Enchanting Dubrovnik Island Wedding with Rue de Seine Bride: Lucy & Nick

When we got engaged Nick and I sat down together for a wedding planning meeting and came up with three options for where we might hold our wedding. We put together two options in England and one wild card.

For the wild card, we chose Lokrum Island, a tiny island in the Adriatic just off Dubrovnik. It has a Benedictine monastery ruin, an olive grove, botanical gardens and bunny rabbits/peacocks running wild and free. A large part of Game of Thrones was also filmed there and so it has this amazing otherworldly vibe.

We loved the idea of getting married surrounded by natural beauty and being able to jump in the sea after the ceremony. We’ve had some very happy times on the island and always regarded it as one of the most romantic places in the world.

As our wedding planning discussions progressed, the wild card option just became more and more appealing to us and so we decided to go ahead and do it.

Words by Lucy. Images by Viktor Pravdica.

My wedding dress was by Rue De Seine, purchased from Jean Jackson Couture wedding dress boutique.

I loved how special I felt in this beautiful gown. The sleeves reminded me of fairy wings and the cotton lace was just dreamy. It matched perfectly with the magical, romantic and bohemian vibe of the wedding. It was my spirit dress and I felt so happy in it.

Nick wore a bespoke tailored white suit from Richard Smith Bespoke, it was perfect for the warm summer weather. James Taylor is one of Nick’s favourite artists (our first dance was a song by James Taylor).

When James Taylor got married to Carly Simons he wore a white suit and she wore a white bikini. So that was the inspiration behind Nick’s white suit, my white bikini and the après ceremony swimming too.

I walked down the aisle to a song that Nick wrote for me when we first met. Our musician Dominik Heštera sang it for us, he’s got such a deep, beautiful voice- it was so moving hearing Nick’s words being sung.

My Dad gave me away and it was very special to share that moment with him. The day before we had walked around the square in the old town together practicing our walk together :D

The bridesmaids wore floor-length, floaty blush pink dresses from ASOS. We added our own flourishes and adjustments such as bat-winged sleeves on some of the dresses, additional floor length green satin sashes and little flower corsages on the waist too.

They also wore gold leaf crowns in their hair and gold feather charm necklaces from Estella Bartlett.

I found our wedding photographer Viktor’s images on a blog and I was so inspired. I knew I wanted a photographer like him. At the time I didn’t realise that he was actually based in Croatia and so I was so delighted when I realised that he could actually be our photographer rather than just an inspiration.

Viktor’s photography is a work of art. He really got to know us and our vision. And he delivered above and beyond for our wedding. Everyone has commented on how romantic and magical they are. We feel very lucky to have worked with him. It was a pleasure.

On the Island, we had a shaded area under the olive trees with carved wooden benches, tables and stools for the guests to sit on. This area was decorated with scatter cushions, blankets, candlesticks and oriental parasols. We all sat here and ate watermelon and enjoyed some drinks while the musician played some of our favourite music.

It looked really bohemian and beautiful- surrounded by the ancient olive trees and Adriatic sea. We also had a swing which my wedding planner arranged for me as a surprise and I had a ribboned wishing tree. The idea was that each guest took a ribbon and tied it to the tree as they made a wish.

One of my favourite moments was when we walked back up the aisle, having just got married. Rude by Magic was playing and we got a showered with rainbow confetti and love. We were elated and had huge smiles on our faces and we did a bit of dancing as we walked down the aisle.

The song which we had for our first dance was “You can close your eyes” by James Taylor. The sun had just gone down and all of our guests had sparklers glittering in the dark as they surrounded us with love. As soon as the next song came on everyone piled on the dance floor and we went wild! I loved the fact that the dancefloor was full all night and everyone had an absolute ball!

We drew inspiration from all over the place based on things that we love. The Island itself looks enchanted which really inspired us so there were lots of little touches with a magical aesthetic such as the tall taper candles, eucalyptus leaves and vow books that looked a little like the spell books from Practical Magic (love that film).

I have a book about folk-law which I adore called The Magpie and The Wardrobe, I got ideas from that such as having a ribboned wishing tree and rose quartz charm favours (the stone of unconditional love). I had a quote from The Labrinth in my vows and Nick had a quote from Wuthering Heights in his.

But there were lots of other influences too. James Taylor is one of Nick’s favourite artists (our first dance was a song by James Taylor). When he got married to Carly Simons he wore a white suit and she wore a white bikini. So that was the inspiration behind Nick’s white suit, my white bikini and the après ceremony swimming too.

If we could advise others getting married we would say to really get to know the people you are working with, it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable.

As I mentioned we loved and trusted our photographer’s vision, so we asked him for videographer suggestions and he put us in touch with Karlo- who made such a magical video for us which truly reflected our personalities.

Karlo put us in touch with our musician, Nick is also a musician and music is really important to us and Domonik was perfect. So get to know your vendors, let them get to know you, then they can deliver something truly personal to you.

What an insanely gorgeous place to get married. I’m also loving so many details from this croatian island wedding and what a super loved up couple. So, so sweet! Congratulations Lucy & Nick.