Today, we would like to present you Abby Seers and her story. Both Abby and Mike are from from Manchester, England. They have been together for 15 years, and have three children (2 girls – Raea age 7 and Quinn age 3 – 1 boy – Blake age 1) Abby is a digital delivery manager and work at Bupa UK, while Mike is a business development manager. They got married 31/05/2018 and you can read below their Dubrovnik wedding experience!
How two of you meet each other? What is your engagement story?
I met Mike in 2005 at a local gym when I was 21. After my workout I went to get my belongings from the locker room and when I came out he was waiting for me. We started talking and he asked for my number. I asked how old he was to which he replied 21. He then told me he wasn’t 21 but actually 20, then 19 and ended with him saying I’m actually 18 but I’m 19 next week. On this note I asked him to show me his ID which confirmed he was approaching 19 the following week.
How you decided to have a wedding in Dubrovnik? How your friends and family reacted when they heard about your wedding location?
I knew I wanted to get married abroad for a couple of reasons, 1) to avoid as many wedding politics as possible (we have to invite them as they invited us to their wedding, they are a friend of my parents so they need an invite etc). 2) For a chance of better weather. However, I wanted a destination that was going to be special for everyone coming who was spending their money on celebrating with us, so I wanted a place that people had probably not been to before and wasn’t their usual holiday destination such as Spain and would fall in love with. I started my research on destination weddings and fell in love with the pictures of Dubrovnik, Sponza Palace especially. I spoke to Mike and said to him we should come out for a visit and to see if we like it. We came out the following spring where we met Ines for the first time and immediately knew this was where we were going to get married. All of our friends and family were very happy and extremely excited about coming to Dubrovnik.
What was the most stressful thing about your wedding planning?
I tend to not get very stressed over things and am quite well organised. I had everything prepared a good 18 months before the wedding was planned for, I could have easily done it sooner had it not been for the fact we wanted to have another baby before the wedding. Everyone at DE also made it extremely easy with the planning also by taking care of all of the legal stuff and made sure I knew what I had to do in the UK and when to do it for, and what documents they needed from us.
What was your ‘must have’ for the wedding?
There were so many must have’s for the day, mainly because we were very honoured that so many of our friends and family were joining us that we wanted it to be special for them as a thank you for coming. Therefore we wanted to give them a free bar, we wanted a very relaxed atmosphere so decided on a buffet style meal rather than a formal three course meal. We wanted it to be an experience for our guests and one they would never forget rather than just another wedding. And of course my dress had to be perfect!
How did you feel just before you walked down the aisle?
Immensly happy and excited. I can honestly say marrying Mike was the best day of my life.
What worried you the most night before the wedding?
I didn’t have any worries the night before. We all had a lovely evening as we had scheduled a sunset cruise on one of the boats with drinks and canapes for us and our guests to give everyone a chance to meet and talk before the wedding the next day. When the cruise finished Mike and I said our goodbyes and I went back to the villa with my family to go to bed.
Looking back, is there anything you would change?
Not a thing! If I was able to relive this day I would do everything exactly the same.
What was the funniest thing that happened on the day?
I would probably say when I threw the bouquet of flowers too hard and the fact that they nearly ended up in the sea.
YWhat 3 advices would you give to other brides planning their wedding?
- Don’t stress about things that are out of your control, the weather, the traffic, the strap of your dress snapping (This happened to my the morning I put my dress on, but Ines had a sewing kit and we were able to fix it) you can’t change these things so just go with them.
- Be organised. Leave yourself plenty of time to get the things you want for your special day.
- Enjoy every minute and soak it all in – you only get to live this day once.
Photo by: Veronica Arevalo (Svadbas Photography)
