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.

You will
need to
double your budget at a minimum

I would suggest hiring a large villa. My friend hired a huge villa in Tuscany, where they had the wedding next to a beautiful pool and garden, and approx 30 people stayed there for a couple nights before and after the wedding. And they hired a coach for airport transfer. That meant guests only had to pay for their flights.

good to know. thankyou for your honesty! we don’t want a wedding that feels cheap or on a budget as we do appreciate people will be travelling for it.

you’re definitely not delusional — £15k for a 50-guest destination wedding is very doable.
Greece (especially Kefalonia, Lefkada, Paros, Naxos), Portugal (Algarve), and parts of Spain are all great value with reliable sun. Mallorca can work too, just avoid luxury hotels and look at fincas or smaller venues.
A 4pm ceremony, one main meal, and an open bar for part of the night is exactly how most couples keep costs down. Many destination weddings for this size come in around £12k–£16k.
Packages like Ionian Weddings are convenient but not always the cheapest — local planners often give better value and more flexibility. Biggest savings: weekday weddings, local suppliers, and minimal décor (the setting does the work).
Bottom line: totally realistic, and honestly better value than the UK.

Yeah, this is what I'm saying. When considering your venue choice, make sure you check the average cost of the typical accomodation for the guests so you know what Aunt Barbara will be expected to fork out or what cousin John and Wife with 3 kids will have to pay. People very easily say "oh yes would love to come" but when in reality it means taking leave, kids out of school (if relevant), flights accomodation, outfits etc it starts to build up.

Dates matter, Tuesday is cheaper than weekend - but flight prices will reflect this. You may have looked at the average price for a Tuesday, when in August at peak the prices shoot up.

Our cost to attend was around 6k, return flights. 4 nights accomodation. Some people chose to stay offsite but it was a pain to get too.

I completely understand that people see asking people to come abroad unresonable but in all honesty it’s never an outlook I’ve had! We are on a very tight budget this year as i’m on maternity leave but we are still sacrificing our summer holiday and putting money aside so we can attend our friends wedding in italy, everyone is different I guess!

Thankyou for this very helpful reply!
I would absolutely love to get married in Kefalonia as it’s where we went on our first holiday.
Do you have any further advice regarding venues ect?

Destination weddings are fucking awful. It's hard to turn down an invitation if you're a close relative/friend, and it's just so presumptuous to do something that is both time and money expensive.

Each to their own! but again this feed was not asking for what people think of destination weddings.

AI 🙄🥱

It really depends on the place and venue! My sister is getting married abroad in 2027 and their package is £19,000 which includes photographer, hair/makeup, DJ/entertainment, all the legal stuff, appetisers, a sit down meal & 2 hours open bar among other things for 40 guests.

Our friends got married in Greece last year to keep costs down, our other friends were going to look at the same place so got a cost brochure and the package they paid for was £8000 for 35 guests but it did feel cheaply done to be honest. 4pm start, no appetisers/drinks, no open bar, the meal was a bbq rather than a sit down and the photographer was only there for about 2 hours and didn’t hand over many photos at the end of it all. They really regretted the budget option although it was still a lovely day it did feel very budget.

Yeah I just feel obliged to put a reminder out now and again for people to be more considerate.

The package your sister has gone for sounds more like what we’re thinking! Do you mind sharing some more information, if you’re happy to.

So, you'll want somewhere baby friendly as well? That's an important factor. Are other children coming?

I was meant to get married in Mexico & the hotel I was staying in provided a complimentary wedding service. They’d decorate & pay for the officiant & food as long as the guests stayed at the same resort.

Thanks. But at the end of the day it’s not something that is abnormal for our friendship group/ families so I don’t see it as us being inconsiderate. We want our guests, if they are able to and would like to, join us to have a lovely time and a holiday themselves, with no obligations to attend.

We are going to leave that up to our guests- if they can’t arrange childcare ect their children are more than welcome.

Well, that's for the OP to worry about, not you. Why do people have to be so judgemental? If you have advice, give it, if you don't then keep your mouth shut. They weren't asking people's opinion on whether or not a destination wedding is a good idea.

Why not get married abroad, just the two of you, instead of expecting 50 people to spend crazy money to join you? It would be lovely and intimate and then have a party when you get back home.

Ok, fair enough. I was thinking about your baby. How old will she/he be? Most of these resorts are very child friendly anyway.

Did you get a good discount for the guests?

Thankyou!😂took the words right out of my mouth! 😂

You’re doing this the wrong way round though.

Cost up what you want to provide and then see if you have allocated enough money rather than set a budget and make it fit.

You were never going to get great responses here as destination weddings are really unpopular along with a lot of other things other people enjoy!

I’m not against a destination wedding but I would be put out if it there wasn’t really good food/drink/activities for guests.

By all means do a 4pm wedding and that makes sense but what are the guests doing for the day?

Could you organise a BBQ or something? Someone else mentioned a picnic.

I think you should do dinner the night before, food before the wedding and breakfast the day after. You should also do open bar for the evening not just for a short time.

I wouldn’t expect any of that for a local wedding but I would for a destination one.

Somewhere like Cuba definitely but can your guests afford it? Or turkey maybe?
Scotland is very cheap but less sunshine

I think it sounds fine. In our circles it’s a perfectly normal and common thing to do. I would probably book somewhere where you can fly on a budget airline and no more than 3 hours away so that people can either come easily for a couple of nights , fly Friday night fly back Sunday night or can make a longer trip. Also make sure there’s a choice of accommodation and not too far from an airport.

one meal is fine: European weddings don’t start at lunchtime they happen often later in the day. I would go for an open bar all evening even if it’s just wine and beer and if you can do a brunch or breakfast the next day too even better but honestly I totally wouldn’t be bothered. I am sure you can do it for £15k sounds great