Grace & Kaid's Intimate Wedding at Volivoli Beach Fiji

Kaid and I met on a night out in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, with some mutual friends in September of 2019. Kaid is from Illinois, and I am from southwest Missouri. We both attended Saint Louis University (SLU) for our separate graduate programs which is how we both landed in St. Louis. We knew a lot of the same people from our time at SLU but never met while in school and it wasn’t until after graduation during that fateful night out in September that we happened to finally meet! I credit some very close friends and my favourite spot in Soulard for our meeting.

Kaid took me to a local restaurant on our first date, we had drinks and chatted for hours. I spilled wine all down my shirt, but he pretended not to notice haha. Neither of us knew how to act on a first date, but we laughed and had a lot in common, so we knew we wanted to see each other again.

We share the same passion for fitness and staying active and spent a lot of our dating season at parks, working out at the gym and playing sports together. Most of our wedding registry was for new camping gear so we’re hoping that is going to be our new favourite thing to do together!

Grace ~ I told my best friend years before meeting Kaid that the next guy I decided to officially date would be the guy that I married. Having previously had poor luck on modern dating platforms and holding a very specific set of desired characteristics, I felt very confident in this statement. And it turns out I was right!

Kaid ~ I could not believe how much we had in common. From the day I met Grace the time we spent together never seemed long enough. No matter what activity we chose to do together; tennis, hiking, star gazing, we always seemed to wind up talking for an extra hour by our cars not wanting the night to end. I knew that I wanted to share a lifetime of memories and conversation with her.

I proposed to Grace by telling her we were meeting a friend at a winery on a beautiful Summer’s day. This was true, we were meeting that friend at a winery, but I left out that a dozen other close friends would also be waiting in the restaurant for us as we walked up from the vineyard - freshly engaged! After parking, Grace wanted so badly to go straight inside and get our names down for a table since the parking lot was filling quickly due to the nice weather. I had to plead my case that we should first check out the vineyard before going inside… After finally coaxing her down to the vineyard, I got down on one knee and asked her to Marry Me and I believe she finally understood why I was so persistent to visit the vineyard first. We laughed as we walked up to the restaurant where we were welcomed with congratulations by the waiting group of friends. Grace did not recognise that the large table we approached was filled with our friends until she was within a few feet and was quite startled by the shouts.

Planning a wedding in the middle of a pandemic is hard. I’m sure many couples can attest to that! The big white wedding was never what either of us wanted so we decided on a small elopement-style celebration to be held abroad. While we had difficulty finding a country open to foreign travellers and that also had warm weather in January, our search was for somewhere unique. A place that we could set out on an adventure to, and the tropical paradise that is FIJI provided the great adventure that we can say began our lifelong journey together!

Searching for a photographer abroad can be quite daunting when you’ve never been to the country and can’t rely on family & friend recommendations. Nadi Bay Photography had great online reviews, a beautiful and easy to navigate website, very reasonable pricing, and was a delight to correspond with.

The photographer captured the ceremony from each of our perspectives without us even noticing photos were being taken and we are impressed with the photographer’s skill and guidance in capturing these moments while still affording us the opportunity to take the creative photos we had envisioned ourselves.

We are so thankful for the professionalism and personal touch that Nadi Bay Photography brought to our special day. We did not realise our ceremony location was more than a two-hour drive from them, but they willingly and gladly accommodated us at the exact time and place we requested. We highly recommend Nadi Bay Photography!