
Dan and Talisha become Danisha. #DanishaWedding2024
On Friday 29 November, I and my husband Dan said our vows in Paphos, Cyprus in front of 30 guests.
Myself and Dan met via a mutual friend in September 2020, although we first heard about each other in 2010. Our relationship became more serious when we ended up on an originally group planned trip to Clee Hills in Shropshire, that turned into just the two of us showing up. We both thought "well, this is awkward." However, we ended up discovering we both love the Lord of the Rings and planned a film marathon. Eventually, he took me on our first date in July 2022, we made our relationship official in September 2022 and he proposed in September 2023 in the 10 acre grounds of Buckland Manor Country House Hotel during the sunset in the Cotswolds, where we enjoyed a fabulous afternoon tea.
The first time we said “I do” was in a Christian ceremony at my parents home church on Saturday 31 August 2024, while preparing for our legal wedding in Paphos on November 29. It was important to us both that we had our marriage blessed by a Christian minister (which in this case was my elder cousin who is ordained) before we had our destination wedding, Our Christian wedding was attended by our parents and three elders of their church including the Pastor and an elder who was Maid of Honour at my Nan's wedding. My Nan is no longer with us, so this was a very special moment.
We both started out the planning process [for the larger celebration in Paphos] with so much excitement, shortlisting venues, picking our theme, kicking off our wedding season with an engagement meal Sunday Lunch at The Fish Hotel in the Cotswolds, where we proposed to our bridal party... then as we got into the swing of things - more events, trying to respect the budget and last minute changes with some of our wedding vendours due to unforeseen circumstances... things started getting really stressful! We used a wedding abroad specialist - Perfect Weddings Abroad to source and book our venue as well as arrange all of the legalities and licences involved with getting married abroad.
As for my wedding wardrobe, I chose a Berta gown in ivory with a blush underskirt paired with an ivory overskirt which gave me the beautiful princess look and feel I envisioned. I found it after requesting a sample sale brochure from the Wedding Club Sample Sale on Instagram. I shortlisted two dresses to try on at my first bridal appointment in December 2023. I took my Dad and my elder sister who is a stylist - we all decided that after my second dress try on... it was a no brainer to say YES TO THE DRESS.
My jewellery was kept simple yet stylish with a gold tone, metal blend heart bangle paired with 18ct Gold Vermeil on Silver set of 2 earrings - Halo + Petal, originally £110 which I bagged in the sale for £39 from Warren James. For my hair and makeup, again I wanted to feel beautiful (not sexy) and didn't want anything over the top or fussy on my face like glitter, garish eyeshadow or lipstick. My hair and makeup on the day was done by Meleisha Simonee @makeupversatile (who I refer to as Alisha), who has been doing my makeup since 2018. She nailed my natural soft glam bridal look including creating a custom demure bridal bun using kanekalon braiding hair to match my natural hair texture.
The bridesmaids wore burnt orange -colour dresses from Chicsew, the groomsmen and our fathers wore dark green slim fit suits from Burton, the ring bearer wore a 5 piece ivory vivaki suit from Occasion Wear for kids, our mom's wore champagne colour dresses and the groom wore a custom suit from Hockerty.
Getting ready for the wedding was such a relaxing day... So much so, my MUA and her assistant couldn't believe how organised and smooth things ran, emphasising they'd never seen anything like it! My bridal squad were on form and took care of everything they needed to. My Maid of Honour which was one of my my elder sisters, created a call sheet for the day to ensure everyone knew where they were meant to be and things ran to time. We also had a brilliant wedding coordinator on the day - Louise, who made sure everything ran smoothly. After getting ready with my bridal party, I walked down the aisle on the Sunset Terrace of the Olympic Lagoon Resorts Paphos at 3.30 p.m., escorted by my Dad, while the soulful Amel Larrieux played in the background. I didn't feel emotional until I walked down aisle and saw the photo display on our wedding ceremony table of our grandparents as well as two of our aunts who sadly passed earlier this year. As soon as I saw the photos I was overwhelmed with emotion and cried. I just wanted to hurry down the altar and hold Dan's hand. I could see our guests with their phones whipped out and all I could think was "I'm a blubbering mess and I'm being recorded." I was also taken aback by how beautiful the decor was, our vision was executed even better than I had imagined... It was so stunning and dreamy, I could barely take it all in. Everyone raved about how beautiful the decor, colours and theme was!
During the ceremony, we incorporated prayers from both our Dad's and also a poem by my Mom. Reading our vows reinforced that I was marrying a GEM who I couldn't wait to do life with. Our family and friends created such a lovely atmosphere for us and it was a special moment to look around and know each and every person was invited intentionally and we were thankful to celebrate with them. After being pronounced husband and wife, we recessed back up the aisle to the Nigerian gospel anthem - Baba Ose (I Love You) by Volney Morgan and New-Ye.
A cruise ship sailed by during our ceremony and the people on the ship started taking pictures and filming on their phones... in fact from the moment the wedding started external guests around the resort formed a crowd taking photos and filming. We've accepted that we may crop up on some random social media posts somewhere.
Following the ceremony, we took some time for formal pictures, both alone and with family and friends. Our favourite photo backdrop was our sunset photos - they were truly magical! Our cocktail hour followed with canapes, processco and our cake cutting photos. At around 5pm our guests headed into the wedding reception where we and our bridal squad performed our wedding entrance routine to soca, followed by a quick change of dress (for me) for our first dance routine to a compilation of multi-genre songs including salsa, contemporary R&B, gospel Afrobeat, neo soul and bashment. I then changed back into my wedding dress for dinner and dessert which was a Gourmet buffet menu. For my reception dress, I removed the over skirt and detachable ribbons on the shoulders. It felt like I was in a brand new dress.
Our two tier wedding cake was made by Love Island Cakes and featured a custom 10cm / 4 inch wide D&T cake charm in the colour mirror gold which we ordered online and brought with us to put on the wedding cake. The top tier flavour filling was madeira cake with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam and the bottom tier flavour filling was Vanilla cake with White Chocolate buttercream and Raspberry Coulis.
Our photographer - Vangelis Cyprus Photography was ahmazing! He captured the day so well, we keep getting told its the best wedding photos people have ever seen. People who don't even know us have passed on messages to say how emotional the photos made them feel.
Dan's Uncle Peter was our compere and was on point with the entertainment, making our guests laugh through out the evening with banter and games. We also had a 'date night ideas' card placed on each table setting for guests to fill out with their suggestions as well as mini Jamaica flags which our guests made good use of during the wedding entrance, our first dance routine and whenever bashment and dancehall played at the after party.
A highlight of the reception was the Father-daughter and Mother-Son dance which all four of us did to the Cupid Shuffle. My Dad was so nervous, but I was so proud of him and our guests were all cheering us on which was lovely.
Our DJ for the after-party was from Cyprus and we sent him suggested playlists with our chosen genres and special song requests ahead of the wedding. The evening ended on a music compilation of songs I put together for the electric slide including Candy by Cameo - as expected!
We wouldn't change a thing. Our wedding day was PERFECT and we honestly had the best day ever! Wife era activated.
Here's a snippet of our over 2800 photos captured by Vangelis...
With love
The Campbell's











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