Villa Nautica hosts first underwater wedding for couple’s 25th anniversary
When Frank and Heike Reestorff returned to Villa Nautica for the third time, they had one rather unusual plan for their 25th anniversary: to get married underwater.
The couple had mentioned the idea to the diveOceanus team during a stay the previous November. Both are divers, and what they had in mind was relatively simple: a small ceremony at a shallow site, with their family and closest friends alongside them.
For their return, the team settled on Maagiri Reef, where a sandy section of the top reef provided the setting.
The ceremony itself was built around a heart-shaped frame, with streams of bubbles rising around the wedding party from cylinders positioned nearby. As talking underwater was obviously out of the question, Frank and Heike’s wedding words were engraved onto wooden plaques in German.
Their son and his girlfriend joined them, as did two close friends who had never dived before. The pair completed Discover Scuba Diving with diveOceanus at Villa Nautica before the wedding so they could take part rather than watch from the boat. diveOceanus Villa Nautica is a PADI 5 Star Dive Resort, with programmes ranging from first-time scuba experiences through to further dive training.
Villa Nautica Dive Center Manager Mohamed Arzan officiated the ceremony underwater. Earlier this year, Arzan was named Diving Personality of the Year at the Hotelier Maldives Awards 2026, where he was recognised for his leadership of dive operations, marine knowledge, mentoring and service quality.
The wedding spread beyond the dive site. Back on the island, the Villa Nautica team helped prepare the boat for the occasion, arranged details for the couple’s return and made sure the day was recorded underwater and from the air.
For a resort used to honeymoons, anniversaries and weddings, the setting was new. This was Villa Nautica’s first underwater wedding.
It also came with a nice sense of continuity. Frank and Heike were not guests who had chosen the island from a wedding brochure; they had already stayed twice, had dived there before, and returned with an idea they had first discussed with people they already knew.
Villa Nautica’s romance credentials extend beyond this one ceremony. The resort has received three consecutive nominations for Indian Ocean’s Leading Honeymoon Resort at the World Travel Awards from 2023 to 2025, and was selected for National Geographic Traveller (UK)’s Luxury Collection 2025 and 2026. Its pool was also named Best Resort Pool in the Maldives at the Travel + Leisure Luxury Awards Asia Pacific in both 2025 and 2026.
The couple’s verdict was shorter.
“Everything was simply perfect and beyond expectations.”
Heike was moved to tears when she saw the underwater setting. When the couple left Villa Nautica, the German wedding plaques and congratulations banner went home with them.
For the resort, it was a first. For Frank and Heike, it was how they chose to mark 25 years together.
