OUR WEDDING ADVENTURE

We wondered why a travel blog should publish a wedding story—after all, our site is not called The Newlyweds’ Little Rush, is it? Yet friends and followers asked us so many questions, both while we were preparing and after the wedding, that we decided to answer them all in one place.

Naturally, it all began with a proposal. With all the romance I could summon, I—Gökay—asked Tuğçe to be my princess (please add an ‘awww’ sound effect here), just like Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier III at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Monaco. I even proposed on the steps of that cathedral. Of course Tuğçe could hardly refuse such a magnificent proposal, although it might have been nicer if she had looked at me rather than the cameras while saying yes.

That magnificent team!

We planned to turn this into our wedding car. It did not happen...

Alongside questions about the wedding, I began receiving messages such as, ‘Mate, how should I propose?’, ‘Where is a good place to propose?’ and ‘I am proposing on Samos—where should I do it?’ I still have one or two highly original ideas that require a flight across the Atlantic or to Asia; first come, first served :D (Do not call unless you are prepared to name your first son Gökay and your first daughter Tuğçe :D.)

Soon after the proposal, we became engaged. Following a small family ceremony at home, we began our research and chose a wedding date. You cannot imagine the pressure created by friends saying things like, ‘No way—are you really having a normal wedding? That does not sound like you.’ We briefly considered marrying while skydiving or scuba diving in the Bahamas, then accepted the ceremony as something we also owed our families and planned accordingly.

CHOOSING THE WEDDING VENUE

We are both from İzmir—and specifically Karşıyaka—so the wedding was naturally going to be in İzmir. We spoke to many venues around the city. The strongest candidates were Rose Garden 1941 at the Kültürpark Tennis Club, the halls at Tepekule Convention Centre and Saime Sultan Yalısı in Turan. Although we considered many other businesses, the venue we ultimately chose was somewhere entirely different: Paparazzi Beach Club!
This place mattered deeply to both of us. We met there, and whenever our overseas travels take us to the coast, we compare the sea with Paparazzi. It is our personal Michelin standard for beaches :) Very few places have impressed us more.

Saime Sultan Yalısı

Paparazzi

PREPARING THE WEDDING

Once the venue was settled, we needed decorations and an overall plan. We discovered that, after the venue itself, wedding planners take the next largest share of the budget. Some quoted almost as much as the venue. Because this is a happy story, I will not name the companies or describe every interaction, but I can say that some appeared to add a zero as soon as they heard the word Paparazzi. Their strategy was similar: assume the groom cannot say no to the bride, focus the sales pitch on her and inflate the meaning of a single evening until something worth three lira costs thirty. ‘But this is the happiest night of your life,’ they all said. No, it is not! There are birthdays, the day we met, our first kiss—and will the night our child is born somehow be less happy than our wedding? So here is our advice: do not hurt each other during wedding preparations. Much of the pressure is designed to sell you something more expensive at an even higher price.

After getting lost in Google searches for ‘Pinterest wedding’ and ‘DIY wedding’, we told ourselves, ‘If they can do it, so can we,’ and made almost everything ourselves. Search for ‘ready-made wedding invitation templates’ and tens of thousands appear. We chose one, adapted it and—voilà—here was our invitation.

The palm is our favourite tree.

Then began the hunt for Pinterest-style supplies, from English Home to Madame Coco and everywhere in between. Those two were not enough, of course, but we learned that there is almost nothing you cannot find in Kemeraltı—or make with macramé cord. Through long winter evenings, over tea and with our friends, we produced many things together. We even lent our decorations to two engagement parties and another wedding afterwards, although the names shall remain secret :D

Before

After

Making the decorations was one thing; transporting and installing them on the wedding day was another. Paparazzi was an operating beach club and naturally could not stop admitting Saturday customers, so the decorating team was allowed in only at 15:00. In three hours, the entire venue had to change from beach club to wedding setting. Encouraged by the fact that Tuğçe is an architect, we entrusted the operation to our close friend Yasemin—also an architect—and Tuğçe’s dear cousin Sezin, another architect. They formed a small team, reached Paparazzi on the wedding day and made it even more beautiful than we had imagined.

Berkay and Efkan

Sezin and Efkan

WHERE DID WE ORDER THE WEDDING CAKE?

We trusted Paparazzi with the cocktail food. Dear Ümit repeatedly invited us for a tasting, but other preparations kept us too busy to attend; the kitchen had never disappointed us. The cake was different. While drowning in wedding-cake designs, we suddenly remembered the Limburgia family, whom we had met during a 2016–2017 New Year shoot and immediately liked. That New Year, we had even given away a wonderful Limburgia cake through our Instagram account. We drove straight to dear Gökhan’s office, and thank goodness we did: the cake had exactly the simplicity we wanted, paired with flavour so impressive that it enchanted our guests.

WEDDING FAVOURS

At the same time, we were buying kilos of green soap from the Foça Zeytindalı Earth Market, a Sunday market where local producers sell directly without intermediaries. At night, we cut the soap into tiny pieces and added our labels to create the wedding favours. We wanted to give guests something they could genuinely use and to honour the market community who had supported me while I wrote my master’s thesis. Our mothers and grandmother were horrified: apparently soap must not be accepted without payment because it symbolises separation. By then, however, we had already bought, cut and labelled almost twenty kilos of it.

While Gökay worked on his thesis, I had the pleasant duty of tasting the produce at #FoçaEarthMarket and chatting with its wonderful people. If you want seasonal fruit and vegetables grown without unnecessary chemicals, do not miss this market in #OldFoça. They are at Marseille Square every #Sunday. It was also recognised as one of the world’s leading Earth Markets. If you are around #Foça, consider stopping at #FoçaEarthMarket to taste traditional #Turkish flavours. Share your favourite travel photos with the #kokladunyayi hashtag and we may repost the ones we choose. #slowfood #cityofizmir #turkeyhome #travel #travelgram

A post shared by Kokla Dünyayı (@kokladunyayi) on Apr 3, 2016 at 5:16am PDT

WHERE DID WE BUY THE WEDDING DRESS AND SUIT?

While Tuğçe and her mother moved from one bridal shop and fashion house to another, we suddenly thought of AliExpress. Buying a wedding dress from AliExpress was certainly brave, but we decided the worst-case scenario was simply buying another dress. The result? Tuğçe’s dress was made by an anonymous Chinese tailor and genuinely arrived by post from China :D
I tried a great many suits, but bought the one I actually wore only ten days before the wedding from the aptly named Turkish brand Damat. For a wedding beside the sea, naturally I had to choose from its ‘Yacht Style’ collection :D
Tuğçe made the bridal bouquet and groom’s boutonnière at home the night before the wedding, using fragrant lavender and baby’s breath from Alaçatı Market with a little macramé cord.

If you choose number one, text ‘That’s it!’ to 3353; if you choose number two...

A difficult choice...

On 15 August, the relationship we began eight years earlier was crowned with marriage. During this eventful process, we especially thank the @cesmepaparazzi team for hosting us beautifully, @limburgiaturkey for the delicious cake, @tanzeraltinoz for wonderful photographs despite following us all night, and @sezinhskr, @berkayszn, @selin.efkan and @ycennet for helping transform the venue. This lovely photograph came from @cannerozkan’s camera. Our full wedding story will be on the blog as soon as we recover. #wedding #weddingphotography #bohowedding #weddingday #cesme #turkey #beachwedding #diywedding #marriage

A post shared by Kokla Dünyayı (@kokladunyayi) on May 28, 2017 at 11:22am PDT

WHO TOOK OUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHS?

These beautiful photographs were created by a very talented photographer whom I had practically watched grow up—and with whose older brother we had spent many evenings around the rakı table—together with his colleagues. Dear Tanzer and Deniz never left our side throughout the day, and we thank them again for their wonderful work.

Tuğçe + Gökay from Deniz Bayannalduz on Vimeo.

THE WEDDING DAY

Now for the wedding day. This part was exciting because, from ten days beforehand, every forecast predicted two weeks of torrential rain and storms. But what could we do? The venue was booked, clothes ready, invitations delivered, soaps cut, cake ordered and—most importantly amid all that chaos—we had secured the requested date and time from Çeşme Municipality. The wedding was going to happen. If not, we would simply make tea and wait.

Paparazzi was roughly beneath those clouds :D

I cannot speak for other locations, but we learned that the WindGuru forecast was remarkably accurate for Boyalık and Çeşme. The Paparazzi team already knew this; the wedding taught us. At around 15:00, while Tuğçe was at the hairdresser in Seferihisar, Çeşme was flooding. Lightning struck Boyalık so dramatically that I called Ümit to confirm it had not hit Paparazzi. Phones kept ringing with questions about cancellation, while WindGuru stubbornly insisted the sun would appear at 15:00 and the wedding would proceed. It was right. As though the sky had not just fallen, the sun emerged. Decorating could begin only after 16:00, yet everything was ready at exactly 18:00. I aged about ten years. Why only me? Because not a single drop had fallen in Seferihisar :D

I give Ümit ten out of ten for his calmness and his efforts to reassure me.

THE WEDDING CAR

On such an important day, we were not going to abandon our beloved Ayten—the Hyundai i10 that had carried us since 2009 and fearlessly entered places like a four-wheel drive—for a hire car. We could decorate her only after the rain stopped, but she dazzled in every condition :D

Our beloved Ayten and us

I drove my own wedding car.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE WEDDING?

Once the rain drama had passed and the wedding began, we experienced no further problem. Paparazzi’s professional team, our amateur team and our own organisational skills all played an important part. The music, cake, service and weather were exactly as we wanted. We thank everyone involved once again.

The happiness of a bride who collected the wallet before the rain arrived

The relief of a groom who completed the wedding before the rain ruined everything

WHAT DID WE DO AFTER THE WEDDING?

By cleverly holding the wedding in what was already a nightclub, we avoided travelling elsewhere afterwards. Once the parents, grandparents, aunts and every variety of relative had left, the young—and young at heart—continued celebrating at Paparazzi. For the night, we had booked Çeşme Ladin Hotel, close to Tuğçe’s family summer house in Dalyan. When the hotel heard it was our wedding, they gave us a corner suite instead of an ordinary room and treated us beautifully. Their kitchen, particularly its home-style cooking, could challenge many dedicated restaurants. This describes our 2017 stay; verify the hotel’s present operating status, facilities and booking channel before making plans.

WHERE SHOULD YOU GO ON HONEYMOON?

Here we enjoyed an unusual advantage of being travellers. Because we would already be based in Kuala Lumpur from September 2017 to June 2018 and visiting some of the world’s best-known honeymoon destinations, we made no separate honeymoon plan. Instead, I joined the family trip for Tuğçe’s sister’s graduation in Montreal, and together we enjoyed a wonderful Montreal – New York –Toronto holiday. If you ask us for beautiful honeymoon ideas, possibilities include Malaysia’s Redang Island, Bali or Sri Lanka. Within Türkiye, consider Çeşme or Cappadocia. Cappadocia is so popular in Asia that we have met people who did not know İstanbul but immediately recognised Cappadocia :D

When travel bloggers get married...

...this is what happens :D

FINAL THANK-YOUS

*Walk into a florist and say, ‘I need flowers and baby’s breath for a wedding,’ and their eyes widen before the price seems to multiply by a hundred. The flowers from Klementin Florist in Karşıyaka lasted a long time, however, and the owner Mehmet was wonderfully reasonable. We thank him for the flowers that brightened our wedding.
*The talented hands behind Tuğçe’s beautiful updo belonged to Meral in Seferihisar. Thank you. Personal and business details in this story describe our wedding in 2017; readers should confirm that every named venue or supplier is still operating before contacting or visiting them.