Making dedicated time to savour life’s important moments has been a key part of Nik and Vaivara’s relationship from the very start. In 2013, they had a seaside wedding in Bulgaria, where Nik’s family is from. They gathered loved ones from across the UK, Bulgaria, and Vaivara’s home country of Lithuania and had their ‘dream wedding’ overlooking coastal cliffs, surrounded by laughter, with a ceremony in English and translated into two additional languages.
‘Our friends all came and the theme was to be colourful,’ Vaivara said, ‘so we had these super colourful lights, a touch of colour in our clothing, plus the weather was wonderful which helped.’ Nik added that the theme of being colourful is reflective of their relationship as a whole. ‘Not just the colourfulness,’ he remarked, ‘but also the laid back approach. We spend a lot of time with our friends, so we decided not to do a honeymoon straight away but instead had a little “mini moon” sharing the time between friends before and after. Everyone was able to make a holiday out of it.’
Vaivara said that the joint holidays were great because ‘being married isn’t about just the two of you, it’s always going to be about your wider circle of family and friends as well.’
If they were to give a soon-to-be-married couple one piece of advice, it would be to make sure that you pinch yourself every now and again to make sure you’re taking it all in. ‘Stop for a moment and look into each other’s eyes, acknowledging and being grateful for the moment and what you have ’ Nik advises.
Vaivara’s favourite memory of the day came just before they entered the hall where everyone was to have dinner. ‘We stopped, just the two of us, and shared a kiss, and we were able to pause and watch everyone coming in. It left us with a meaningful memory that we’ll carry through our lives,’ she said.
And that advice isn’t just for the wedding day, it goes for an entire lifetime spent together. ‘We’ll be doing a 3am feeding with our two baby girls and we’re both so exhausted,’ Nik told us, ‘but Vaivara’s attitude is always that in a few years time we’re going to miss the fact that we can hug and cuddle them for hours. So while those late nights are hard, if you take a moment to appreciate just how rare this time is, you enjoy it.’