A Wedding in Seychelles

It’s been another long time since my last blog update. I thought I’d share a milestone for readers who might pass by this blog on a random day. News is, Jana and I got married in Seychelles (by the seychore ;p) last September 2015.

I proposed a little over 2 months before the wedding event. Not wanting to wait longer, we decided to get married the soonest time possible. Our wedding was scheduled a day after my birthday, when both of us had approved days off from our jobs.

Choosing Seychelles as a Wedding Destination

Seychelles is a group of islands located east side of Africa and a common destination for expat couples to get married. Having heard about a beach wedding from Jana’s colleagues, it made us think of it as an ideal place without all the hassles in preparation.

Getting Married in UAE vs Philippines vs Seychelles

We discussed our options based on our available time and budget. Here are some of the main points why we chose Seychelles overall.

  • UAE: As an Overseas Filipino Worker in Dubai, our options for getting married were either in a church (St. Mary’s) or join a civil mass wedding at the Philippine Consulate General embassy. Both required plenty of requirements and would take a bit longer time to process – something we’re not really excited about.
  • PHILIPPINES: Getting married in the Philippines in a church would require us to allot time for a seminar before the wedding, as well as preparing our necessary church documents. Same goes with a civil wedding where we would have to secure NSO-certified documents (CENOMAR, etc.) and finding a government officiator; not to mention filing for vacation leaves from work again.
  • SEYCHELLES: Getting married in Seychelles is like a quick and easy Las Vegas wedding, but on a relaxing beach setting. The only requirements the wedding organizer needed were copies of our passports and copies of our birth certificates. That’s all. They offer an expat wedding package that’s also legally valid in the UAE; and the soonest they could prepare a ceremony is 10 days before the date. It also helped that, given the venue set-up, it wasn’t that expensive as we thought. Affordability is always welcome. 😉

Trivia: My wife’s dress only cost 700 Php (15 USD). My pants and shirt cost more. lol. 

We wanted something private, practical, quick and convenient as we’re not big on preparations. Based on our discussion, Seychelles was our most preferred option. It also helped that the wedding was officiated on a beautiful beach.

By the way, Pinoys get a Visa on Arrival in Seychelles.

We were lucky to have gotten a wedding organizer that arranged everything from the time we arrived at the airport until we left the island. They took great care of us and we couldn’t have been more thankful.

The Wedding Ceremony

It was a nice day at the beach. We were happy because after 10 days of non-stop rain, the sun was out. There was a slight downpour prior and during the ceremony, but it wasn’t a big deal. At times, the waves crashed up to our knees and made the wedding more eventful.

Vows taken, rings exchanged, papers signed; the official ceremony lasted for 15 minutes. Some cake slices, wine toasts, and a fun photoshoot – it was a beautiful day to tie the knot. Neither extravagant nor too plain, our private beach wedding was grand enough the way we hoped it would be.

Our wedding organizer – wedding-in-seychelles.com

Note: Photos below were taken using my brother-in-law’s iPhone. Official wedding photos kept private. Thank you to Rod and team for taking care of us!

Till the next update (whenever that is). 🙂


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soloflightEd.com is a travel blog by Edcel Suyo. He enjoys performing headstands and crazy stunts during his trips in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Now based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and working to earn a living, he takes time to enjoy the city and travel during weekends.
For updates, Like his page on Facebook or Follow him on Twitter.
For questions, advertising, and other concerns, shoot an email to ed@soloflighted.com.


30 thoughts on “A Wedding in Seychelles”

  1. Weeee! Congrats Ed and Jana!!! I wish you both all the success and happiness forever and ever. Can’t wait to see and hear more of your future adventures. Take care always guys.

    P.S. Don’t forget to buy me stamps sa tanan ninyo laag ha. hihihihi lamat lamat!

  2. Wow, I didn’t know that Seychelles is actually a practical wedding option for OFWs in the Middle East. Will keep that in mind for OFW friends.

    Congratulations again on your marriage! Cheers to a beautiful life together!

    • hi claire, it’s practical for our situation who wanted to have a private and relaxing wedding. There’s always the option for a mass wedding at the Philippine embassy. This was also a vacation trip for us so it’s good. Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment Claire. 🙂

  3. Congratulations Edcel and Jana! Wah, parang kelan lang nung nagkita-kita tayo sa Siem Reap <3 2012 pa pala yun haha 😀 Hope to see the both of you soon!

    PS: Ninang ako ng baby pag meron na ah hehe

  4. pinakagusto kong part ng blog post na ito ay yong sinabi mong mas mahal pa ang pants at shirt mo kaysa sa wedding gown ni jana. hahahaha!

    congratulations, ed! best wishes, jana!

    PS : saan na ang sinigang? biro lang.

    • Hi, we came from Dubai (as we are working here), would advise you check online for flights as it depends. we flew via Emirates Airlines, for hotel accommodation, you can check for hotel accommodations in Seychelles, as for the wedding expense, the information can be found in the official site posted above. Thanks

    • Hi, we stayed about 4 days. you need to stay in Seychelles a minimum of 3 days (as per their law) for you to get married. Even if you get married on the firs day of your trip, it’s fine, so long as you stay for 3 days there. As for the papers, it wasn’t finished during that time as it takes 3 business days (we stayed on a weekend). They mailed the papers to us on the first week. The wedding was ready during the time we booked our date and schedule.

  5. Hi! Found your blog while searching info about marrying in Seychelles. Can u please let me know what was the legal procedure of registering the marriage. Was it done in Dubai or in Philippines? I am too and my partner, are Filipino expats in UAE. Thanks!

    • Hi, for Pinoys, if you get married abroad, you have to report the marriage to the nearest Philippine embassy. In this case, it was in Kenya. As per our organizer, we could not report our marriage in Dubai because Kenya was the nearest.

      Our wedding organizer, for an additional minimal fee, processed the “registration/Report of Marriage” on our behalf by sending copies of our documents to the Phil. embassy in Kenya. It took some time for our Phil. embassy to send the package to us in Dubai. Probably about 4 months (I dunno why it took that long), but as for our marriage certificates in Seychelles, they were honored in Dubai when we had them attested at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Hope this helps!

      • Hi
        I’m getting married also this year but my fiancé is a British National. Do you have any idea if there is anything we need to do besides the attestation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dubai.
        Thanks

        • hi jesse, apologies as i haven’t visited this blog for some time. re: your question, if you are a filipino, you have to report that you are married to our home country (so PH government will be notified that you are not single anymore). for your fiance, you need to ask him what his obligations are from their country. 🙂

      • Hi Edcel! thanks for sharing this.
        did you got the attested documents package & attestation by UAE embassy for your marriage certificate from there? or you do it on your own when your back in uae?

        • hi rachelle, we got their wedding attestation package so that it’s attested by UAE embassy. after they sent the documents to us, we went to MOFA to have them attested by MOFA.

  6. hi mgkano po yung ngastos nyo kasama yung ticket? my bf is in dubai and i’m here in the philippines. We are planning to get married next year. ayaw din namin ng maraming prep so this option is very much welcome to us. thanks in advance

    • hi, would advise you to check tickets online, we took a flight via emirates but we got it at discounted rates. as for hotel, please check for available hotels in seychelles in booking.com as it will depend on your preference.

  7. Nice blog po. Btw ask lang po . As what you have mention po 4 days po kayo nagstay sa Seychelles on what day po kayo kinasal. Kasi plano po namin mag4 days stay. May mga package na sila na may accomodation .. which is more convenient po ba if ever.yiung magbook on our own accomodation or ung sa package nila. Thanks.

    • Hi Berna, Thanks we got married i think on the 2nd day. it’s okay if you get married on the first day or last day. so long as you stay minimum total number of stays in Seychelles (which is 3 days). please ask the organizer link if they have accommodation package, i don’t think they offer accommodation but i could be wrong. we booked our accommodation separately… convenience would depend on you. thanks.

  8. Hi, I just want to ask kung sang hotel kayo nagstay sa Seychelles? how much roughly have you spent for everything? thank you! I love your blog, super informative nya. Thanks for sharing and congrats!

    • hi, we stayed in Constance Ephelia Resort (my wife has discounts), flew via Emirates, would suggest you check out hotels via booking.com, and flights via Emirates (or other airlines) as price may vary. As for the wedding, we took the expat wedding package from the organizer (link posted in the article). so can’t really say a rough estimate. thanks!

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