Foreign Wedding - Recommendations for planners/travel agents etc

floggg · 13-10-2014 1:21pm #1

Hi

I am at the preliminary stage of trying to plan a wedding for next year, and we are discussing the option of a small intimate wedding abroad.

The initial discussion was for Spain, but also open to somewhere else in Europe (within reasonable distance for friends and family travelling).

Can anybody recommend any good or reputable wedding planners/agencies who deal in Spanish/foreign weddings?

Or even how to go about finding one other than just googling?

Peregrinus · 15-10-2014 8:45am

I would have thought that you want a planner operating in the place where you will have your wedding. You need somebody who speaks the language, knows the legal requirements, had contacts with local suppliers, is familiar with possible venues, etc. There is not much point in having a wedding planner who is as far away from the locale as you are yourself.

Which means, I think, you have to decide where you want to marry, and only then go looking for a wedding planner in that locality with experience in dealing with foreign clients.

(Finally, you should also consider whether for a "small intimate wedding" you need a wedding planner at all.)

Lucy and Harry · 15-10-2014 8:49am

You can get married in Cyprus lovely country.Nissi Beach hotel in Ayia Nappa google it online.

sillysocks · 15-10-2014 6:39pm

I'd also say decide on an area and then find a local planner there. They know the area and suppliers better than any travel agent here plus they are there in the lead up to and on the big day should you need them. Definitely takes stress out of it.
One example is www.celebrationsinspain.com. They work on Costa del sol, and the main planner is English so no language issues. I'm sure there's plenty more too but that might give your start!

billo.d86 · 20-10-2014 12:25pm

Hi I'm thinking along the same lines myself, Ireland just seems to be a rip off for weddings etc.

My fiancee is Brazilian so we are thinking of Portugal.
They look to have some very nice venues in Faro and Lisbon. For beach weddings as Qunitas (old kind of manor house) which you can hire out the grounds.

But you would definitely want to know where you are going to have it, then contact someone there.

Havent got that far myself yet.

Sherlof3 · 22-10-2014 11:31am

Hi there - we just booked our venue in the South West of France - with no wedding planner! It was frustrating, but we got there in the end with a little bit of understanding for cultural differences (French take a little while longer to reply to emails - so I just email them well in advance).

I have organised the church, venue, caterer etc all from Ireland with one trip over - and another one in the new year. It defo took a lot of time and organisation. If you are willing to forego the ready to go chateau in a package you will get such amazing value for money - we went to see one venue Le Petit Moulin - and what they wanted to charge for it was outrageous!

If you like I can share the venues we looked at - I picked all the venues around one town so that the suppliers would be the same, caterers, florists, etc.

I also signed up to the French version of weddings online.

If you did want a package ready to go the Radisson in Malta does great deals.

Happy Planning!

floggg · 23-10-2014 9:55am

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear enough in the OP.

I realise it's a case of picking a destination and then looking for a local planner, and had really been leaning towards Spain.

I was trying to figure out from there though how would you go about the process of it. There was lots of different places and options popping up on Google but then figuring out how to appraise them seemed like an impossible task.

I think we are kind of coming back towards an Irish wedding now at this stage, because for what we want there doesn't seem to be any material price difference and it would be easier on out guests.

floggg · 23-10-2014 9:56am

billo.d86 wrote: »

Hi I'm thinking along the same lines myself, Ireland just seems to be a rip off for weddings etc.

My fiancee is Brazilian so we are thinking of Portugal.
They look to have some very nice venues in Faro and Lisbon. For beach weddings as Qunitas (old kind of manor house) which you can hire out the grounds.

But you would definitely want to know where you are going to have it, then contact someone there.

Havent got that far myself yet.

Mine is Mexican, so we thought Spanish.

He also speaks French, and understands Italian and Portuguese so any Latin country was a viable option for us.

sillysocks · 23-10-2014 10:04am

We decided on Spain, and my husband knew the area we wanted so we visited there about a year before the wedding for a long weekend and visited venues, met the planner etc. I didn't want to pick a venue without seeing it as they all look fab in photos but can be different in reality.

Cost wise we probably did spend much the same as we would have in Ireland, but for that we probably got a better hotel, better food etc than we would have here. We had the exact wedding we wanted and had 80 guests as opposed to maybe 150/200 in Ireland which we didn't really want. If you were doing it purely for cost I'd imagine there's probably better deals to be had in Ireland these days, plus things like dresses, rings, honeymoon etc all cost the same regardless of whether you are here or abroad.

floggg · 23-10-2014 10:14am

sillysocks wrote: »

We decided on Spain, and my husband knew the area we wanted so we visited there about a year before the wedding for a long weekend and visited venues, met the planner etc. I didn't want to pick a venue without seeing it as they all look fab in photos but can be different in reality.

Cost wise we probably did spend much the same as we would have in Ireland, but for that we probably got a better hotel, better food etc than we would have here. We had the exact wedding we wanted and had 80 guests as opposed to maybe 150/200 in Ireland which we didn't really want. If you were doing it purely for cost I'd imagine there's probably better deals to be had in Ireland these days, plus things like dresses, rings, honeymoon etc all cost the same regardless of whether you are here or abroad.

It wasn't just cost - we liked the idea of it being smaller, more intimate and relaxed and guaranteed sunshine for an outdoor reception.

sillysocks · 23-10-2014 10:21am

floggg wrote: »

It wasn't just cost - we liked the idea of it being smaller, more intimate and relaxed and guaranteed sunshine for an outdoor reception.

Then it's definitely worth exploring. That's pretty much the reasons we did it too. We still had 80 people, which was great, and everyone was so relaxed because they were on holidays as well. We didn't put any pressure on people to go, and knew booking it that for immediate family members there was no money worries etc that would put pressure on people. We planned a date to try minimise peoples time off work etc and a location that had plenty of choice of flights and accomodation for all budgets.

The day of the wedding the weather was amazing but the day after was torrential rain, phew! So even in Spain weather isn't guaranteed

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

Foreign Wedding - Recommendations for planners/travel agents etc

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