I need to get married....

[johendy]

Well I need to organise our wedding in the easiest possible way. We've chosen the date in August next year, on our 10 year anniversary and have decided to go somewhere warm. But it needs to be easy to organise and suitable for 3 kids (6, 3 & 18 months). How do I find a wedding planner to help sort this??? I'm overwhelmed by the googling I've done so far. Are there forums for this??

Does 'somewhere warm' mean 'abroad'? In the height of the --ripoff holiday season.
Sorry, I have to send my apologies.

I think there are lots of destination resorts that have inclusive wedding packages to choose from which would be better IMO than working with a local or international wedding planner. I’d google that.

Most venues have a full time person who deals with weddings. You won't need an independent one.

Barrhead Travel do destination weddings. Maybe have a wee look at their site if it's a wedding away you are looking for.

Yes yes abroad in rip off season. I know. But it'll be just 6 of us as its been a whinge conning so we're doing it!

How can I find legit reviews of desination resorts or wedding packages?

its been a whinge conning eh?

Just get married in the UK and then go on your holiday. That would be the easiest way. It sounds a very expensive way of doing things. Anything with 'wedding' and price for same thing immediately rockets.

Whereabouts are you planning?
I had my wedding in Thailand and the hotel had a package for food, decoration, drinks, flowers,all in for 100 people and it was around £2k. They had a wedding planner as well there so it was quite straight forward and stress free.

I'm a venue wedding planner

Most of us work at specific venues and we will (typically) arrange:
All aspects you wish to hold in that venue (ceremony, breakfast, reception)
Food and drinks packages
Centrepieces
Chair covers
Red carpet
Table runners
Staffing
Timings
AV
DJ

We usually have contacts for flowers, photography, dresses etc but not booked direct with us.

An independent wedding planner will charge a huge commission to do this for you and it is/can be way more straight forward than you'd imagine

We just contacted a hotel that hosts weddings, chose what bits of the package we wanted and the details e.g. cake flavour, flowers etc. And the hotel literally did everything for us.

Whatever country you get married in, make sure you find out how long you need to hold your marriage license before you can actually marry, as you need to be in the country for that length of time. Make sure you find out exactly how yo legalise the marriage unless you plan to have a ceremony abroad then do the legal bits at home

I went to a friend’s wedding at the Moon Palace in Mexico. They were brilliant. They deal with lots of weddings so had everything under control and all coordinated through an on-site planner. Maybe worth a look?

Try Cyprus (very hot though high season). There are several British folk running businesses out there (also Rhodes, Lindos in particular has a fab UK lady there who organises weddings).
Several of the British Tour Operators also organise wedding packages, Italy also being popular).

Malcesine in Lake Garda is lovely, but could be pretty booked up by now.

I got married abroad and had a wedding planner - she turned out to be ridiculously good value. If it's just the six of you, you may be able to just organise through a hotel though. I'd start by looking at big, resort style hotels in places you'd like to visit. Lots of hotels in SE Asia, Carribbean etc and other honeymoon type destinations will have wedding packages, probably wouldn't cost much to add on to a holiday. But you might fancy something closer to home with young kids.

Good luck!

Like someone said upthread, you can also contact hotels directly, the Atlantica group (hotels in Greece and Cyprus of an excellent standard) do them. I've worked in the travel industry for 30 years and they are really very good (I chose them for my honeymoon).

Another here who would have a small civil wedding in the UK and spend the extra money on a lovely villa with a pool or hotel with a great pool complex in a beautiful place in Italy, France or Spain.

Happy to recommend my planner by PM if you want, btw, OP. She's in Dubrovnik, Croatia. But like I say, you may not need anything like that.

Only on MN could someone ask for advice on her wedding only to have her idea pee'd on from a great height and be told to do it differently!

OP, you will find lots of resorts have a planner. But pick your destination carefully - e.g. lots of Caribbean places do weddings, but uk summer would be their rainy/storm season.

Hope you have a lovely time.

There's also the option of a Disney resort wedding - but perhaps more one for the DC than for you

Why do you need a wedding planner for 6 people?

There is a forum and website dedicated solely to weddings, with a whole section on destination weddings...it’s called you and your wedding.

Happy planning!

purits because if the marriage is to be legal, there will be legal requirements to meet with the paperwork, that may involve needing to get docs officially translated etc. OP will also need an officiant, a ceremony venue, and will probably want flowers, at least a little venue decoration etc. All of this is much much easier with someone helping you on the ground who speaks the language and knows what's available.

OP is likely to also want a special meal to celebrate, and will want local recommendations (although this bit obviously isn't as hard to organise from here).

Really - why wouldn't you want someone to organise it for you on the ground?

Think carefully about Moon Palace Wedding and whether you want privacy for your ceremony. We were there on holiday and it was like a production line. Lots of People laying around on the grass in bathing clothes watching strangers getting married.

I got married in Blue Waters in Antigua almost 12 years ago, we've been back a couple of times since.

It was perfect. they have a beautiful wedding pagoda on an outcrop so you don't get anyone walking past and they only have one wedding a day.

I organised nothing myself it was all taken are of, although we had a big wedding party a few months later in the UK which I organised.

Someone up thread mentioned Lindos on Rhodes - I used to live there and it's a beautiful place to get married. There's this beautiful chapel right on St Paul's Bay that hosts loads of British weddings.