Melissa and Mark travelled to the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic for their spring-time nuptials. Having Dominican blood and a lot of family there, it is a place Melissa has always held close to her heart. The couple also saw it as a good opportunity to have a small wedding with their guests being close friends and family. The planning of a wedding abroad is never the easiest task, but luckily for the couple, Melissa’s cousin Juan Carlos  is the events manager at the resort and helped to ensure everything ran smoothly and allowed all of their ideas and wishes to come to form for the big day. Almost everything was their idea, from flowers to colour scheme, location to music, the only thing they did not plan were the surprises that day. The planning began as soon as they were engaged on June 13th 2009. Almost a year in the making, they finally wed on the Beach Gazebo at Melia Caribe Tropical, Punta Cana.

Melissa arrived in a horse and carriage (a little surprise from her cousin), and after the ceremony itself they had a three piece meringue band play during the post-ceremony cocktail hour right on the beach front. Following this, they took to the beach for photographs and then headed to the outdoor amphitheatre for the evening reception. The amphitheatre itself was lined with tiki torches and candles from the walkway to the entrance, and all along the inside. A few more surprises came from Melissa’s cousin, including a very touching speech about the families coming together, a contemporary dance piece performance (for Melissa’s love of dance), a three piece vocal group for the arrival and during the meal, as well as some pyrotechnics during the first dance. The couple expressed that entire day was beyond perfect and more than they could have ever wished for. Mark concluded: “Having a destination wedding so close to our hearts made everything much more special and being able to do everything as traditional as we wanted it and also as original as we wanted, made for a day that neither of us will ever forget”.

{photos taken by Kara for Arrecife Studio; dress by Maggie Sottero; headdress: the Acacia 2 by Jenny Packham; text provided by Mark Hayton, edited by Samantha Dubeau}