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 have been married twice.

first time in Italy, Sorrento - was very lovely and a close family/friends only do. Prob cost is about £7k with the 5 course meal, translation, paperwork, photographer etc.

Second wedding a couple of years ago - local registry office and then our local pub with approx 200 guests over the day, bouncy castle for kids, 2 buffets etc, and racing cars - it was epic, and cost about £5k in total.

it really depends what you want.

And my younger DSis got married last year - in the middle of nowhere really, my DD (brides niece) was invited as a formality - wedding was term time, no other kids, and no entertainment at all - would have been even more boring (no tv, no WiFi, shit weather, nowhere else to go remotely easily). It was hard enough for us but at least we could drink, even if there wasn’t anywhere to get a snack or anything.

think about your guests as well as yourself if you are asking people to spend £k to be there.

That's a crazy amount of money to spend no matter where in the world.

Save your money, have a small ceremony and a bit of a party locally and save the other 10+k

It sounds as though it's what YOU want.
It's extremely selfish

People say that bit but when it comes to it, I'd bet my house that many of them won't follow through.

Agree. Not that I would go. Have declined invitation to a destination wedding within extended family this summer.

I think destination weddings expect guests to pay for air travel and hotel stays so expect many people won't want to give up what will likely be the cost of a 2 week summer holiday to be stuck in a hotel with your wedding guests.

Ignore all the judgmental posts, mumsnet followers take great dislike to hen parties, weddings abroad and baby showers alike, you’d think some of them were invited 😂

We married 15 years ago in Olu Deniz, Turkey on the lagoon. It cost ~£9k, but that was absolutely everything including dresses, suits, flights, hotel and spending money.

52 guest came for 7-14 days. We married at 7pm. Had a BBQ on the beach for the meal (nobody batted an eyelid at getting ‘fed once’ ) and we paid for all the drinks. We had a party with Dj and belly dancers etc then wrapped it up at 1am. We provided transport to and from the venue. It was absolutely perfect. I’m not keen on long drawn out weddings, I find them a little boring tbh.

I think it’s tempting to go for far flung destinations or luxurious hotels, but realistically not everybody has the budget. We selected a 4* middle of the road hotel that offered self catering/half board/all inc because we wanted to stay with our guests. 50 out of 52 stayed in same hotel. We then went on a more ‘luxurious’ honeymoon a few months later. Be mindful of transfer times too.

Turkey isn’t as competitive as it was back then and olu deniz is a very different to the sleepy resort we married in. Kalkan is beautiful, probably similar to how olu deniz used to be.

Avoid the likes of Tui weddings, source a wedding planner in resort. Think carefully about your dress (avoid silks) and strappy sandals, my feet were torn to ribbons as they swelled due to the heat! Consider silk flowers bouquet and button holes.

We didn’t send formal invites. We let friends and family know where we were going, staying and the date of the wedding. There was no pressure, we didn’t ask anybody to RSVP, but just to let us know if they’d booked. 3 months before the day we sent ‘formal’ invites.

Im sure you accept not everyone will come, although more came to ours than we expected. One of my best friends didn’t come, they didn’t fancy Turkey which was absolutely fine, I wasn’t marrying her 😂

Be 100% confident in your decision, this day is for you and your husband, your ASKING people if they’d like to join you, nothing more. Do not give the destination wedding haters room in your head. It was absolutely perfect for me and my DH and if I could do it all again tomorrow I would.

Good point

Unfortunately the babies themselves usually fall into the former camp!

Have you looked directly at hotels in places like Kenya or Sri Lanka? Some of them do offer wedding packages with dedicated on-site co-ordinators, invaluable when sorting out local paperwork/legal requirements.
I would also approach hotels you are interested in directly.

I wouldn't risk August in the Mediterranean, personally. They've had some horrendous heat waves over the past few summers. Imagine if you'd booked and arranged everything, and the forecast was 40C - nightmare.

Oh, this was a painful thread to read.

OP, Mumsnet really isn’t the right place for this question. You’ve ended up with the usual judgement from people who have no understanding of destination weddings — the comments about a “half day” and “only one meal” genuinely made me laugh 🤣

I’m a destination wedding photographer, and I regularly shoot weddings across Europe and further afield. Late-afternoon ceremonies (4–5pm) are completely standard in hot countries. I recently shot a Dubai wedding that started at 6pm and went on until 2am.

My advice would be to move over to the destination wedding Facebook groups. There’s a very active Mallorca brides group, and loads for Greece, Italy, France, etc — just search and they’ll come up. You’ll get advice from brides who actually understand the logistics, budgets and cultural norms, rather than responses rooted in seeing everything solely from a guest’s point of view.

You’ll get far more constructive, relevant guidance there, without the judgement or derailment of your actual questions.

Good luck 🥰

I had a destination wedding in Mexico at an all inclusive that offered free weddings if staying on resort. We paid £8k for an upgraded package, we also paid for our parents to attend as none of them had been able to afford a holiday abroad in years, all in it cost us around £25K for 2 week holiday and wedding and both sets of parents. The cost of ‘extras’ was very expensive - ie $38 to apply strip lashes on top of the $150 for bridal makeup.

We didn’t invite people as such, just told our family and close friends this is where we are getting married, that they were welcome to come but no pressure or expectations as it’s far away and expensive. A surprising amount of people did book however, 38 including us and our 2 DDs.

I absolutely loved the day, the only thing I didn’t really think about before hand was how much pressure I felt to ensure everyone enjoyed their holiday as I felt guilty that they’d used their annual holiday to come to our wedding. I ended up doing lots of taking all nieces and nephews to kids club or the onsite waterpark/activities to give their parents a break. The kids really enjoyed it as it’s the only family holiday they’ve had with cousins.

Our friends who attended our wedding are getting married in Greece in May 2027, it’s cost them around £38K so far not including flights and I’m not really sure what is included in that except I know they are having fireworks. The wedding planner was £4K alone. We are all paying for flights and £1250 as a contribution to the villas per room. I was surprised when they told me how much it’s costing them so you might need to up your budget. The villas are beautiful but really expensive and I think they’ve hired 2 huge ones to accommodate most guests, and the wedding is taking place in one of them.

And I lost a good friendship of over 30 years. 😢

She said she didnt mind if people came or not. But for some of us it was apparently it was "be there or else"

I think you would get fewer guests going to a far flung destination such as those you have suggested though. The bride and groom need to be realistic.

I'm not anti destination weddings, but to me having the guests I want is more important than the venue. I realise that not everyone thinks like that.

I also think that there are some tone deaf posters on this thread who clearly live in wealthier circles and wouldn't bat an eyelid at forking out to attend a destination wedding.

Unlike many mumsnetters I love a wedding, and would be in a position to travel to one. However, my present would be my presence.

My friends daughter had her wedding last year in Italy - all inclusive in a country house. I think that was about 15k …

Sorry not read all the posts, as leaving hols today, so may have missed some comments.

I’m English Cypriot and been to several ‘destination weddings’, either in Cyprus or Greece. For me, they aren’t destination really, as have our own house in Cyprus. If Greece then we book hotels. People who want to go, will travel. It’s really common in our group to marry in Cyprus as that’s our heritage & most of us have homes pr family we can stay with. Greece is less common, but it’s becoming increasingly popular, but we don’t mind forking out for hotels. We also always give a present. Greeks and Cypriots generally give money, not boxed gifts though a few do.

Usually couple of days before wedding, there is a pre party, with an either a buffet or substantial canapes for those who’ve flown in from abroad. Night before is family dinner for each side.

Wedding, do not do it before 5pm, as wlll be too hot. Dinner and open bar. BBQ on the beach the next day.

There are details of a range of hotels, restaurants and activities, including beach clubs, to suit all budgets, provided by the couple (not paid by them 😁). One couple did hire a large catamaran, to take people to a different beach, to but only done for us once.

I long for the day when I’m asked to go to a wedding in Spain or Italy!

As to whether you can do it for your budget, I’m not sure, as the weddings I’ve gone to are 250+

good luck and hope it works out.

Over 10 years ago now but I had a destination wedding in Greece, if you could sober what island your interested in then search for wedding planners who work independently thats a good shout. You can DEFINATELY do it for sub 15k. People on here get so snooty about destination weddings. At the end of the day it is you and future dh wedding, do what pleases you and whoever comes, comes.
My package Included all legal support. Flowers, a massive meal in a taverna for 25 guests, photos, video, makeup and hair (but wish I did my own 😅) ceremony and decorations. Back then circa 7k. We paid extra for open bar and a mini bus and wedding car. You can do it for your budget absolutely!!

My dc in their 30’s have gone to numerous destination weddings and thoroughly enjoyed them, I think it’s very common in that age group. They just treat it as a holiday and all the ones they’ve been to haven't been short on guests.

Do you need things like a make up artist and hair stylist OP, or could you cut costs by doing your own? You also won’t need printed invitations- you can create an online one with details/links to the chosen hotel and details of how to book, that will save on costs.

My nephew is getting married abroad next year and assumed we would be going as we like our holidays. Him and his fiancée were rather put out when we declined. We've already holidays booked for the year, and it would have cost us almost 3k!

I had two destination weddings and they came in under that budget. First one was Lapland and it was just the two of us and the second one Malta with 30 we used a wedding planner for both and they required three trips each to taste food wine and choose venues so don't forget to factor that in. Friends married in Italy but at a place they already knew and had been too many time aso only went once to try the food for dinner

People on here get so snooty about destination weddings.

To be fair, it is usually child free or term times weddings that get the most kick backs, especially if the bride and groom get nasty about people declining for logistical or financial reasons.

They just need to have realistic expectations.

We were invited to a wedding in India (the couple are Indian) during term time in April during DD's GCSE year. We had to decline for obvious reasons, and no-one was upset.

I agree, there is a lot of snobbery about destination weddings on here. They are considered new, non traditional and to some people that means tacky.

The "it's an invitation not a summons" line is right. You do not have to attend. But equally nobody needs to voice their opinions on a thread about a destination wedding when it hasn't been asked. That is also tacky! Even if I agree with some of the negative opinionos, they weren't asked for, so no need.

Anyway, op sounds very considerate. The only destination wedding had a b&g pair who were not that thoughtful and it did put me off destination weddings and the couple. But a bit of care for guests would have made the whole day a lot better

My advice would be nip down the town hall before the trip in the UK to get legally married.

Life admin is far easier with a UK wedding certificate than a Greek or Spanish or Turkish one.

You don't need to tell anyone that the beach ceremony isn't the legal one if you want. It also makes planning much easier as you don't need the hassle of getting foreign registrars, translators etc.

Tbh, I'd suggest doing it before your baby is born because if the worst happens - death, serious injury or illness after birth - your partner will find admin/legal work much easier if you are married...