Avila Beach Hotel & De Gouverneur, Curaçao · October 2023 · by Ghislaine van de Laarschot
Planned by Caribbean Blue Weddings
Some couples choose Curaçao. For Gaëlle, it was already home.
Their story
Gaëlle grew up swimming in the water at Avila Beach Hotel. Jeroen grew up an ocean away, in the Netherlands. When they met in August 2022, the question of where to marry seemed to answer itself almost as fast as the proposal did, and by October 2023 they were standing barefoot on the sand where Gaëlle had spent her childhood afternoons.
Choosing Avila was never about finding a pretty backdrop. It was about getting married in a place that already held her, with Jeroen's family flying in to finally meet the island that made her.
The day we created
A Caribbean autumn. That was the idea, and it turned out to be the meeting point for two homes: burgundy, burnt orange and soft peach set against turquoise water and palm shade.
The ceremony sat on the sand at Avila, chairs draped in rust linen, a Bon Bini sign welcoming guests the way the island always does. As the light went, everyone moved on to Grand Café Gouverneur de Rouville, where fairy lights hung from the fountain at the center of the courtyard and turned the whole space gold.
The tables carried the season without losing the tropics. Mason jars of autumn blooms on wooden slabs, gold votives catching the light, framed photographs of the two of them tucked in among the flowers. The menu leaned Caribbean with a few Dutch nods, and the music moved between both heritages all night, so every guest heard something they knew.
By the end of the evening, both sides of the family were dancing to the same songs.
