Has anyone wed abroad? How complicated was it?

[shiningcadence]

Hi, I'd be so grateful if anyone can offer any advice with this. We're thinking of eloping this summer, just the 2 of us and the two little ones. Do you think 4 months is long enough to book and plan it? (Although probably not much planning given that it'll just be the 4 of us).

We'd like to get married on or overlooking a beach. We'll just go for a nice meal afterwards for our 'reception'.

So, I guess what I'm asking is:

1. Can I arrange it in 4 months?
   
2. How complicated is the paperwork, in fact what paper work do I need to do exactly to marry abroad?
   
3. We're thinking of one of the Greek islands - anyone wed here and which island?
   
4. Also, did you arrange the ceremony with the venue itself or did you go through a third party wedding planner? When I google 'Greek weddings' pages and pages of wedding planning companies come up. Is it necessary to go through one of these?
   
5. Lastly, would the venue/wedding planner company arrange everything with the registrar and would the registrar charge be included in the package price?
   
6. Sorry, one more, can I be really cheeky and ask how much you paid? The packages I've looked at seem to be around £700, I'm guessing that includes the registrar fee too otherwise seems quite expensive for just the ceremony! (Though admittedly I know absolutely nothing about weddings!) Or did you stay at the hotel where you wed and was the ceremony included in the holiday price?
   

Any help and advice would be really gratefully received :)
TIA

[lavendersgreen]

Hi shining, how exciting!

We got married in Jamaica 11 years ago this month. It was so easy and unstressful...we booked through Thomas Cook who sorted it all out.

We chose Jamaica because the "rules" were bit more relaxed and we didn't have to get our docs translated into the local language etc.

There was a wedding coordinater at the hotel/resort who took care of everything and looked after us really well.

The wedding part cost around £500 I think but the photos, video, etc were extra.

Getting married abroad is fab...congratulations and good luck xxxx

[Didactylos]

Ive just got back today from my wonderful fun wedding in my husbands country
30 pounds to scottish registrar for the eligibility documents, 3 months lead time
50 pounds approx to the rural registrar in his district, 8wks lead time
5 minute ceremony in town hall in suit and cute 50s style dress
legal bit sorted!

admittedly we went on to have a humanist ceremony later that day, with weddingy dresses, kilt, flowers, dancing , trampolines, tug of war, manic dancing and also hosted a house party for our families for the rest of the week that was the best lock in ever, complete with pool and hot tub in a ridiculously lovely house. Oh, and built a cannon to fire oranges

but we didnt need all that

didnt want to come home this am....
go for it!

[ginauk84]

We got married in st Lucia last year. Booked it 4 months before. We booked with Kuoni and they sorted everything and gave us all the information we needed in terms of legalities etc. It was so simple, literally all we did before we went was buy our wedding outfits!

[ShiftyFades]

We married in Vegas 6 years ago. I arranged it myself. Used the Chapel of The flowers as Virgin and Kuoni use that (so it must be good) and it had the right package for us.

The top package got us: limo each, photographer and copyright, limo after to take us to 2 locations for extra photos (we chose the Vegas sign and the hotel where we had our meal), included flowers and I chose my bouquet over the Internet.

Crucially it was live on the Internet and for a month after so all our friends and relatives could watch and watch again so we didn't feel alone.

It was stress free and amazing. Hubby wore highland dress (hired here) and I had a full dress on. I even arranged for someone to do my hair and make up.

Legalities: we simply had to take our passports to their civic office and buy a licence for about 50 dollars - we did this the day before