Weddings abroad

NiamhB

Hi there,

just wondering what people think of the new craze for bride and groom to marry abroad. Does anyone else know couples that have asked you to join them for their holiday in Hawaii, Austrailia or the like? Do the cost factors measure up? All thoughts appreciated...

piskins72

NiamhB wrote:

Hi there,

just wondering what people think of the new craze for bride and groom to marry abroad. Does anyone else know couples that have asked you to join them for their holiday in Hawaii, Austrailia or the like? Do the cost factors measure up? All thoughts appreciated...

Hi Niamh,

myself and my husband opted for this for a number of reasons, we got married in Mauritius on the 18th Sept 2006, cost was on reason for our decision, I had researched it throughly before we made the final decision and going on hotel prices and that for the number of people we would have been askin it worked out cheaper. my husbands brother and his wife both travelled with us and made it their holiday for the year, they were also both our maid of honour/bestman, so they were aware when we were making the decision initally for abroad. One wedding we seen when we were there did have a big family group present, some hotels will do offers and that for say "all guests" offers and maybe give a discount of that u pay for x number of nights and maybe get one or 2 free, this was the case with the hotel we were in. on our return we did have a reception and blessing in local hotel, and this still worked out cheaper than if we had done the full wedding here initally, we even had overpaid the hotel and got refunded some money!!

Tim Robbins

NiamhB wrote:

Hi there,

just wondering what people think of the new craze for bride and groom to marry abroad. Does anyone else know couples that have asked you to join them for their holiday in Hawaii, Austrailia or the like? Do the cost factors measure up? All thoughts appreciated...

I think it's a symton of how the Celtic Tiger has messed up many people's heads.
In most cases, it works out way more expensive to go abroad.
Maybe not for the Bride and Groom but for anybody who has to go to the Wedding. Going to wedding in Ireland can cost between 2 - 4 hundred yo yos. Going to a wedding abroad and you can clock up a grand easily between flights, having to stay an extra night(s) in hotels and having to go out for dinner the extra night(s) you are there.

It puts people invited to the Wedding in an awkard position. Unless they really want to make a holiday out of it, they end having to spend way more money to go to the Wedding and take more time off work.

Remember nobody, likes refusing wedding invitations. It's like there some sort of subtext: "I am too scabby and don't value you as a friend to go to your special day."
They simply may not be able to afford forking out a grand or there abouts but may not feel comfortable admitting they don't want to spend that about of money for your special day.

It gets even worse when the bride and groom are inviting couples and only one person in the couple knows the bride or groom. The other person in the couple may think having to spend that amount of money and take extra time of work is complete waste but may just have to go.

Basically we have lost the run of our selves. Is it reasonable to ask your friends and their partners to spend that much money and take more time off work just for your special day?

No. It's flipping self indulgence gone mad. If it was true love, people shouldn't need to fork out that much money to make it special.

piskins72

here is a picture from the setting my wedding was held in, the hotel has its own little gazabo for weddings on a little pond within the grounds of the hotel. its very private.

dame

Weddings abroad are fine and not selfish as long as you're not inviting a huge group and expecting them all to pay for themselves and like mentioned earlier, expecting a gift as well is plain cheeky. "Your presence is our present" is a much better view on it. Why not go somewhere special but only invite immediate family and maybe absolute best friends only? Asking more people to come and you'll start to lose the run of things and find it hard to know where to draw the line, much like almost every Irish wedding. Also, perhaps you could pay either the flights or the accommodation for the guests? I'd say don't go somewhere too far away for the wedding itself (long flights for elderly parents, too much time off work for siblings/friends, etc.). You can always fly on from the wedding location to somewhere more exotic for the honeymoon if you like.

piskins72

For my wedding, the usual bridal things like hair and make up, I paid for my bridesmaid much as same as what would be done here. the hotel we stayed in was AI so that pretty much took care of all the other expenses as it was paid up front, wedding meal was incl in the package on the day also and we had a cake, photographer, dvd done, flowers all at the fraction of the cost of them here if we had had full wedding here which we paid for at the resort. there is a wedding in most of these resorts on a daily basis, and they all do only 1 wedding which makes it special also, so you get all the attention for the day.

euromillions

Hi everyone,

Planning on getting married in New York next year just the 2 of us in a civil cermony in City Hall. Does anyone know if this marriage will be legally binding in Ireland or will i need special documents before I go or when I come back etc? Has anyone gotton married this way and how did it go?

Many Thanks.

OTK

Foreign marriages are recognised in Ireland so long as you are legally married and not just religiously married. There is no need to register your marriage in Ireland when you get home. I was married abroad and my marriage is recognised in Ireland.

Obviously you don't want to show up in New York missing some document you need to get married so I would advise calling both the office of the City Clerk http://nycmarriagebureau.com/ and City Hall to double check that you have all necessary documents for a non-US citizen to marry. Fo example: do you need US social security numbers?

Also you will need a witness to get married (not the Clerk)

If you want to get divorced in the future it is much easier to do in New York than in Ireland. You won't have to be separated for 5 years!