Micro-wedding + dream honeymoon over “normal” wedding

Vietnam, Thailand for sure. Your money will stretch and they're stunning places with good tourist infrastructure.

May I tentatively suggest (I know some will react negatively) some back to back, country intensive cruises? We have done a few (not back to back though) with this company including South Africa, South America and NZ/Australia and had a fantastic time. Will be going with them again. They are small/mid size ships between 500/700 passengers.

https://www.azamara.com/gb/home/why-azamara

It absolutely makes a difference as to whether the restaurant holds one to three stars or if it doesn’t but is in the Michelin guide. (Still amazing food and some of these restaurants are arguably just as good but more up and coming). You very well may get a lovely restaurant in that budget for food per head. Although there’s drinks on top of that (and service) so unless you can negotiate on a drinks/wine option, the drinks can easily cost more than the food.

I happened to learn about these figures recently, hope you'll find them useful!

My brother has been looking at London hotels to host a wedding dinner for immediate family (around 20 people) and quotes are upwards of £200 per head.

A 5 star hotel in Maldives start at £400 per night and I've seen several upwards of £1000. These are not including food and activities.

A luxury hotel in Tokyo costs upwards of £800 a night and those are the standard double rooms. If you temper your expectations though you can get very clean and comfortable but basic rooms for less than £200 per night... so yes if you don't mind going for a more budget honeymoon you can spend 3 to 4 weeks in Japan quite comfortably.

Congratulations!

firstly you do not want to go to maldives or anywhere coastal in the tropics in the summer as its the rain storm season. maldives is best between Oct - April I would say. even may might be ok. July and August is the worst

i would say 20k minimum for 1 week in maldives if you want a niceish resort and want to fly premium (strongly reccommend this as its a looong flight). the really nice resorts start at 3k/night + hefty tourism tax so even more expensive. but even the 1k/night lower end resorts end up costing around 12/14 k by the time you have paid for everything and done the diving etc. it's certainly worth the price and the watersports side especially diving is amazing so I strongly reccommend.

Japan also expensive although no where near maldives and apparently very hot in summer. would again say best time to visit is spring due to the cherry trees blossoming etc.

if you want to do full 6 weeks, I would say 30k if you do 1 week maldives and rest in cheaper destinations eg. South East Asia - you could do 5 weeks in thailand/vietnam/malaysia/Indonesia for 10k in luxury. probably not including flights though. lots to see in this region - rainforest, coastline, diving, culture and history. the people and food are wonderful. again would not do this in summer due to weather. much better to visit in spring.

You could spend 6 weeks in Japan but you'd need more money!

I'd do Japan south korea vietnam and the phillipines. There are some STUNNING places in the phillipines but they are a bugger to get to. Think multiple flights to ever smaller airports then boats. But some of the most stunning scenery you'll see on this earth. Definitely worth going if you're out for a longer trip and already that side of the world.

You may find a Michelin star mid week set lunch for around that price but you’re looking more like £200+ for weekend evening. Then add drinks to it (a bottle of water is close to £10).

My dream destination would be Costa Rica but that doesn't seem to be en route for you!

I've not seen any Michelin star places doing 3 courses for £50 quid! I don't think I would do it anyway. It really isn't everyone's cup of tea and I'm sure you'd end up spending an absolute fortune and have half the people moaning about something or other.

Why not?

We spent £25k on our wedding and I feel embarrassed even typing it.

We should’ve just done exactly what OP is doing and bought ourselves a once in a lifetime trip (or trips).

I don’t know what possessed us to spend that kind of money on a wedding.

I'd go for Seychelles and Bird Island ( two centre )
Mauritius
One of the more exclusive Maldivian islands

£20k isn’t getting Japan and the Maldives I’m afraid.

You can easily spend £20k on either of those destinations on their own for 2 weeks.

Thailand/vietnam etc is completely doable for 6 weeks. I’ve got multiple honeymoon clients that are doing 3 weeks and it’s £8k, all 5* hotels, some trips included. Economy flights though in case that’s a consideration.

You can twin Thailand and the Maldives so that’s possible on £20k.

Michelin star restaurant could work if you all have the set lunch menu - 3 courses for £50 and several bottles of wine. Years ago when dd was born we decided not to have her christened but still wanted a party. I booked out a local restaurant (which had a star) and paid for 60 friends and family to come celebrate. I think the bill for lunch and drinks was around £2.5k.

For your holiday I'd suggest going to a travel agent. You could do safari in Africa and a week in maldives, or south east asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam), ir maybe central & south america.

This sounds like a good plan, and you'll get a lot more for your money in SEA! I learnt to scuba dive on one of the Thai islands (Koh Lanta) and it was honestly amazing. If you cut out the Maldives that would save you a fair amount in order to see and experience far more elsewhere, and while the Maldives do look out of this world some of the beaches around SEA are truly stunning too.

Congratulations!
Have your wedding and your honeymoon the way that you and your fiancé want.

(A Michelin star meal for 15 people sounds expensive in itself, though!)

I would expect to spend £250 per head in a Michelin star restaurant, especially if you want a private room rather than sitting in the main dining space!

We did 1 week Maldives and 5 days Dubai for our honeymoon in 2022 in above average but not super luxury hotels and it cost £12k, including spending money in Dubai.

I think you need to drop the Maldives, particularly if early summer is important to you- we got married in February (excellent way to save money btw, it was 1/3 of the price of the same venue and event in May)- it will eat your budget and you may get stormy weather! How about Japan/SE Asia and finishing up on the beach in Bali?

I’d swap the Michelin meal for a decent country pub meal in a private room.

I loved Sri Lanka for a real mix of incredible temples, tea plantation walks, jungle, safari and beautiful beaches. I went pre-covid so prices may vary but got lovely rooms for £30 a night, and fine for £15. Mama-run cafes were incredible - the best meal we had was at a basic cafe doing a £2 meal - much better than where we’d spent £10. Prices did not seem to equate to quality!

Yes, agreed.

£60 per head?! Be realistic, you'd practically hit that in a shopping centre Tony Macaronis for three courses and a couple of glasses of wine! It sounds like you need to do a load more research OP, although I appreciate you're probably just using this as a sounding board. And I know fiancé wants a small wedding, are you sure that's what you want?

I would do 3/4 weeks traveling round Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, then 1 week in Japan finishing off in the Maldives.
Look at Luxury Escapes - some great deals there.

Sorry can't help too much with destinations as we'd do a US road trip, but just want to say I think it's an awesome idea and I wish we had done the same.

We did 19 nights in Japan /china/ Hong Kong and it was £10k. That was for return flight premium economy and most hotels around £200per night -nice business ones.

So 6 weeks would be around £17k? (No more flights)

But I assume for luxury you'd want nicer hotels and flights that were better. So £25k to £30k

Another vote for Vietnam - hands down the best travelling experience ever. Look online at Ha Long Bay - so beautiful and romantic - although I am not romantic in the least. The Maldives does nothing for me though as I like to be active and see architecture, different areas etc. and I imagine (could be wrong) that the Maldives is a lot of lying around looking at the same ish views).

For luxury - Singapore is awesome and also has the Grand Prix. I’ve not been to Japan but would like to go.

Good luck @groyard - I think you are totally doing the right thing!

Watch the current race around the world - they start in Japan and cover SEA. I would sack of the Maldives unless you plan on diving. And even then, Vietnam and Thailand are great for diving.

£60 per head? Are they not getting drinks with that?

Why not keep the whole lot cheap if that's what you're more comfortable with. A really nice meal after the wedding and then some European travel. You could see so much with 10k and 6 weeks

I would feel the same as your fiancé. We spent £50 on the cheapest registry office service with only parents there, followed by a nice steak dinner with close family. Rings both plain silver from Cash Converters and we wore clothes we already had! We also had a fairly low key European honeymoon - at the time we were quite worried about finances as i was between jobs but even if we'd had the money I wouldn't have wanted to spend £££££ on one day - I've never been that person who's dreamed of their perfect wedding since they were a little girl.

Holidays however, I will absolutely spend on! Now we're more comfortable financially we have regular breaks, and spent 12k last year for a dream holiday (safari followed by luxury all inclusive spa resort on the beach) as a joint treat for our 5th anniversary and DH's milestone birthday.

I think, honestly, you'd struggle to get 'luxury' with multiple (expensive!) destinations and flights for six weeks. I would be tempted to go a bit cheaper for the first five weeks (and maybe combine Japan and the Maldives with somewhere a bit cheaper for in-country travel, activities/tours and accommodation - maybe India/ Sri Lanka/ Indonesia/ Philippines/ Thailand?) and then go full luxury for the last week. That's basically what we did - the safari, while amazing, was in a mix of tents and basic hotels and it was amazing to have those few days being pampered and eating amazing food in a gorgeous location and fully relax before going back to the grindstone!