Thanks for your responses and an excellent photo Peter! You both looked lovely. I think I'll get some ideas over here and pictures then get the dress made in Goa. I have been reading the other posts about getting married in Goa and think the dress may probably end up being one of the easier parts of the wedding to get sorted!

Are you looking to get married in Goa ????

If so dont its a royal pain in the butt. Get married in the UK then have a big bash in Goa.

However if you do feel free to PM me as i can put you in touch with various people and explain all the stuff you will need to take/arrange etc etc

Regards

Peter

Hi, any advice would be appreciated, we are looking at having a Church wedding here in the UK Feb 2008, but then a blessing in Goa with friends and family, can any of you newly weds help out with info. ? not sure where to start??
Thanks Goanne

what would you like to know, we done the civil side and blessing in goa in 2003, you got off to a good start by doing the civil side in the uk doing it in goa is a nightmare.

Melo tours do a nice blessing i think for £250 unless they put the money up.... they are not too bad... Lester doesn't comunnicate much via e-mail before hand however once you are out there everything is organised well. They have a live guitarist for the wedding ceromony that does four songs... Dirty Dancing style and boyzone... So if you don't like this music bring a CD with four tunes that you like and they will play it for you.... We did the whole thing with them Registration and Ceromony and it was great, though I can understand you want to do it properly in england first

Hi mrstella, weve been going to Goa since 1998 but not sure what places would hold a `do` and how to go about planning the actual day? there would be about 25 -30 of us, also I would like to get some invites printed whilst in Candolim in Feb, for the civil ceremony in Feb 2008 and look at dresses/saris. What did you do?
Thanks for the info. in anticipation!
Goanne

Hi Caz, congratualtion on your wedding, photos look great, is that who you had (melo tours) - how did you organise/plan yours? and where did you have the reception? did you get married in Goa? sorry for all the questions...........must be the nerves setting in!! Does melo tours have a website?
Thanks Goanne

http://www.melotours.com/Day.htm

Goanne

We had a big do at bobbys shack in candolim. Just goto your local shack guy and get him to arrange it, or even better head down to bobbys in candolim. To give you an example of what he arranged for us:-

Food for 50 people (amazing included various sculpters made out of fruit/melons etc)
Free bar from about 4 till past midnight
Holy man to bless the rings
Live band on a stage on the beach (5 piece if i remember correctly)
3 tier wedding cake
2 x elephants as our wedding carriage
fireworks
fire jugglers
decorating the shack
wedding flowers
96 photos x 3 copies in albums inc negatives

Total cost £1200 http://www.peterferguson.nildram.co.uk/wedding/ some pics

Had our wedding outfits made at supertailors in candolim, we got as near traditional dress as possible but with a western influence. Pictures here.http://www.peterferguson.nildram.co.uk/Me%20and%20Angie%20in%20wedding%20gear.JPG

Total cost for the pair £200

Had our wedding rings made in goa, white gold, and normal gold in a twine with a .3 carat diamond in each to our design, Total cost £580 valued in the uk at £2500 for the pair. We had these made by a guy called zoro in candolim but since then he has ripped a few friends off so i wouldnt recommend him. Try gurus in candolim.

It took us about 6 months to arrange everything, but that was mainly down to the civil side as you have to jump through so many hoops i would certainly not recommend it plus there is no garantee that the judge will marry you anyway even if you have done everything correctly. Cant discuss in full details due to HT rules as they dont promote stuff thats illigal .

With regards to the blessing bobby gave us a price in april 2003, we said yes wired over some money and let him get on with it, we had no real knowledge of what he was arranging and the only thing that he would say about it was that it would be amazing and it was. Would have cost £20k plus in the UK.

Hope that helps but if you need any more info just ask away.

Regards

Peter

I would suggest you get married here, then your vows in Goa, otherwise you will spend most of the time, back and forth, trying to get the paperwork sorted out in Goa,

Best company I have found to use is melotours and when you contact them try and communicate with Leicester.

Excellent company and will be using them in 2007, meet Leicester in 2006 to discuss it.

Thanks mrstella for all the great info. spending 3 weeks in Candolim in Feb so going to check it all out. thanks again, photos look great!

Hi littlepen, emailed Lester but not emailed me back, so I will check out in Feb. we are getting married here next feb 2008, and then having a blessing in Candolim, thanks for the info.
Goanne

Sorry Goanne not getting back sooner...
We have only been back a week and everything is still going madly, we are now moving home and jobs and everything is changing and exciting.

Melo Tours are good, however I got them to organise the Registration and Ceromony however I organised the reception myself... Check out http://www.santana-goa.com/index2.htm this is where we had ours. Lester is great, though doesn't answer your e-mails very quickly. He is excellent at organising the court stuff for the registration.

We had the ceromony infront of their beach shack Calamari and then had the main part of the wedding in their restaurant area by the pool.

They charged us £4.50 a head and we paid for drinks separately. We all bought bottles of PIMS out with us and we mix it with sprite and fresh mango and pineapple for the first drink, it was very refreshing and cheaper than champagne.

We got Melo tours to do our photos and video which £72 for our photos was excellent, they are so well done, I would have paid hundreds for them in England. The video was £100 and was good, very cheesy music in the background however this can be helped if you give them a cd of preferred music... Then again if you like...

I would suggest get the ceromony/registration sorted out by a wedding planner and then maybe sort the rest out yourself... Talk to people here on the forum, there are a few people that know the shack owners or live in Goa. I know Warren at Tidal Wave is great... Everyone is accomidating, I know it is easy to panic not being out there trying to organise it, but there is no need. Private message me if you have any worries...

Hi Caz, thanks for that, I will PM you, this forum is great and I'm sure I will pick up loads of info from all the members (I hope)
Goanne

whats the situation with regards to marrying in goa, time span, legalities and whatever else

ta

Hi, as anyone will tell you on here - a bit of a nightmare, legality wise, but if you do a search you will find a lot of help.
We are getting married in the UK on 29th Feb and having our blessing in Candolim on 9th March, family are joining us and also our friends in Goa.
Had our wedding rings made, invitations printed, and sorted out the venue whilst there in February so achieved quite alot.
Goanne

Drop a pm to LinB!

does not exist LinB?

I've emailed her for you! Will get back to you asap!

My sister got married in Goa a few years back, 2001 I think; Milo Tours organised the entire thing for us, including wedding sari for bride and bridesmaids, outfits for the groom and best man, transport to and from the temple, the service itself, henna painting, etc. etc. They were based in Panjim, but the number we have for them has changed since then. Our holiday rep found them for us, so it's a fair bet they can do so again. They provided excellent service, and were extremely inexpensive, around £130, though it'll be dearer now. Ask for Lester Milo, he's the boss who arranged everything for us, including the blessing from Babu the elephant at no extra charge!