To think I can plan a destination wedding for under 15K? Advice/ tips needed.

[tigerlilt]

Looking to get married in summer 2028, currently my top choices are greek islands, mallorca but would be open to other suggestions! As long as it’s warm, pretty and feels like a holiday i’m in! Set on a destination wedding as prices in the UK are EXTORTIONATE, want a higher guarantee of sun and it means we don’t have to invite anyone we don’t want to!
Would probably be about 50 guests and we have a budget of £15,000.

Am I delusional or is it possible to plan a beautiful wedding abroad for this price? I’m thinking we could save money by starting at around 4pm and therefore only having to serve food once?! DP only request is that there is an open bar for a portion of the night.

So I ask, has anyone had a wedding abroad and if so, what did it cost? where was it? any tips or tricks?! and any suggestions for specific destinations such as planners/ photographers/ music ect?!

I’ve seen packages such as Ionian weddings but i’m just not sure this is the most cost effective way of doing it!

Any advice welcome, thankyou.

I’m not set on providing one meal it was just an idea as it’s what i’ve experienced at weddings personally, hence looking for advice on here.

Also in regards to other replies, I don’t feel like spending 15k on a day is ‘stingy’. I want to make it beautiful and enjoyable for our guests and i’m simply asking whether it will be possible on our budget.

I'd probably see if you'll get 50 guests to come first OP.

So surely if you’ve been to lots of weddings abroad you can just ask all your mates?

People are giving advice not criticising!

You need to be careful about becoming Bridezilla if you are interpreting people saying be cautious as criticism!

Destination weddings.are rarely "beautiful and enjoyable" for guests. They are a very expensive pain, or at best a duty.

Not Mallorca @tigerlilt, very expensive. I had a destination wedding and was blessed that most people I invited came but I paid for accommodation and three days of celebrations. Having said that, it was still
cheaper abroad than a one day affair in the UK. I have no specific advice for where, but strongly advise you to build in a wedding planner as it would be impossible to plan everything from afar. This cost us €5K and was cheap at the price. Also, you need to consider the marriage laws of where you are getting married. For us, we actually got married legally by a JP the week before and had a fake ceremony on the day, which I don’t think anyone knew about. The rules in the country we got married in were a bit tricky so it was just easier.

It’s exciting, but there is a lot to consider!

I think you can provide one meal if it was in the UK. If guests are travelling, you will need to provide more.
How about a midday reception in an air conditioned hotel, drinks and canapes, then a ceremony at 4 followed by a meal and dancing, then a brunch the next day?
As pp have suggested, if you organise it yourself it'll be cheaper than some of these travel packages.

Wow i’m quite shocked by these responses. Please only helpful advice as it’s quite disheartening 😂. We were planning on providing dinner the night before ect and I don’t see starting at 4 as a ‘half day’; I have NEVER been to an abroad wedding that starts earlier than this.

Again, looking for personal experiences and advice- not criticism.

And yes we will easily get 50 guests- this is inviting the bare minimum- we both have large families and have already discussed a destination with them and our close friends, all say they are willing to come.

I got married on one of the Greek Islands years ago and it was a lot more expensive than we expected. Legal fees. translations and documentation cost us about £1k. We paid £3k for the Ceremony and venue. Reception was at a taverna that we hired exclusively for the evening,

Its stingy because the cost to them of attending is so high. I have no issues with attending a budget wedding but I'm not spending thousands on a holiday and using up my annual leave to attend someone's wedding if its on the cheap

I just take it as criticism as it’s purely not the advice I asked for, as our decision to have a destination wedding has already been made- my question is looking for advice/ whether we need to increase our budget.

I went to a wedding in Cyprus, it really is a beautiful island, but the venue less so, and I know that the bride was very disappointed with the catering. It's tricky doing it from a distance. Would it be possible to go out there to do some planning beforehand, so you know exactly what you're getting?

Would you say 15k is ‘on the cheap’? this is exactly my question, we can increase the budget if needed but i’ve never planned a wedding before so i don’t know.

Really? In my mind, close family is parents, grandparents, and siblings.
Are you certain that your close family will be able to afford to spend upwards of £1k per person on attending your wedding?
I’ve been to one wedding in Barbados a few years ago. The ceremony took place on the beach outside the hotel, it was really picturesque but there were only about 12 guests, apart from the 100s of tourists on the beach all watching the ceremony and the sound of jet skis in the sea drowning out the sound of the vows.

Could you reduce your guest list maybe if it's coming up a bit pricey?

I've only been to one destination wedding. It was in Garda during a heat wave and my top tip would be to think about the heat. If it's going to be really hot, please provide shade, or preferably an indoor area with air conditioning, loads of cold soft drinks and please, please, please don't fuck about with photos for three hours as our bride and groom did. More than one group of people ended up leaving before the meal! The people who stayed on till the bitter end were coming back to the hotel and getting straight into cold baths. It was so hot and the venue was completely inappropriate for a bunch of British and Irish people who weren't used to it at all. I swear the bride's granny looked like she was going to expire.

Can you find out how much a nice hotel would cost for a reception?

Personal experience...friend's wedding on a Greek Island in June.

We took a week's leave and made it a holiday, which was a good thing, as the actual wedding was a quick conveyor- belt affair, and it threw it down with rain. A queue of soggy brides and disgruntled guests seeking non- existent shelter does not make for a happy experience.

I'd never bother again.

Yes because you're transferring cost to the guests.

I think doing it yourself is easier than you think rather than booking packages, wedding planners etc.

I have Greek family and would say start backwards. Find a beautiful taverna and contact them directly (you’ll probably find they are regularly booked by wedding planners who add a commission). Ask who they know and before you know it they will recommend flowers, cake makers etc. You will probably end up with a better less off the shelf experience too.

Not a wedding, but I’ve organised parties this way. There are a lot of festivals, weddings and parties in Greece so they do know how to do these things!

My cousin wed in Cyprus, their wedding i think cost 5-8k, their guest "holiday" costs however were triple what would have been a normal holiday cost for them because the venue was out of the way, & wasnt the typical holiday venue and was although beautiful, it was expensive.

If your family/guests dont mind forking out 6k to attend your wedding then fair play, but dont forget that guest costs increase to attend your event. The venue offered a Wedding service which had different levels of inclusions.

If you've attended loads of destination weddings, get in touch with the people and ask them the pitfalls and what to be careful of?

Both of our parents are divorced, we have siblings, DP is very close to cousins and went to mallorca for their wedding and they have said they would do the same for us. Aunties and uncles on both sides are comfortable and have already discussed that they would be happy to come abroad. The numbers add up!

It’s also a discussion i’ve had with the few close friends and they have all said they would be happy to treat it as their summer holiday, which i’m hoping will be lovely for them if we do it somewhere like greece.

6k?! We are attending a wedding in italy in summer and it’s costing us £500 for flights and accommodation.

I love the idea of hiring a taverna by the beach in greece! I’m thinking a cocktail hour reception with canapés after the ceremony followed by a sit down meal and then a party!

If you've attended loads of destination weddings, get in touch with the people and ask them the pitfalls and what to be careful of?

That's actually an idea OP. Ask all of them for their pros and cons and make a list out of the lot. You'll probably get a plan going then

15k for what though? Includes your flights and accommodation - 2 to 5k? What do you want to “provide “ 50 guest £50 per head for food 2.5k. Plus drinks and open bar takes that to 5k

of course you can do it - you can do a wedding for less than that in the UK so your question / premise is too unclear - what do you expect to get abroad that you won’t get in the uk ?

it but I’d think hard about the location in terms of how much it wil cost the guests in time and money and your guaranteed sun might be someone else’s over hot nightmare