Ioana and Nick, from Romania, had two wedding days. They did their legal ceremony in May, on the groom’s birthday, and had a big celebration for all their friends and family in July, on the bride’s birthday!

“We did most of the planning ourselves”, explained the bride. ” We had tons of pictures and ideas, and we changed our mind a million times! There wasn’t really a theme, we blended the ingredients as we felt it would represent us. We added things on the way and gave up others.”

The party was held at Sun Garden Resort in Cluj-Napoca and their biggest expenses, because they were most important to them, we’re the flowers, the band and the DJ. “We spent around €2000 on the entertainment and €3000 on flowers”, said the bride. “One of the reasons why we chose the band we did was because their concert was our first gig together.”

“Another special moment was the magic bubble show from Claudia Stroe. She was one of the finalists on Romania’s Got Talent and I think this was the moment no one expected. I’ve seen her shows on video, but it is amazing to witness them live. As it was my birthday, Nick organised an unbelievable handmade lavender cake to be made for me and he got on stage and surprised me with a song. Another thing we both loved was setting off the sky lanterns. A lot of people said it was the first time they’d seen them and that they were mesmerized.”

“We chose special music for each important part of the celebration too. When I entered the chapel we played Love is Blindness by U2 and we came out to Friday I’m in Love by The Cure. Our entrance in the reception was accompanied by Plainsong, also by The Cure and I threw the bouquet to Lonely Boy by The Black Keys. We cut the cake to Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros and we set of the sky lanterns to Shine on you Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd!”

The bride’s dress was also very unusual and she helped design it. “The dress was my idea”, she explained. “I bought the materials and the feather butterflies, which had to be dyed black. My friend Carmen, who doesn’t really do this for a living so she doesn’t have a website, made the whole thing possible. I told my bridesmaids they could wear anything they liked, there was no dress code, but I made them each a big, colourful leather ring to wear to tie them all in together. I didn’t like the idea of a ‘uniform’ they had to wear. They are all so different and expressive in their own way.”