (also
bookable through Kuoni) with the couple's guests arriving by
motor yacht in time to catch the spectacle.
Extra exhilaration could be added to a couple's big day in Oman
when one of them chooses to make a spectcular enterance at the
new luxury Six Senses Hideaway, Zighy Bay as a passenger of
the resort's professional paraglider.
Virgin Holidays' Grand Canyon weddings cost £1,369. They
take place in a ranch with transfers between the helicopter
touchdown point and venue made by horse-drawn wagon. www.vhols4agents.com
Symbolic rather than legally binding weddings are available
at Zighy Bay, Oman. A paragliding arrival for a beach ceremony
costs £133.
Vintage vehicles
The bride's 'something old' can be their transport when
they take their pick of gorgeous vintage vehicles in which to
arrive in style.
A pink Cadillac driven by none other than Elvis packs a wow
factor for weddings at the Graceland Storybook Chapel in Vegas.
The King will even serenade the bride and groom when they tie
the knot in either the chapel or the car itself.
Elsewhere in the States, Cosmos offers vintage Rolls Royce hire
for weddings at various locations in Walt Disney World Resort,
Florida.
In Europe Olympic Holidays can book various vintage cars. Also
on Cyprus, for a real party atmosphere for the happy couple
and their guests, Planet Holidays offers the colourful vintage
Barney Bus for up to 30 people including musicians.
It's a far cry from the bicycle made for two of the famous song
but brides more worried about looking cool than sweet can do
so upon the seat of a Harley-Davidson. Premier Holidays and
US rental operator Eagle Rider are among those offering this
wedding transport with a vroom.
Kuoni's offers the Pink Cadillac wedding for £380 www.kuoni.co.uk
Olympic Holidays' vintage cars can be hired from 270 Euro. www.olympicholidays.com
Planet's 'Barney' Bus can be hired from £180. www.planet-holidays.co.uk
Eagle Rider offers Harley rentals in Scottsdale, Arizona for
$135 for the day plus insurance. www.eaglerider.com
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