If there was a theme to Michael Matthews and Alex Oechsel’s relationship, it was long distance.
A resident physician, Matthews is from eastern Kentucky. A marriage videographer, Oechsel was based in Indiana. They met on Tinder in 2015.
“Our relationship was set across many alternative cities due to Michael’s residency training,” Oechsel, 26, said. “We were in Florida at one point, then he went to California. We lived five hours away from one another. It was a whole lot of driving forwards and backwards.”
But even before their eventual engagement, the couple knew that they wanted their wedding to be anything but downhome.
“Because Alex works in wedding videography, she’s very aware of the really awesome, amazing weddings people have,” Matthews, 31, said. “In 2015, it was still somewhat novel to have, you realize, an actual, serious relationship coming from a dating app. Our relationship was slightly different, so we wanted our wedding to be slightly different, too.”
For them, just one form of wedding venue would do: a castle.
In June, after years of planning, an engagement in 2020, plus the pandemic, Alex and Michael finally said “I do” at Turin Castle, a 10-room, private five-star resort inside the partitions of a 16,500-square-foot, Seventeenth-century stone fortress, two hours north of Edinburgh on Scotland’s east coast. “It’s just the romance of it,” said Matthews. “You grow to be king and queen for a day. It’s a fairytale.”
“I’m a fan of the ‘Outlander’ series, so that will have been a little bit of an influence,” added Oechsel. “But we also desired to honor our families in a special way and take them on a week-long trip.”
Their ceremony, attended by 16 close members of the family, included bagpipes and a handfasting ritual organized by the castle’s owner and operator Yvonne Corbett.
“The night before our wedding, Yvonne told us concerning the history of the quaich ritual, a form of cup or bowl with two handles that leaders would share to display peace between the clans,” said Oeschsel. “So we form of incorporated that into our ceremony.”
Corbett says that every one of her weddings are fully bespoke experiences in order that no two are ever the identical — although she does keep half a mile of red carpet handy for everyone. While the sky’s-the-limit approach to her weddings makes it hard to offer a starting price, this 12 months’s Oscars gave us a touch. Prices for the castle are upon application — note that a three-night stay was included within the 2022 celebrity gift bag and claimed to be value about $50,000.
But while Alex and Michael’s dream wedding went off with out a hitch — because of Corbett’s hands-on help organizing all the things from catering to family excursions, they are saying — they’ll be the primary to confess that planning a destination wedding in a historic venue isn’t for the faint of heart.
“We had a good amount of calls with different individuals who were in control of different castles,” said Oechsel. “We just really wanted someone who was going to assist us through the experience, because we were to date away.”
Wedding planner JoAnn Gregoli, owner of Elegant Occasions, said more couples are opting to show their weddings into extravagant vacations. But, she warns, without local expertise, weddings in dreamy historic locales can grow to be nightmares. She recommends using a planner that knows the venue well, in addition to local customs. Historic venues can include unexpected limitations, from lighting to kitchen space.
“Today, often with Americans, the word ‘exotic’ comes up,” Gregoli said. “That’s why places like Dubai and Marrakech have been a giant trend these days.”
One among her favorite Moroccan venues is Oberoi Marrakech, which only opened in 2019, but was in-built the sort of a 14th-century palace set inside 28 acres of Mediterranean orchards and centuries-old olive groves. Modern facilities, plus “exotic” historic charm? Bingo.
The five-star resort has 84 rooms, an enormous spa and three restaurants serving each international and authentic Moroccan fare.
Ceremonies can occur anywhere on the property, but many couples select Les Jardins des Oliviers, a grove of three,000 olive trees; the Grand Canal, a 120-meter-long strip of shimmering water that bisects the resort, or on an impressive patio inspired by the 14th-century Medersa Ben Youssef (one among Marrakech’s most famous historic monuments). Room rates start at $865, and buying out the resort requires a two-night stay.
“You are feeling such as you’re in a palace, bar none,” Gregoli said. “It’s probably the most serene place I’ve ever seen in my life. I felt at peace.”
Turkey also checks the “exotic” box for adventurous couples. In August, Six Senses Kocatas Mansions opened a latest dedicated wedding venue in Istanbul. It offers all the fashionable perks in a historic setting within the Sariyer district on the European side of the traditional metropolis.
Invite your third cousins because in Turkey, weddings are big.
With 4,305 square feet of indoor space and eight,611 of out of doors space, the venue can accommodate as much as 450 people for cocktails and 350 for seated events. It also comes with a dedicated wedding concierge, bridal hammam services, custom menus and 270-degree views of the long-lasting Bosphorus Strait.
Prices start at roughly $294.
But whether it’s the Middle East, North Africa or a big gamble with the Scottish weather, the basics are the identical — it’s about creating weddings which are so interesting “people remember every detail,” Gregoli said.
For Michael and Alex, their wedding was all that and more. “It was probably the most magical experience and I wouldn’t have done anything in another way,” said Oechsel. “I even have all of those memories. I hope our kids do destination weddings.”