We have stood on these beaches at hundreds of weddings, in every season and every kind of light. Most of what makes a Seychelles wedding day feel effortless comes down to a handful of small, true things, and almost none of them are the things couples worry about in advance. What follows is the list we would give a friend, in the order it matters. None of it is a secret. It is simply the part the brochures skip because it does not photograph as well as a beach.
Marry in the light, not the heat
The single best decision you can make is a late-afternoon ceremony. The midday sun this close to the equator is fierce and unflattering, it makes everyone squint and it bleaches the colour out of the sea. By three or four the heat softens, the water deepens to turquoise and the golden hour arrives to do the work no filter can imitate. This near the equator the sun then drops fast and there is little lingering dusk, so the timing has to be right to the quarter hour, which is exactly what we plan around your beach and your season.
Mind your feet and the sand
Midday sand can be genuinely too hot to stand on, which is one more reason the late ceremony wins. Go barefoot for the vows, it is the whole point of a beach wedding and it photographs beautifully, and keep a pair of flat sandals for the walk to and from the sand. Skip a fresh, heavy pedicure with loose embellishments that catch on everything, and if the granite boulders tempt you for photographs, and they will, let us guide you onto the safe, dry, beautiful ones rather than the slick tidal ones.
Pack the small things that save the day
Most of what you will wish you had is small, cheap and easily forgotten in the excitement of packing a wedding into a suitcase.
- Your documents in your hand luggage, never in a checked bag that can go astray
- Your dress carried on, and your own trusted hair and makeup products
- High-factor reef-safe sunscreen, blotting papers and a few extra hair pins
- Any personal medicines, plus a simple kit for a headache, a blister or an upset stomach
- A second flat pair of shoes and a light wrap for the breeze that arrives after sunset
Plan for the weather, do not pray about it
Rain and wind are not risks to fear in Seychelles, they are variables to plan around, and planning quietly removes all the anxiety. A tropical shower is usually short, so we keep a sheltered spot or a plantation veranda ready and simply pause for twenty minutes with a glass of something cold. In the windy months we choose a sheltered west or north-facing beach for the ceremony. And if a rare shower lands squarely on your hour, we can reshoot the beach portraits the next morning at no charge, which is a real thing we have done many times and which has produced some of our favourite images.
Travel as two, or bring a few
Some of the most moving weddings we film are just the two of them, the registrar and our cameras, and if you elope as a couple we provide the legally required witnesses so you never have to ask a stranger. Others bring a small group of the people who matter most. Both are wonderful, and neither is more real than the other. What we would gently steer you away from is a large guest list flown across the world, not because it cannot be done, but because the intimacy is so much of the magic here.
Let the day be carried, and be present
The couples who enjoy their wedding most are, without exception, the ones who hand it over. Once the beach, the light, the flowers, the paperwork and the backups are arranged, and all of that is our job, your only task is to be there for it. Look at each other more than at the camera. Let the day be a little slower than you planned. The photographs you will treasure in twenty years are never the posed ones. They are the ones where you forgot we were standing there at all.