A nice place for a white wedding

Or should I say an absolutely beautiful place for a white wedding. I actually didn’t think I had any weddings coming up this year, and this holiday slash destination wedding came along in the best way. On our first date, Ash told me he was going to be best man for his best friend at his wedding in Cyprus this year. And once his best friend (also called Ash) could see we had gotten serious about each other, he told him to invite me along. I was really excited to be joining and to be able see Ash on best man duty, so obviously I started looking at flights straight away. Given that the wedding was across May bank holiday, across half term, and a relatively long flight away, it would have cost me a whopping £650 to book on to the same flight as Ash (that’s even without anything for the hotel!). So I shopped around and found some alternative, less eye-watering flights for £280 from Luton. Meaning that I, as Ash’s plus one, would actually arrive 6 hours before him!

I had quite nice flight times actually, so I landed in Larnaca at around 4:30pm and arrived at the hotel in Nissi Beach at around 6pm. We, along with most of the other wedding guests, were staying at the Nissi Park Hotel and it was actually such a good choice. It was smaller and more of a boutique option than a lot of others on that row, meaning it was chilled, fairly quiet, and there were absolutely no fights for sunbeds. The room was also lovely and I spent precisely 20 minutes in it getting ready before I hotfooted it out to meet the group for dinner.

I’d met Ash and Sharney, the bride and groom, already, plus a couple of the others, but mostly I was arriving blind and solo to a 15 person dinner. But you know me. Heaven forbid anyone think I need my boyfriend to go out and be a social butterfly, so went-and-social-butterflied without him I did! We had a lovely Italian meal at a place called L’Italiano with a big outdoor terrace, and then we went for drinks and to watch the football at a bar next door. Everyone was so lovely and welcoming, and a mere 6 hours after I’d arrived, Ash came and joined us too!

(most elite crisps I've ever had)

There’s something so lush about an early summer holiday. Getting that sunbathing in before the summer season has technically even started! After a long day of travelling the day before, it was lovely to just chill round the pool. Ash’s chilling looks slightly different to mine though. Like a typical man, his is more jumping-in-the-pool and playing-with-a-ball than it is lying on the sun lounger reading and cooking like a rotisserie chicken. So having our first sunbathing holiday together as part of a group, with lots of other guys who also want to jump in the pool and play with a ball, worked out perfectly.

In the afternoon, we decided to head to the beach. We went for lunch at a lovely beach bar called Isola, which had all the rattan vibes and aesthetic food. We shared a Greek salad and some chicken skewers and it was amazing! Then we got a couple of sun loungers and spent the rest of the afternoon on the sand. Note: we did not get the sun loungers at Isola as they were €30, whereas all the other ones on the exact same beach were €2.50.

We had a group chat for the wedding party where the dinner plans were getting shared each night and I knew I was among my people because it was a different cuisine each night! Night 2 was steak and we were heading into Ayia Napa to the most incredible steakhouse called Nikitas. Look how perfect it was! Since we’d made the trip to Ayia Napa, it would’ve been rude not to go out on the strip so we had a few drinks at a place called Square bar which had live music and very strong vodkas.

We might’ve had a few too many of the very strong vodkas, as me and Ash were feeling more than a bit ropey when we woke up bright and early the next day to get picked up for our excursion. Although luck would have it that there was around 90 minutes of hotel pickups before the fun began, so we had time to start feeling a bit more human before we arrived in Northern Cyprus. For anyone who doesn’t know about Northern Cyprus, it’s been illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974 and so it’s for all intents and purposes, like going to a different country. All of the food, culture and language is Turkish, and you have to go through a double passport check across something called the buffer zone (notably not a border, as no one but Turkey recognises it as a separate country). There’s so much rich history to be discovered in Northern Cyprus though so I was excited to explore, and also excited to tick two more ‘territories’ (but not countries) off my Been app.

The first stop on the tour was Salamis, a huge complex of Roman ruins including baths, gymnasium and auditorium. The place was so cool and it was amazing how much of the detail was still in tact (like the floor mosaics). Our tour guide for the day was amazing and we learnt so much of the history!

The next stop was the St Barnabas monastery, which has been converted into a kind of art museum. It was a really beautiful building and there was a cute little drink and ice cream stop with fresh pressed pomegranate and orange juice.

Famagusta is an old walled city in Northern Cyprus and it seems like it used to be kind of the unofficial capital before Turkey invaded. The venetian walls are amazing and go all the way around! It was really weird just how much in Turkey you felt though; all the shops, restaurants, tea shops, nougat and dessert places. We had a while to explore the town so we wandered to look at the old citadel, the gardens, and the high street, before stopping for some lunch. Naturally because we were in Turkish territory, we went for Turkish cuisine and opted for halloumi salad and meat dumplings.

The final stop for the day was quite poignant as it’s known as the ghost town of Varosha. Basically when Turkey arrived in Famagusta, the people of Varosha were told to flee and leave everything behind, but that they’d be able to return soon… and they still haven’t been able to over 50 years later. The UN got involved when the Turkish wanted to develop the land, so the whole town is effectively in a time-capsuled stale-mate. No one is allowed to develop it, but the owners of the homes and businesses can’t return. As sad as the history is, the outcome is actually really fascinating. All of it is frozen in time from the 1970s so all the store signage, the décor in the buildings, and even some old appliances that remain. Meanwhile nature has absolutely taken over and effectively claimed a lot of the buildings back. I’d say if you’re staying in Eastern Cyprus, this tour is definitely worth doing and we learnt so much!

After a bit of chill time around the pool once we got back, we headed up to get ready for the evening. We’d had a long day and I needed to wash my hair so we knew we wouldn’t be able to make it in time for the 7pm group dinner, so we skipped it and had a 9pm date night instead. I’m always excited by cuisine we can’t get locally so when I saw a Peruvian restaurant on the map, I knew we had to visit. The vibe at Nikkei was really cool and we had some absolutely amazing dishes. We shared everything and got some complimentary edamame, some ceviche, some pork belly bao buns, a chicken satay dish, a duck dish with chocolate orange sauce, and a fried rice dish which sounded unassuming on the menu but was absolutely amazing. We need a Peruvian restaurant in Nottingham!

We were basically alternating a chill day with a busy day so after a very full on trip the day before, we had a complete lazy day on the Saturday. Sun lounger, pool, sun lounger, lunch, sun lounger, pool. Fanta limon. It’s a hard life.

We were back to dinner with the group that evening and a few extra people had arrived by then so we took up 3 giant tables! The restaurant we were at was technically dubbed as an Italian, but they had loads of local Cypriot specialities on the menu too. So me and Ash shared a Cypriot mixed grill and some tzatziki and then proceeded to go into a bit of a meat coma after.

Not for long though, as after a couple of tamer nights, everyone was ready for a proper night on the Ayia Napa strip. It literally transported me straight back to my 18-21 holidays! Reps trying to bribe you into bars with free shots, random poles to dance on, and all the exact same music I’d been partying to almost 10 years ago. And guess what… I loved it just as much as I did back then! You can take the girl out of the party holiday but you can’t take the party holiday out of the girl.

Oh rooftop bars and boat trips, how do I love thee. If there are 2 things I’m obsessed with, it’s these two. Ash actually asked me on holiday if I had to give one up, which would it be, and perhaps surprisingly, I said rooftop bars. Because there is nothing more memorable than a boat trip day on holiday, and lots of my all time favourite holiday memories involve them. So naturally we just had to do a boat trip while in Cyprus. There were loads of different ones on offer but we chose one that offered 2 different swimming stops, a scenic view on the east of Cyprus, and a trip to the blue lagoon. We had the most amazing time and the boat trip was the perfect duration, around 4 hours. They had a bar on board, they had a platform on the upper deck to jump in the sea from, and they even ran a fun little game to win a bottle of champagne, that involved chucking the bottle in the sea from the boat and seeing who could swim down to retrieve it the fastest. The wind in my hair, the sun shining, the sea a most perfect crystal clear blue, and the love of my life by my side. While I’ll always love rooftop bars, there’s just no beating that.

You could add lunch on the boat if you wanted to, but since it was arriving back at the marina at 2pm, we’d opted not to. Instead, we had our sights set on a very special restaurant. Ocean Basket offers the most incredible giant seafood platters and we just had to try one – we got grilled calamari, fried calamari, prawns, mussels, catch of the day, fries, rice and some fried courgette to go with it. It was absolutely amazing and only €35 euros, which was very decent for the sheer volume of amazing seafood you got!

Once we were back at the hotel, we went and found everyone round the pool and had a couple of hours chilling before getting ready. Again, it was hair washing night so we opted for dinner as a two so that we weren’t in a rush. I was keen to do a traditional meze night, so we went to a place called Taverna Napa which has been there since 1976! It was such a cute little place although don’t be deceived by its quaint exterior. What you are in for if you choose the meze can only be described as death-by-amazing-food. It just kept arriving. And arriving. And arriving. It would’ve been a lot to eat on any day but especially when we’d already had the giant seafood platter for lunch! It might’ve absolutely written us off, but every dish was amazing and we got to enjoy so many lovely Cypriot dishes. Just make sure you plan better than us and fast before a visit there!

Everyone had been saying they wanted to visit the capital Nicosia during the holiday, and so the following day was a group adventure. Google maps isn’t hooked up with local Cyprus transport links, so it can’t find a route there but the various towns and cities are actually quite well linked up. There was a local bus from Nissi beach to Nicosia which cost £6 each way, took around an hour and twenty, and dropped us off right in the centre so we were ready to explore. Not only is Cyprus as a country split by the Greek/Turkish divide, but even the capital has a double lined buffer zone splitting it straight in half! So if you want to visit Nicosia, remember your passport. Once we’d gone through security, we found ourselves in the Turkish side and surrounded by lots of dupe shops, markets, and historic buildings. We had a wander round and nosied at the fake designer goods, then stopped off for a drink to escape the 35 degree heat!

Because it was super hot and seemingly completely lacking in a light breeze, we didn’t stay too long. I did love it in Nicosia because I loved all the architecture and the gorgeous buildings, but I wouldn’t say it was a must-visit. It was worth a trip, but skippable if you don’t have time. If you want to get a taste of the Turkish side of Cyprus, I’d definitely opt for the tour we did earlier in the week over a trip to the capital!

It all felt very Mamma Mia that night, as we were splitting into separate boy and girl groups for a sort of stag/hen do. So I waved Ash off (the boys were off to the steakhouse again), and went to meet the girls at a Cypriot restaurant which literally looked like it could’ve been part of the Mamma Mia set! I had feta saganaki followed by grilled swordfish and the food was all lovely.

Far be it from me to let the boys have all the fun, so a group of us girls decided we also fancied a night out on the Ayia Napa strip! It was amazing what better drinks deals we got when we were an all-girls group too. Free shots at the first place, a metre paddle of free shots at the next place, free entry and a free champagne welcome cocktail at a club that charges men €25 to get in. That, baby, is called ~equity~. It was lovely having a night with just the girls, but we eventually decided we’d been segregated long enough and went and met up with the boys for our last drink. Now that, is very Mamma Mia.

Then the big day had arrived! The festivities weren’t starting until 3pm, so we had a relaxing morning by the pool getting the last of the tanning sessions in.

The second I got invited to the wedding, I knew I had the perfect dress for the occasion. This floaty ruffled number with tiny buttons up the back was in the ASOS sale, and my approach to occasionwear is just to buy it when I see it. The occasion will follow. Not to a crazy extent obviously, but there’s nothing worse than scrambling around for an outfit when you have something special coming up, and not finding anything you like. I hadn’t worn this one yet because the weddings I’ve been to over the last couple of years were all in winter, and I knew this dress needed a slightly more exotic climate. Enter, Cyprus beach wedding! I paired it with gold shoes, gold bag, and a ballerina bun. Because the hairstyle went with the dress, but mainly because it was super windy and I knew my anger levels would be through the roof if I was constantly getting whipped in the face by my own hair.

When we arrived at Ash and Sharney’s hotel for the wedding, we had a couple of welcome drinks and then walked down to the seafront for the actual wedding. I’ve honestly never been to a more beautiful setting for a wedding, and it was such a gorgeous ceremony. Ash and Sharney’s daughter walked down the aisle with the cutest sign saying ‘Daddy, it’s time to give mummy our last name’, and Sharney looked absolutely beautiful in her dress. I can’t imagine a much better spot for the official wedding photos too!

Then it was cocktail hour, and we had some sangria-esque drinks, a saxophonist performing, and the wedding cake cutting (and eating). The hotel had a lovely outdoor terrace and so we got to enjoy golden hour overlooking the beach.

Despite having already been best man twice before, Ash was getting teased a lot for how nervous he was to do his speech. He’s a very confident speaker and so I know he was only nervous because he wanted to do it well. He needn’t have worried as he absolutely smashed it and even had a few guests tearing up. The perfect mix of funny, sweet and romantic... And his speech was pretty good too.

Like a lot of the other guests, I’d wrongly assumed that dinner would be quite early and hadn’t eaten in the day. So it’s not an overstatement to say that a few of us were getting kind of feral by the time food was served at 8! There was certainly more than enough food to make up for the skipped lunch though, as it was the most incredible BBQ feast I’ve ever seen. Loads of different salads, side dishes, meats, traditional Cypriot delicacies, breads, dips, olives – my plate was basically like a shameless jenga of delicious food. And yes, I ate it all.

Then it was party time! We had drinks, we watched Ash and Sharney do their first dance, we got everyone up on the dance floor for some retro numbers. It was really good fun and such a beautiful day; I was SO glad to be part of such a special trip and such a special wedding.

I might’ve felt smug when my flight arrived 6 hours earlier than Ash on the way there, but I certainly didn’t feel so smug when I had to get up at 3:30am for my return flight! It was more than worth it for such an amazing holiday though. There was a really nice mix of time with the whole group, time with the girls, and time just me and Ash. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better holiday or a better bunch of people to spend it with.