ADVICE ON GETTING MARRIED ABROAD

joeduggan

hi. i havent a clue where to start. all i know is i dont want to get married here in irlenad. we want to do it abroad but we havent the first ckue of how to organise it,. any suggestions anyone?

seamus

First thing to do is pick the country! Then take a week's holiday there and travel around looking at places. Do as much online research as you can and get recommendations from friends and family. Go there with a shortlist, don't just wander around looking for places.

A lot of foreign hotels will have a wedding co-ordinator inhouse who can do much of the legwork for you in terms of sourcing local photographers, bands, florists and whatever.

But even before that, you need to decide whether you want a big wedding or a small wedding.

If you're doing a religious ceremony, I would recommend doing a civil ceremony here in Ireland first. You can get legally married abroad, but if it's a non-English speaking country, you'll need to arrange to have your foreign marriage documents officially interpreted (which is not cheap) before you can get the marriage legally recognised here at home. It's far easier to get legally married here and then do a blessing abroad.

keefg

seamus wrote: »

First thing to do is pick the country!

Yep, that's the obvious place to start

I got married in Las Vegas and it was no where near as tacky as people think when it comes to Vegas weddings, there wasn't an Elvis look-a-like in sight.

Easy to set up with hotel wedding planner, all can be done online and via a couple of e-mails.

Nice & quick ceremony (if your not too religious) takes about 30 mins.

Pretty much guaranteed hot sunny weather.

You can celebrate the night away in Vegas!

Zamboni

I am getting married in Scotland this Saturday.

The main thing I needed was the Certificate of Freedom from the DFA.

Need that about 3 months before the wedding.

barbiegirl

We got married last year in Italy www.romanticitalianweddings.com . Pick the type of wedding you want, we wanted sun, wine and decent food, which gave us South of France, Italy or Spain. Then do some internet research, then once a country is chosen, take a week off, hire a car and do some travelling. Maybe organise to see some places you liked on the net.
ALWAYS get a wedding planner. Be willing to trust someone and relinquish some control so get references for whoever you pick. Pick somewhere with arange of accomodation options and stuff for the guests to do in the days leading to and after the wedding. Somewhere they would liek to go.
Best of luck and have a ball. Oh and when you have decided on a date, send "Save the date cards" to everyone you're planning to invite, it allows them to plan their holidays around your wedding if they are going to come.

nikip

Hi barbie girl,

just pm'd you hope you dont mind my nosy questions!

barbiegirl

Nope nosey questions welcome. :-)

Terpsichore

Contact your local Tour Operator.

It's not very well know but They don't just deal with the honeymoons anymore. Some have specialised in weddings abroad and will organise everything for you from A to Z.

Just from the top of my head: Sunway, Tropical Places, Joe Walsh Tours, Escape 2...

I am getting married back home this summer (in France) and even though I'm tremendously enjoying all the preparations, I sometimes wonder how simple it would have been to delegate all the hard work to a professional! We flew to France 6 times over the last six months, mainly because our priest is really serious... Not complaining: just saying that there was a lot of money and time invested before the actual wedding's expenses...

davylee

try and look into booking it direct as travel agents can have a mark-up of 40%.

Teresa1984

a few pieces of advice!!

take a look at the different tour operators guides to see the different places that are on offer. this will give you a good starting point, and you can see if you are leaning towards europe, the states or asia - a good start to whittling down your choices.

try and find out as much as you can about the country regarding weddings - legal requirements, church requirements, etc. Also check what weather will be like, how busy/quiet the place will be, availability of services or wedding planners in the area, etc.

make a pro and con list for each area, being as objective as possible (hint: if your leaning towards a place this is probably where you'll defend that choice, making it a bit easier to choose!!!)

hope this is of some help, best of luck with the planning!!!:)

TiwstaSista

the basics:

1. choose a country
2. inquire for the requirements (you could check that out on the embassy)

or:

let the travel agent do the favor for you.:D

andyh68

If you fancy a Croatian wedding www.croatian-weddings.com offer just that and transparent pricing. Dont forget though you have the get your guests there as well.

lynsalot

We got married in Jamaica - it was fantastic. it honestly was. I can't say enough good things about this place - beaches negril in jamaica look at the pictures all inclusive resort, beautiful. brought 16 ppl with us. had a ball