Galu Seaside is a wedding and events venue built on the beach at Oroklini, on the coast north east of Larnaca in Cyprus. Its open deck stands on the sand about ten metres from the water, with a renovated indoor hall behind it and a kitchen of its own. There are no bedrooms and no hotel attached, and Galu takes one celebration at a time, so the vows, the dinner and the dancing all happen on a site that belongs to the wedding for the day. Larnaca International Airport is 15 to 20 minutes away by road, a short transfer for guests flying in.
The shore below Oroklini
The village of Oroklini, officially Voroklini, lies about eight kilometres north east of Larnaca, behind the lake that shares its name. It has been settled and left more than once. The area was mined for copper in antiquity; the village was abandoned in the fifteenth century, resettled, abandoned again, resettled in the sixteenth century and emptied once more under Venetian rule, before families settled there for good in the eighteenth. Today the name also covers newer neighbourhoods along the coast, and Galu stands on that shore, with houses and apartment buildings behind it and the beach in front.
Oroklini Lake is a protected wetland, a Natura 2000 site and an Important Bird Area. About 190 bird species have been recorded there. It is the leading nesting site in Cyprus for the black-winged stilt, and the only place on the island where the red-crested pochard breeds.
A deck on the sand
The deck runs along the beach in front of the building, open to the sea on its long side, with white rails at the edge and a frame overhead that carries a canopy of string lights. Cocktails, dinner and dancing are all held here. Tables can be round or long, and long tables can be set in rows that face the water.
Galu seats up to 250 guests for dinner and takes up to 300 for a ceremony or a standing reception. At the other end of the scale it hosts gatherings of around 40, so the same deck serves a small family wedding and a celebration of several hundred.
After dark the overhead frame can be hung with curtains of light that fall between the tables, with the beach just beyond the rail.
The hall behind the deck
Behind the deck is the indoor space: renovated, climate controlled and used throughout the year. Through the glass, tables in the hall keep a view of the sea. It can hold a ceremony as well as a reception, and in the cooler months or on an unsettled evening the whole celebration can move inside without leaving the site.
Galu treats both spaces as a blank canvas, to be styled anywhere between glamorous and minimal, so the look of the day is the couple’s to set. Outside the wedding calendar Galu also hosts christenings, private parties and corporate events.
Vows at the water’s edge
Ceremonies are held at the water’s edge, on a platform a few steps from the shoreline or on the deck itself, with the open Mediterranean as the backdrop; the indoor hall is the alternative when the weather turns.
A civil marriage in Cyprus is performed by the Marriage Officer of a municipality of the couple’s choosing. Both partners apply in person once they arrive, signing a joint notice of marriage and making a declaration before the officer, with passports, birth certificates and proof that each is free to marry. On the standard notice the wedding takes place at least 15 clear days after the notice is given, so couples should plan on about 20 days on the island. An urgent route allows the marriage within two or three working days; the standard notice costs €128.15 and the urgent route €281.92, paid to the municipality, and certified copies of the marriage certificate cost €13.67 each. A religious wedding can be conducted by a registered minister in his church, with the municipal steps still completed.
Galu’s team helps with the document submissions and the ceremony arrangements, and the place of the legal marriage is agreed with the chosen municipality.
One kitchen for the whole day
Food comes from Galu’s own kitchen. The in-house chef and culinary team build menus on Mediterranean and international cooking, served as a buffet, from interactive food stations, or as a dining concept designed for the wedding, and dietary requirements and personal requests are accommodated. With catering in house, the kitchen, the service and the spaces are run by one team, and couples deal with a single venue for the day rather than a separate caterer.
Where guests stay
Guests stay in hotels nearby. Oroklini and the wider Larnaca area have hotels within a short drive, from beachfront five star resorts to small boutique hotels, and the venue’s team advises couples on where to house their guests. For a destination wedding this is the main difference from a resort venue: guests travel to Galu for the day and back again at night, so transport belongs in the plan from the start.
A free day in Larnaca
Larnaca fills a free day for guests without much travel. In its own square in the centre of the town, the church of Agios Lazaros was built by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI in the ninth century over the tomb of Saint Lazarus, who by tradition came to Cyprus after his resurrection and served as Bishop of Kition for about thirty years. The tomb lies beneath the sanctuary, the gilded iconostasis survived the loss of the church’s domes under early Ottoman rule, and the Byzantine Museum stands alongside.
The palm lined Foinikoudes promenade runs along the seafront to the Medieval Castle. One chronicler credits the Lusignan king James I, who reigned from 1382 to 1398, with building it to protect the harbour; it took its present form under the Ottomans, was used by the British as a prison and now holds a small museum of medieval Larnaca in three rooms. In winter Larnaca Salt Lake fills with flocks of pink flamingos, and the mosque of Hala Sultan, built to honour the aunt of the Prophet Muhammad, is among the town’s principal sights. For a longer outing into the countryside of the district, Choirokoitia is among the most intact prehistoric settlements in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Deck or hall
Galu is for couples who want the sea at the centre of a Cyprus wedding and are content to house their guests in nearby hotels. It gives them the shoreline, a kitchen on site and room for anything from a family gathering to several hundred guests. For the island’s marriage rules, seasons and other venues, see the Cyprus Wedding Atlas and weddings in Cyprus.
The decision to make first is where dinner will be served: on the open deck beside the water or in the climate-controlled hall, a choice the month of the wedding largely makes for you. Then read the Galu Seaside profile and check your date.
