We love travelling and it seemed only fitting that we would get married overseas. The best thing about having a destination wedding was everyone was on holidays. We were able to share more than just a meal; we were sharing an adventure together and that made it extra special. We took our first holiday together to Bali and two years later we got engaged there. Bali and its people hold a really special place in our hearts and it seemed only fitting that we’d be married there too.
We stayed in Bali for two weeks - 4 days before the wedding and 10 days afterwards. The night before the wedding we had a huge dinner with our family friends at Ibu Rai. After the wedding we travelled to Uluwatu (one part of Bali that we’d never managed to get to) and honeymooned there. We hired a scooter and spent our days exploring (and eating!). We took surfing lessons, swam a lot and even went horse riding on the beach.
I guess the best way to describe our wedding theme was casual elegance. We wanted our guests to feel like they were part of something really special and for our beautiful surroundings to be the star of the show. As part of our strategy to achieve this, we decided not to have a bridal party - every single person at our wedding was important to us. At the reception, we shared a table together for our first meal as husband and wife. We still had plenty of time to spend with our family and friends but it also gave us the chance to spend some time reflecting on the day together.
I designed the wedding invitations and found an incredible supplier in Australia who was able to burn the designs into pieces of wood. This element was carried through to our wedding with wooden fans left on each seat at the ceremony and a wooden cake topper announcing "Mr & Mrs McKenzie". Rob wore a classic navy blue suit and I carried the navy across into my wedding jewellery (my something blue gift from Rob) with a beautiful emerald cut pendant and earring set made of London blue topaz. For my style, I wanted to keep cool (literally - I was a bit worried about the heat in a heavy wedding dress) but still feel a little bit glamorous so I took inspiration from 1940s movie stars and selected a 100% silk dress and left my hair down on the day.
We had 28 guests at our wedding. The number couldn’t have been more perfect! We had time to get around to everyone without losing the atmosphere (or the dance floor!). It was really tough limiting numbers but we decided to invite our closest friends, our immediate family and one aunt and uncle from each side. We were surprised at how supportive our family and friends were of our decision to keep it small. We had an Indonesian Banquet - we’re in Bali after all!
Kelly’s favourite memory from the day....
Nothing could top the feeling I had when I walked up the stairs and caught my first glimpse of Rob at the ceremony but the moment we stepped through the doors into our wedding reception and saw just how incredible the venue was has to be a close second.
Rob’s favourite memory from the day...
Firstly seeing Kelly walk down the aisle and secondly hearing everyone’s comments about how unbelievable and fairytale-like the entire event was.
Photography by Light and Love
