The proposal came as a huge surprise in February 2018 in the Philippines on an island of Boracay on a secluded beach. It was followed by a nice engagement party and almost immediately we decided to get married in the summer. After a little research, we realized that it is essentially the last time to start organizing the wedding.

We didn’t have any problem choosing the wedding location because we have a marvellous country house in Southern Estonia and we both wanted to have the wedding there. At first we thought that this way it would surely be a bit cheaper as well, but it was not true at all. We spent the whole summer fixing and renovating the house and as the location was far away, the transportation fee for the service providers was higher. However, the emotion and meaning exceeds everything else.  And what is good is that thanks to the wedding, we renovated the house in one summer, otherwise it would have taken many years. 

As a gift, we requested an envelope and as flowers we asked the guests to bring wines, as we hinted that the types of flowers that we like are Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot. Some questions came from guests as to whether they understood correctly, that we wanted wine instead of flowers, but in general the majority understood. To nicely display the wine bottles, we had a local carpenter make an unique wine rack that was carved out of a large stump. The same person also made a cool wooden chest for the gift envelopes. 

One of the things that we were ready to spend on was the MC, because a good MC creates the atmosphere for the whole party. Our MC was Andres Torm and we are convinced that he was the best choice. Delicious food is a very important aspect as well and as our food was entirely gluten free it was a bit more expensive. Today, looking at the wedding photos, we recommend that you invest in a photographer as well! Beautiful pictures stay with you forever. Our photographer was Karen Härms and her pictures are fantastic. Photoshooting with her is also very comfortable and easy, as she is a true professional. What we saved upon was decorations. As we worked very hard over the summer and planted a lot of flowers, then we didn’t see the point in artificially decorating the place, so we gave up quite a few flower arrangements.

The only thing that we would do differently and what we regret is a website with our wedding information. Our wedding invitation had very little information and an address to a webpage where all the information was written. Unfortunately many guests had problems with opening the webpage and they asked for the link many times. If you have 100 guests coming to the wedding, then it is quite annoying to send it over and over again. If we could change it, we would send the information about the wedding by e-mail or write more information to the original invitation that went to the mailboxes. We also recommend to really think about the rings you’re going to have made. As we had our engagement ring made from white gold, then it seemed logical to also make the wedding rings from it. Today we regret it because white gold is quite soft material and after two months of wearing the rings they are already covered with ugly scratches. 

The most moving moment for us was the ceremony in the church. St. Mary’s Lutheran Church in Otepää is a beautiful large church and the ceremony was wonderful. It was also very memorable when the groom’s  mother gave a speech and we saw how much she struggled to hold back the tears. In the pictures you can see how the guests are wiping their tears. For the guests, it was also impressive how  gorgeous everything was. Everyone knew how much hard work we had put into it, because we were in our county house the whole summer instead of Tallinn. Eventually they saw why. And the emotion we had… that we know how much effort we had put into it and that every detail is like it is because we made it, put it or coloured it like that.