Getting married abroad

We got married july05 in portugal albuferia, www.grandereal.com had 110 people with us for a week, everyone stayed in different places. We had a blast, best ever we used travel agency in cork www.premiertravel.ie (Jenny)
20k for everything, food, free bar, photographer, album, dvd, flowers, church, flights, accomodation, dancers, and that included 10 days in Aruba after and all spending money. Everything is so much cheaper away.
 
Tarquin said:
Also, we are NOT doing a big do when we get back, defeats the whole purpose of going away! Each to their own, the other relatives and friends know where we are coming from and we are just going to see people before we go or when we get back, in small numbers.
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We're having a party at home after a small wedding abroad. The reason is that if we don't then some relatives will "surprise" us by turning up at the wedding. We really don't want that at all so a party at home seems the best option.
 
Cost for wedding in St Lucia was around 3,800. That included for 2 weeks - flights, personal driver (a lovelt merc) to and from airport, accommodation (garden view 4 poster bed), all meals, drinks, water sports etc 2, spa treatments, the fee for wedding reg and all relevant documentation, flowers for him and her, small wedding cake. We spent another 400 on extras such as video photographer, extra flowers, bubbles, hairdresser and a steel drum player (we thought when in Rome (or carribbean!) we may as well! Still alot cheaper than ireland. You wont even get the photographer for 400 in ireland...... i think thats the lot
 
Also getting married in Rome in April and so far so good in regards to organisation. Like most others, went to Rome to see everything and the priest has done the rest more or less!!!! Alot of people say there is alot more paperwork than a wedding in Ireland but I haven't seen alot. There were some to fill out from the department and some with the local priest but that was it.

The only problem I have come up against is bringing the wedding dresses and suits on the flight. We're flying with.......RYANAIR...... (only one that goes from shannon). I rang them a while back wondering if we could carry them on the plane as hand luggage and the girl (who was really nice on the phone) said that it would not be a problem and they would hang them up with their own clothes at the back of the plane, but we would not be able to bring anything else on as you are only allowed one item. That didn't matter as we have the families going with us and they could bring what ever we needed.

Then we had a change of flights as RYANAIR cancelled there flights on a Saturday and when I was on to them I decided to ask again about the dresses and suits just to make sure.......And would you believe it.......they have changed there minds and say we have to either pay for an extra seat to leave them on or check them in as luggage in the hold or cramp them into the tiny suitcase that fits in to the overhead lockers. Either way they will be distroyed with creases. Has anybody else had this problem or were people told they couldn't bring them on and then turn up at the airport they would let you on with them? If I can't bring them with RYANAIR has anybody had problems bringing them with AERLINGUS. Brothers going over with them from Dublin and might bring them for me if Aerlingus will let them? Any suggestions welcome. Sorry for butting in on your tread Finbar but this might be of importance to others planning to travel abroad for weddings.

If you have any specific questions in relation to getting married in Rome feel free to ask.

Thks in advance.
 
Thank you so much for all that info, i've switched back to Italy again after that!! Thank you so so much for all the effort to give me your personal info. Best of luck in September Tarquin!!
 
MsPBL said:
Hi all,
I am completating getting married abroad. One of the main reasons is that I dont want to spend 20-30k on 12 hrs and I want something a little different. I love Italy and we have recently retured there to suss a spot out. However, I have been doing a spot of web research I'm in too minds about the 'hassle' of orgainsing a foregin wedding. Has anyone done this and would they recommend it or is a small as in 50 -60 guests here easier. I would just like to add that it is not all abot the 'big day' to me and that I have not lost sight of the most important aspect- a marriage.
Thanks.
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Why not go down the registry office route and then just invite some close friends for a meal afterwards, or you could do what I am contemplating and head off to New York , get hitched in City Hall and no guests, After all it is your day and should be done how you want it and not how u would imagine everyone else would like, After all as you said it is about the marriage and not the big day out as people tend to forget.
 
Aidomoss, with regard to flying ryanair - we got married in Tuscany last September and flew into Pisa with Ryanair. I was bricking bringing the dress onto the plane - didn't know whether they'd take it off me at the check in or what - but nobody said a thing, the security people just took it off me (didn't put it through the machine) and had a look in the bag and then gave it back. When I got onto the plane, myself and my husband sat at the very back and I was still clutching my dress. When everyone else had sat down turns out we had a seat beside us free so I was thinking - excellent I'll just put the dress there. Turns out we weren't allowed put the dress on the seat for some reason but I asked the stewardess if she could hang it up and she said no but that she'd find somewhere to put it. She ended up laying it across three seats at the front of the plane - I think they are used to doing this for people. You'd be surprised at how nice people are when you're carrying a wedding dress!!

MsPBL, we had the most fabulous few days around the wedding - as people flew over a day or two beforehand it really added to the atmosphere and it meant people got to know each other before the big day itself. Personally I always wanted to get married abroad, Italy appealed and we couldn't have asked for more. We did have a wedding planner as a) it was outside rome and b) we dont' speak Italian so it was necessary for us to have one, but I have heard of a lot of girls (on weddingsonline) who didn't use a planner. I would highly recommend Italy, all our guests are still talking about it (esp. the food!). We gave everyone plenty of notice so whoever was able to make it was able to plan everything in good time. We appreciated so much everyone making the effort to be there as well. Good luck planning it ; )

M
 
Hi there,
I am going to a wedding in ravello on the amalfi coast this year anit looks perfect. There are some very helpful posts on the amalfi coast on this forum. Best of luck.
 
Hi,

I was at a wedding in Italy in May, and it was the best wedding I was ever at! It was in the north of italy, in a village on one of the lakes (cant remember the name).
From a guests point of view, it was great that we were invited in plenty of time, since we had time to look for flight deals etc.
Also the invites included information with links to airlines to the nearest airports, transfer times, transfer prices for taxi/minibus, hotels with a range of prices, etc.
Most people arrived a day or two before the wedding, so we all had time to get to know one another - on the wedding day itself it felt like a family party. There were also only 50 people at it, so you got to know everyone.
It is more expensive for the guest than a normal wedding in dublin, but you can take a few days off and make a holiday out of it.

My friend hired a wedding planner, and said it was the best thing ever, and indeed, she did seem a very relaxed bride. Also, they got discounts for many things because it was booked through the planner, so the planner practically paid for themselves.

Best of luck!
 
Hi i got married in Dubrovnik 2 months ago. It was fabulous, the hotel we booked included the services of a wedding planner FOC. It was a 5 star hotel costing €50 a head (not incl wine). I wont go into details cos you are thinking of Rome but i would recommend getting married abroad. Our family and a few friends came (27) and we stressed that as they were going to the expense of travelling we didnt want a wedding present.

We got them anyway , but what was most important was that only the people we really wanted were there and not every cousin four times removed that we would have been obliged to invite had we got married in Ireland.

Give people plenty of notice to get the money together. Good Luck.
 
Thks for that muffin1973. I think I'll just show up and hope for the best. Surely they wont be to harsh on us when we're getting married, fingers crossed!!!

Sorry for butting in on your tread Finbar but this might be of importance to others planning to travel abroad for weddings.
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Sorry MsPBL for mixing up whose tread it was.
 
hey,
just to let you know that we did the whole 'we're getting married abroad' thing for about 3 months. we went to planners and looked into it for ourselves too. in all for about 70 people it was working out to be about 10k. we spoke to close friends and families and asked them for brutal honesty and they said they werent too keen on going for a week and would really have to. it was putting alot of our friends under financial strain too. the thing is with our group of friends is that we are all getting married and all have about 5-8 weddings a year and we just couldnt do it to people. I know they all would have come and would have had a lovely time but i know i'd be a bit distraught at having to go abroad for a wed cos i have 5 more after that.

Now that is only our group of friends and if it isnt the case for yours then itd be absolutely deadly.
another thing i was dreading was my parents and aunts etc havin to kinda hang out with my friends for a week. maybe im odd!

anyway have gone for a 85 people wed here in a really nice 5star hotel which all inclusive with band is comin to about 14k. i know your wed should be about what you want and this is true, but i want my guests to truely have no hassles so they'll be relaxed about it beforehand
 
I agree with Narky in that inviting people to go away for a full week is a bit much. We certainly wouldn't have expected anyone to come over for that length of time as standard, although some people will always make a holiday out of it. Most people came over for 2-3 days which was fine with everyone and would be fine with me if I went abroad for a wedding.

ps: our wedding cost about the €10k as well...

M
 
Sorry now to jump on the bandwagon about this. We would like to get married abroad also, thinking of Lanzarote hopefully. Just wondering did your around the 10k mark include the honeymoon aswell?
Thanks!
 
Eh, no :eek:

When I say €10k I mean for the reception and everything on the day itself. I'm excluding the rings, my dress and the honeymoon...

We were lucky - my dad paid for the reception, we paid for everything else.

M
 
Hi there.
This is my first post.
Hope I haven't missed the boat on this thread. I'm thinking of getting married this summer in either France or Italy. I'm just wondering what are the implications with paper work etc. What needs to be done. I don't think we'll tell anyone until we get back though! We have a 5 year old child so my folks will just be happy we got it together to get that ring on my finger.
 
One of my friends recently set up a wedding planner business in Budapest for locals and also foreigners who want to get married here as an alternative to Italy/France/Portugal, etc. What do people think about getting married in an overseas city as opposed to by a beach?
 
Hi Jellyshots,
Could you tell me the name of the 5 star hotel in portugal that your friend got married in and did they have a wedding planner and if so could you tell me the name of them please.
 
Niceoneted says have an open invitation to the wedding abroad.
I would defo go abroad.
We had a deposit on a hotel & then I seen a wedding abroad on the telly. It was on a cruise ship!!!
Yes we were married on board Royal Caribbeans Voyager of the Seas.
I would love to do it all over again.
Go to a cruise specialist! & check out
select planning your cruise & then special occasions.
You will enjoy every moment of the process & it doesn't cost as much as everyone thinks. Don't forget it will also be your honeymoon too & you can get married in Italy if you like just select the ships & dates with your travel agent for whatever you want. So worth it.
If you've any questions just message me
 
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