Say "I do" while gliding beneath a glass-bottomed aisle are tropical fish, sting rays, and reef tip sharks.
I had always imagined having a destination wedding when my boyfriend and I traveled to a stunning location with our loved ones. We chose to have a legal ceremony in Connecticut with just our families when COVID made that difficult and stressful, but we still yearned for the excitement and opulence of a destination wedding. All we had to do was determine its possible location.
When I was younger, my middle school computer's desktop wallpaper was a picture of the Maldives. Since then, the nation — a chain of 26 atolls in the southern Indian Ocean — has served as my concept of paradise. I've had the chance to travel to the Maldives a few times thanks to my profession, and I keep falling more and more in love with it. My then-fiance and I were searching for a special, private, and memorable location for our wedding when we learned that the Four Seasons Resort at Landaa Giraavaru offered an overwater wedding chapel.
Every aspect of our wedding experience, including the speed boat ride to the chapel and the glass-bottomed aisle, emphasized the Maldives' magnificent blue landscapes. The chapel is located in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of the Baa Atoll, which is rich in marine life. As my new husband and I exchanged vows, we witnessed tropical fish, sting rays, and reef-tip sharks swim beneath our feet.
We particularly admired the seriousness with which Landaa Giraavaru approaches its attempts to conserve the ocean. Through the property's Reefscapers program, all visitors have the chance to support a coral frame that helps preserve and create new reef habitats. To commemorate our marriage, we funded a coral frame. We are forward to visiting the location again in the future to see the coral frame's development.
Beyond just the ceremony itself, the journey continues. Plan to spend half of your time at Kuda Huraa, which is just a short seaplane journey from Landaa Giraavaru and a 25-minute speedboat ride from the Malé airport, if you want to combine your wedding and honeymoon into one trip. Visit the Kuda Huraa spa, which is on a private island and only reachable by old-fashioned dhoni boats, to ease into married life. All spa services are provided in huts that face the infinite sea and sky, making it the ideal setting for clearing your head before getting married or relaxing during a honeymoon. Try the Kuda Huraa Healing Waters treatment for something even more unusual, where warm water-filled cushions will help you fall asleep while receiving a massage.
Speaking of tranquility, all spa services at Landaa Giraaavru are based on the traditional Ayurveda medicine of India, thus the hotel's ayurvedic physician is available to determine your dosha, offer lifestyle suggestions, or cure illnesses. We had the opportunity to partake in a couples' floral bath the day before our wedding, which involved soaking in warm water laced with frangipani blossoms from the spa garden. I still had the scent of the frangipani on my skin from our wedding.
Allow Landaa Giraaavru to organize a romantic private supper on the powder-white sands of their Blu beach club to truly up the ante on your celebration. I'll never forget seeing my husband bite into our ideal wedding cake as the sun sank on the beach. Little hermit crabs scurried into the waters lapping at our feet while the lamps on our table flickered in the ocean breeze. It seemed like the ideal way to mark the commencement of our upcoming grand journey.