Ideas for cheap wedding abroad please

[PlinkPlink]

Hope someone can get my ball rolling here...

So OH and I want to get married soon, in the next few years to be a little more vague.

But we don't want alot of fuss. No big wedding. No mad decorations. Nothing over the top. We want our DS and our parents there. That is it.

Here are the basics we're thinking:

Beach wedding - abroad somewhere?
Flowers - just some fake ones
Dress - eBay
Grooms wear - light white linen shirt, tan trousers
Rings - cheapy but naice.

I'll do my own hair, makeup and nails. Then we're just going to have a nice dinner with our parents and son after. Then enjoy the holiday as we wish.

Has anyone ever done this? Where do you go to to get ideas for a wedding abroad? A small one at that?
Any suggestions for our basics? Websites? Am I missing anything?

Really looking forward to some suggestions

Think cheap but reasonably classy.

what about cyprus op? you can see their packages if you scroll down here

all the best x

Hmmm... not considered Cyprus before. Definitely need the hot though... We are beach lovers.

Thank you for your help!

cyprus is hot nearly all year round, especially in the summer months. in the winter it is around 17-18*c

Gibraltar. It's the Vegas of Europe in terms of ease/costs to marry apparently.

What about the actual getting married bit?

What do you mean?

Loads of places there have packages and there are planners that will help you book it all. We looked at Gibraltar and for weddings its a bit like Vegas or Gretna green, it's a huge part of what they do there.

Ah well yes, see... I know how to do it here. I almost got married once. Cancelled about a month beforehand though (long story) but as far getting married abroad...

I know you still need a to give notice, have an interview and it needs to be in a country where it's still valid in the UK.

Oooh Gibraltar sounds nice!!!

We got married in Italy. We knew the region we wanted to get married in, googled a local wedding planner who sorted out a simple town hall ceremony and told us what legal stuff needed doing. My sister lives there and she booked the set menu at a local restaurant for us and we went on a vineyard tour in the afternoon, although these are things the wedding planning guy could have done for us. There were nine of us in total. Total cost including rings, flights and hotels was less than £3k, about 8 years ago. Guests paid for their own transport and accommodation though.

"cheap" and "wedding abroad" in the same sentence....

Wouldn't you be better just getting married here and having a nice holiday? Are you going to be expecting friends and family to attend?

You don't need to give notice here when marrying abroad.

Cypriot weddings are recognised here, you need to be there a few days beforehand to collect a license from the main city hall.

We are getting wed in Vegas in 4 months, £750pp including flights and hotel for 4 nights.

Italy would be quite special as OH is part Italian. His grandmother came over to England when she was pregnant with OH's dad. She came on her own. Went on to have 2 more boys. From what I've heard she was a very resilient woman! So there's family still there. It'd be nice to do Italy. £3k really is reasonable.

My OH and I are planning to do the same TUI have specialised wedding brochures with a range of hotels in Europe and the Caribbean offering wedding packages for as little as £980, you have optional extras like a private dinner on the beach, wedding cake, bouquet etc and it seems very simple as the hotel and TUI arrange it so you just chill out on holiday, get married then back to holiday. Obviously guests will need to stay at the same hotel so bare that in mind whilst choosing. We are probably going to book it next year after Christmas etc is out the way x

Haha sorry Piper... perhaps I should have elaborated a bit more.

Last wedding was 10k!!!! And that was in the UK. Looking back on it now I think it was bloody ridiculous to have spent that amount of money. It includes accommodation for all our guests.

But I was getting at, we don't want the fuss or the over the top stuff. We just want to marry each other.

Only guests will be our parents

Oh thank you DC18 that's really helpful!! I will pop in and see if they have any brochures we can take away.

Caribbean sounds equally as ideal. Anything with sun and Sandy beaches!

And thank you Q...

I'm glad you mentioned that.

Ah, my sister did Vegas too. I always thought it was a brilliant idea. They just got married and got a helicopter ride out of there. Plus Vegas... are you saving some money for a spot of gambling? Got to be done in Vegas, right? 😂

ha PlinkPlink we are indeed, we are also leaving DC at home so just 4 friends 'popping' to Vegas for a wedding (which will take all of about 2 hours total) Plenty of time left for a flutter or 2 :)

BIL and his wife were married in Italy, I think they had to do a small register office thing here prior but worth looking into. Their's was Sorrento, loads of locals gave them flowers as they walked through the high street.

Hi OP and congratulations! We got married in Paphos, Cyprus about 12 years ago and although I can't remember the total cost I do recall that the cost of the wedding ceremony, meals and transport for a small number of guests, mine and DH clothes, rings etc., our hotel stay whilst there plus a party when we got home and honeymoon all came to about a third of what most of our social circle spent just on their wedding day! That was also going thorough a specialist tour operator so I imagine if you left them out and did it as you've described (maybe find a lovely beach taverna for dinner and dancing after?) you absolutely can do it without breaking the bank.

To be fair those we invited (family and a handful of close friends) were happy to have it as a holiday and we chose dates about 18 months in advance so that helped with peoples budgeting.

Saying all of that I went to a wedding in San Gimignano in Tuscany a few years ago and that was pretty magical!

Good luck! X

Yes, just remember to check the legality of marrying abroad.

Thank you tellme

See, that's exactly what I mean. The whole important bit of the day is the actual getting married to each other. Not all of the stuff you can get distracted by.

The last time I was engaged I remember my mum and sister getting annoyed/concerned about the fact that I just didn't really care. Of course alot of that had to do with me not being in love with the x anymore but still... I just couldn't get excited. I didn't care about what sodding colours the wedding was going to have. Or what the bridesmaids should wear. Just pointless to me. Perfectly fine if it's important to someone else (I don't mean to be disrespectful there) but it just never has been to me.

Yeah we don't have super rich families so we'd give plenty of notice for saving up.

I'm wondering if it'd be a nice touch to have the wedding close to the town where the family originated... I can't for the life of me think of the name. It'll be closer to home so less flying time. Hot if we pick the right time of year too.

Having it near where the family are from sounds really lovely and would make it even more personal. If it's rural you might want to look at accommodation options and how easy it would be for guests to get there?

A few posters have raised a good point about checking legalities of where you are - this is where going via a tour operator may be useful?

Your right about how hung up on some of the details people can get plus these things are so competitive now . Again if you do go abroad you could find choices are more limited but actually sometimes that's a good thing! We chose a local restaurant near our hotel which gave guests a choice for each of three courses, we had about 24 hours to get options and let them know but again it was a couple of full on days of running round signing licenses, doing a bar crawl to choose where we'd go after dinner (an Irish bar it turns out! It was great doing karaoke in my dress!) but worth it for how little stress there was.