Just got married in Malta

Incy Wincy

Hey

I joined this forum a few months back sharing ideas about weddings abroad and photographers etc....well the wedding is over and done with and for anyone who is thinking about getting married abroad, think Malta!! I am not just saying this now but we are still waiting to wake up from a dream..even my dad said this morning he feels like it was all a dream the way it all ran so smoothly and how it was so romantic and magical...

I want to share our experience and hopefully get some more couples to experience the dream day without putting themselves under enormous financial strain.

To get married in Malta starts with getting your usual letter of freedom from your parish priest. There was no fuss about a pre-marriage course, it was entirely up to us. We are together since school so have ironed most things out at this stage. Anyway Malta is quite religious with a 97% attendance at mass but the whole pre-marriage course was deemed unnecessary.

For the legal side of things...We contacted the Marriage Registry Office in Valletta and they guided us through the whole process. Basically the forms were available online and they just needed to be stamped and signed by a commissioner for oaths. Then we sent them back with birth certs, copy of passports and witnesses copies of passports. A small fee and it was sorted.

For the religious side of things...we contacted the Archbishops Curia in Valletta and sent on our letters of freedom and communion and baptismal certs.

To book the venue and the chapel I made a short trip over (2 days) and organised and booked the chapel, hotel, florist and photographer. This was a cheap ryanair flight last February and it made all the difference as you need to see a church/chapel and venue before booking anywhere you choose.

A small chapel in St. Pauls bay was chosen where the sacristan took care of the organist and the flowers for less than 100 euro. Contact was kept throughout the months leading up to the big day.

The Radisson in Golden Bay Malta was chosen and again the link person emailed with up to date menus, cake options and decoration ideas.

The florist was first class, he was recently involved in the flowers for the pope's visit to Malta..and even though he was used to doing flowers for weddings up to 1900 people, our group of 32 made no difference, we still got a great service and for 130 euros I got an orchid flowing bouquet, 6 orchid button holes and an orchid corsage for the bridesmaid...I dread to think what that would have cost me here...anyways....

The photographer specialises in Irish weddings in Malta and is also trying to break into the Irish market and set up an office in Dublin. My husband is a hobbyist photographer and still cannot get over the service we received and as for the photos, they are excellent....he has friends who are photographers and said the same service would have cost us 2,000 euros here when all we paid was 200 for 4 hours work and all our 300 photos on cd ...yes I know photographers differ but this guy was clever, he took photos without us knowing, his attention to detail was unbelievable...he was just a natural photographer and nothing was staged or fake looking.

The wedding car cost 30 euro, the wedding cake was 75 euro (100 cupcakes and a large top cake), corkage was 5.50, champagne corkage was 8.50, chapel flowers 30 euro..guests included a florist and a chef who both were shocked at the prices and what we got....

I am probably going into too much detail here but if you are 30 something and want an intimate, romantic wedding in a sunshine guaranteed location then I highly highly recommend Malta....we are both 35 and always said it would be abroad so 32 family members and friends joined us for the best day of our lives....in total we got married for less than 3000 and some guests think we paid at least 20,000 for what we got....a chapel in a fishing village, a five star silver service meal to die for and an evening of romance, fireworks and chinese lanterns....if anyone out there wants business names or finer details I would be more than happy to pass them on.....I mean it, I would not offer them unless I was 100% guaranteed they were reliable and good value for money.

Aside of the cost, absolutely nothing went wrong on the day, the food at the hotel was the best i have ever tasted, the staff were anticipating my needs all evening, the balcony was lit up with citronella candles as I told them about the irish and mosquitos!!! the bridal suite was fantastic and the whole experience will be with us forever.

lizzy lou

Hey im so glad i have found you!!

It sounds like you had a perfect day with the people that mean the most to you , which is how it should be.

We are planning to get married in Malta too in June 2011, we have a timeshare at the Fortina hotel Sliema so will be staying there for the week before an the week after.
We would have maybe liked to have got married in a chapel but Dan is divorced and not a catholic so i dont think its goig to be an option.

Your Florist and Photographer sound awsome! would you let me have their details?

We quite like the idea of getting married outdoors, i am going over in Sept to have a look at some venues , did you view any yourself?

We too will probably have around 40 - 50 guests, we just want it to be a really chilled out day, really not in to stuffy formal occassions!

I will be so grateful for any info you can give me .

Thank you and really looking forward to your reply!!

Lizzy

Incy Wincy

Hi Lizzy

I sent you a pm with names and contact details etc but I forgot to mention other venues...we were taken with the hotel on first viewing so sorted us straight away but we did have a meal in another popular wedding venue called Palazzo Parisio....check out there site, www.palazzoparisio.com. It is very popular for small weddings but was not to our taste but the food was good when we went there for a meal.

I know the Xara Hotel within the walls of Mdina is also supposed to be lovely...and of course the setting there is fab for an evening wedding.....you are spoiled for choice over in Sliema..come to think of it I had looked at the Hilton in Paceville, the Meridien in St. Julians along with The Villa which is in Balluta Bay all lovely but the Radisson won in the end with clear views of the Med sea and food to die for.

Originally we had planned for the church in Balluta followed by a meal in the Barracuda or Le Piccola Padre also in Balluta....but as the group got bigger we aimed towards a hotel.

Let me know how things develop ok...also have wedding car hire and cash and carry details for buying wine / champers if you are interested....!

Sue Rocks

wow that all sounds fantastic and its terrific that you will remember your wedding so fondly for the rest of your life now. Thanks for all the tips I had always thought about a foreign wedding myself so your post was a great insight. Thanks and congratulations

bills

Sounds fab incy wincy. Thanks for the post. sounds exactly what I would love some day!!

mikeanywhere

Sounds like a great time had by all, well done and congrats!!

gerire

S
INCY Wincy; sent ya a pm

Incy Wincy

Just replied to all pm's....don't log on regularly so sorry for delayed replies!!!:p

annem12

oh wow this soundsc amazing

MonstersInc

Hi Incy Wincy,

My fiance and I are planning to get married in Malta in September 2011 and I could hardly read your post fast enough. I was so exited to hear all you had to say! I would greatly appreciate some more details on where the church in St. Pauls is (have seen a really small quaint one but a struggling to locate it properly) as well as some details on the florist and photographer? We're planning to take a trip over there in Feb to sort things out. I wasn't sure if we needed a wedding planner but it seems you were able to organise a super wedding without one. We expect to have approx 40/45 people there so would love to have something intimate and full of character. You're day sounded just perfect btw and I feel much better about organising this ourselves.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Many thanks
MonstersInc.:)

jadexxx

hi was just reading ur thread about ur wedding in malta, im hoping for a summer wedding abroad and what u described sounds just perfect, would u pleae b able to send me as much info as u can t get me started, what we are looking for really does sound exactly what u described......my addy is [SNIP] if its not to much trouble for u to send me some info, looking forward to ur reply, thanks........jade

Toots

Jadexxx please don't post your email address. If you wish to give your email address to another poster, please do so via the Private Message system.

meesar

Thank you so much for writing this post! We are thinking of getting married in the summer and have chosen malta. We have not visited but it really appeals to us by doing research.

I would be so grateful if you could give me the details of the photographer, church and florist. Any advice you have on documention would be gratefully appreciated too.
It seems so difficult to coordinate everything but hearing your thread has spurred me on!

Many thanks

minivtec

Hi Incy Wincy.

After reading your post I decided to set up a boards.ie account , so this is my first post!

Cant believe you planned all that yourself. I dont think I'm that brave so I will be contacting a planner but I would love to hear more about your photographer, florist etc.

We are hoping to get married in April 2012 so I have booked flights for this April so I can check venues etc. I too will have about 30-40 guests so I am thinking of checking out palazzo parisio.

Any other tips or info would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

RCJ

Hi All,

I am posting this thread in the hope of getting advice & info on getting married in Malta.

I'd love to plan my own wedding in Malta in June 2012, obviously saving money on the wedding planner is one aim. I have read about the legal side of things and my fiance is sure he can do that. What advice I need is about the flowers, churches, cars etc in Malta and at a good prices. I have read some peoples review on here and hope they wont mind pm'ing me with some local contacts so I can plan the day.

We are hoping to travel over in March to look around.

Many Thanks

RCJ

<Mod edit> RCJ, there is already a Malta Weddings thread so I have merged your query with it.

bkenny08

Hi Guys!!
Myself and fiance would really appreciate any info that you have on weddings in Malta.

Please pm me..

Thannk-you so much...

cheyni

Hey there, We are getting married in Malta in October this year and are planning it ourselves. Most of it is going smoothly but id like to ask you a few things. Could you PM me please? Many thanks , cheyni

alclarke

Hi incy wincy,I am also planning to get married in malta in 2012, could you PM me please. Thanks

treesie

Hi Incy Wincy

Ii just got engaged a few weeks ago and we are planning on having our wedding in Malta summer 2012. There will prob be about 80 guests, I don't have a clue where to start, could you send me on the contacts you have.
Do you think I would need a wedding planner?
I'm not big into the planning side of things and would not be confident in arranging everything, do you know how much wedding planners are?
Anything you pass on would be great

thanks

Maedhbh11

Im so glad ive found your tread, hoping to get married in Malta next May, i was going to go down the road of a wedding planner and its just getting out of hand to expensive! I hope to bring with me 100 guest which include small children, would you possibily forward me on your contacts that you have, i would really appreciate it.

Many thanks Maedhbh11

chici

your wedding sounds amazing, and can I jsut say well done for organising it yourself! We are getting married in Malta in August 2011 and it proved too difficult for us to arrange ourselves. We hired a wedding planner here in Ireland and for 40 guests the wedding is costing us over 11,000. Our reception is in Radisson Blu and our weeks accomodation is included in the price. I have purchased the bows for the chairs, rose petals for tables myself, as none of this was offered to me. However I must say that after reading your thread I am a little sick that we are spending so much money, and we are definetly not getting anthing more for it. I asked the planner about fireworks, and she informed us that this is not really the done thing in Malta, ie licence needed etc, so I am curious to find out did you organise the fireworks yourself?

joeis

hi, just reading about wedding in malta, new to boards, but threads looked so good, with lots of info, I would really appreciate any help about arranging a wedding, for around 20 people going over for Christmas, not sure even where the best part of the island for wedding or venues,

joeis

Hi, congrats on your wedding, and congrats on putting what sounds like a fab day together, looking at malta ourselves, any info would be great, not sure even where to start

Getting Married Malta

joeis wrote: »

hi, just reading about wedding in malta, new to boards, but threads looked so good, with lots of info, I would really appreciate any help about arranging a wedding, for around 20 people going over for Christmas, not sure even where the best part of the island for wedding or venues,

Hi Joeis, congrats on ur engagement! I think the first thing to decide is the kind of venue you want, for us we really wanted a private sea view, ideally with an outside eatting area, once you decide something like that it is easier to narrow down the choices. Im not sure what malta is like in december so you might want to start by researching that to see if you can eat out side, or if you will only be looking at inside venues. also with the area, it is best to think about what you want from your trip, somewhere like st Julians has lots of pubs and clubs if you want nightlife, thought in dec im sure its uch quieter.
Also we started by contacting a few wedding planners who were very useful, it does add to the cost significantly so if you can take a few trips out to malta to organise everything yourself that might be best. we dont think we can make many trips out before our wedding (June 2012) so we are going with a wedding planner.
Also if you are only having 20 guests you might want to consider some of the nicer restaurants in malta, rather than having a hotel reception with will cost more.
I hope this has helped to get you started thinking! Let me know if you have any other questions!

cheyni

Hi everyone, I am getting married in Malta in 11 weeks. I also arranged the wedding myself without a wedding planner. I set up a facebook page for brides getting married in malta if any of you want to check it out. Plenty of advice available from other brides going through the planning process or just recently been married. Its called " Im getting married in Malta".. Just run a search with that group name and it should come up for you.

Kinshea

Hi everyone! This is a great thread - thank you all so much for the information supplied on getting married in Malta. We are planning to get married next august in malta, and are trying to do it without wedding planner costs. So far, we have sorted out the hotel part, but are now a bit stumped on what to do regarding churches. We would love a catholic church wedding in english in a traditional maltese church near enough to Sliema, but are not sure how to go about getting a) the church and b) the priest! Any advice very welcome ALso, we are bringing our own wine/champers to the reception, so if there is any information out there on where to buy it, that would be great. Last but not least is the entertainment side. We have looked into lots of bands and djs, but would love some thoughts from people who have actually seen them play.
Thanks so much for your help
By the way, Malta is one of the lovliest places on earth and I can't wait to get married here

cheyni

Kinshea wrote: »

Hi everyone! This is a great thread - thank you all so much for the information supplied on getting married in Malta. We are planning to get married next august in malta, and are trying to do it without wedding planner costs. So far, we have sorted out the hotel part, but are now a bit stumped on what to do regarding churches. We would love a catholic church wedding in english in a traditional maltese church near enough to Sliema, but are not sure how to go about getting a) the church and b) the priest! Any advice very welcome ALso, we are bringing our own wine/champers to the reception, so if there is any information out there on where to buy it, that would be great. Last but not least is the entertainment side. We have looked into lots of bands and djs, but would love some thoughts from people who have actually seen them play.
Thanks so much for your help
By the way, Malta is one of the lovliest places on earth and I can't wait to get married here

Hi Kinshea,

Check out bridemalta.com for a list of churches in malta. You will get a phone number for each priest in each parish. And also a list of bands. We have booked Themics who are fantastic. Heard them play last year when we were over. Also if your on facebook, come check out the page i run, im getting married in malta. You will loads of advice from other brides planning their weddings in malta on here.

HTH

princess01

please share your experiance

Michelle Egg

Wow how inspiring you are! we have always wanted to marry abroad and a number of people have suggested Malta we have visited a couple of months ago and definetly want to get married next year there but really don't know where to start.

Any contacts you could send over would be greatly appreciated as we have a very limited budget

Look forward to hearing from you

Michelle
X

Dee 2011

Hey Incy Wincy or any one else who can help a stressed bride to be (i'm only engaged two weeks and already stressed!)

We are looking at having our wedding in Malta late next year 2012 for about 40-50 guests and would love any help at all regarding venue's contacts prices etc

Thank you
Stresed out Dee 2011

Dionysus

Dee 2011 wrote: »

Hey Incy Wincy or any one else who can help a stressed bride to be (i'm only engaged two weeks and already stressed!)

We are looking at having our wedding in Malta late next year 2012 for about 40-50 guests and would love any help at all regarding venue's contacts prices etc

Thank you
Stresed out Dee 2011

I was in Malta last summer. While in Valetta, there was a wedding on in a church called TA' Giezu Church. From the outside it was gorgeous, with steps all the way down to it from St John's Cathedral. Malta can be hit or miss, but this area was stunningly beautiful. They had put a red carpet down the narrow city street and there was confetti everywhere. The church was on the left coming down the steps. About 15 metres passed it on the right was a restaurant/pub with a lovely front where guests were standing and sitting around talking next to a wall. Behind the low wall was the sea. Superb, classy location for after wedding drinks. A classy wedding for 40-50 people could be had in the Palazzo Parisio and Gardens in Naaxar, some 10km from the church above.

Palazzo Parisio and Gardens

Bain taitneamh as.

Dee 2011

Thanks Dionysus sounds fab going to hit google straight away, thanks again!

Kazsean

Incy Wincy wrote: »

Hey

I joined this forum a few months back sharing ideas about weddings abroad and photographers etc....well the wedding is over and done with and for anyone who is thinking about getting married abroad, think Malta!! I am not just saying this now but we are still waiting to wake up from a dream..even my dad said this morning he feels like it was all a dream the way it all ran so smoothly and how it was so romantic and magical...

I want to share our experience and hopefully get some more couples to experience the dream day without putting themselves under enormous financial strain.

To get married in Malta starts with getting your usual letter of freedom from your parish priest. There was no fuss about a pre-marriage course, it was entirely up to us. We are together since school so have ironed most things out at this stage. Anyway Malta is quite religious with a 97% attendance at mass but the whole pre-marriage course was deemed unnecessary.

For the legal side of things...We contacted the Marriage Registry Office in Valletta and they guided us through the whole process. Basically the forms were available online and they just needed to be stamped and signed by a commissioner for oaths. Then we sent them back with birth certs, copy of passports and witnesses copies of passports. A small fee and it was sorted.

For the religious side of things...we contacted the Archbishops Curia in Valletta and sent on our letters of freedom and communion and baptismal certs.

To book the venue and the chapel I made a short trip over (2 days) and organised and booked the chapel, hotel, florist and photographer. This was a cheap ryanair flight last February and it made all the difference as you need to see a church/chapel and venue before booking anywhere you choose.

A small chapel in St. Pauls bay was chosen where the sacristan took care of the organist and the flowers for less than 100 euro. Contact was kept throughout the months leading up to the big day.

The Radisson in Golden Bay Malta was chosen and again the link person emailed with up to date menus, cake options and decoration ideas.

The florist was first class, he was recently involved in the flowers for the pope's visit to Malta..and even though he was used to doing flowers for weddings up to 1900 people, our group of 32 made no difference, we still got a great service and for 130 euros I got an orchid flowing bouquet, 6 orchid button holes and an orchid corsage for the bridesmaid...I dread to think what that would have cost me here...anyways....

The photographer specialises in Irish weddings in Malta and is also trying to break into the Irish market and set up an office in Dublin. My husband is a hobbyist photographer and still cannot get over the service we received and as for the photos, they are excellent....he has friends who are photographers and said the same service would have cost us 2,000 euros here when all we paid was 200 for 4 hours work and all our 300 photos on cd ...yes I know photographers differ but this guy was clever, he took photos without us knowing, his attention to detail was unbelievable...he was just a natural photographer and nothing was staged or fake looking.

The wedding car cost 30 euro, the wedding cake was 75 euro (100 cupcakes and a large top cake), corkage was 5.50, champagne corkage was 8.50, chapel flowers 30 euro..guests included a florist and a chef who both were shocked at the prices and what we got....

I am probably going into too much detail here but if you are 30 something and want an intimate, romantic wedding in a sunshine guaranteed location then I highly highly recommend Malta....we are both 35 and always said it would be abroad so 32 family members and friends joined us for the best day of our lives....in total we got married for less than 3000 and some guests think we paid at least 20,000 for what we got....a chapel in a fishing village, a five star silver service meal to die for and an evening of romance, fireworks and chinese lanterns....if anyone out there wants business names or finer details I would be more than happy to pass them on.....I mean it, I would not offer them unless I was 100% guaranteed they were reliable and good value for money.

Aside of the cost, absolutely nothing went wrong on the day, the food at the hotel was the best i have ever tasted, the staff were anticipating my needs all evening, the balcony was lit up with citronella candles as I told them about the irish and mosquitos!!! the bridal suite was fantastic and the whole experience will be with us forever.

Hi Incy Wincy,

Just read your post and love it, Congratulations!
I was thinking of getting married in Malta but after reading your experience you have convinced me. I would be so grateful if you send me contacts of the photographer, Hair, make up, car hire and cake if possible.

Thanks so much

joannetd

hi imcy wincy your wedding sounds fantastic i was wondering if you could share more info with hoping to get married in malta june 2013

TheDriver

we are getting married abroad this year (not Malta) and we were told that we should do the civil side here and then the church part there as for the rest of our lives, it makes it so much easier with the marriage cert etc. Then again, we would have had to travel over for a court appearance to civilly marry!

cailin13

Hi, has anyone else had any good experiences of weddings in Malta to share?
We're at early planning stages for August 2013 and would welcome any suggestions on venues / planners V diy.

thanks

cheyni

Hi all,

So we got married in Malta in October and it was amazing. We booked it all without a wedding planner so If anyone would like any info/ideas feel free to PM me..

Cheyni
x

shelhart

Hi All,
Had decided on a wedding planner until I found this site, any info from those who have done it themselves would be great..... cheyne..... incy wincy......! Looking to have a small wedding (25 guests) in Malta July 2013

cheyni

Just mailed you Shelhart x

shelhart wrote: »

Hi All,
Had decided on a wedding planner until I found this site, any info from those who have done it themselves would be great..... cheyne..... incy wincy......! Looking to have a small wedding (25 guests) in Malta July 2013

cmac12

Hi

I am getting married in Malta this May (2012) and would really be grateful for any recommendations that anyone has for florists, photographer and car hire in the Valetta area? Even advice on which florists, car hire providers or photographers we should avoid.

Any tips that anyone has would also be much appreciated. As the wedding is fast approaching an early response would be extremely appreciated.

Thanks everyone!

cheyni

cmac12 wrote: »

Hi

I am getting married in Malta this May (2012) and would really be grateful for any recommendations that anyone has for florists, photographer and car hire in the Valetta area? Even advice on which florists, car hire providers or photographers we should avoid.

Any tips that anyone has would also be much appreciated. As the wedding is fast approaching an early response would be extremely appreciated.

Thanks everyone!

Just sent you a Pm cmac xx

cmac12

Cheyni

Thanks for your pm. Got your message and is really useful. Thanks so much for coming back to me so quickly.

cheyni

cmac12 wrote: »

Cheyni

Thanks for your pm. Got your message and is really useful. Thanks so much for coming back to me so quickly.

Your very welcome - glad to be able to help .. X

monkey buns

cheyni wrote: »

Hi all,

So we got married in Malta in October and it was amazing. We booked it all without a wedding planner so If anyone would like any info/ideas feel free to PM me..

Cheyni
x

hi cheyni we would love any idea's and info you have, as we are strongly thinking of getting married in Malta next year. Thanks a mill

cheyni

monkey buns wrote: »

hi cheyni we would love any idea's and info you have, as we are strongly thinking of getting married in Malta next year. Thanks a mill

Just Pm'd you xx

1holly1

Hi cheyni any chance you could give me any info also? Trying to decide if malta's the place for us! Thanks

cheyni

1holly1 wrote: »

Hi cheyni any chance you could give me any info also? Trying to decide if malta's the place for us! Thanks

Pm'd you too 1holly1

mir08

Hey cheyni,

just pm'd you....

How's the rest of you Malta brides getting on?
We're going next summer, all going well....:D

cheyni

mir08 wrote: »

Hey cheyni,

just pm'd you....

How's the rest of you Malta brides getting on?
We're going next summer, all going well....:D

Just replied to it

anna.pshv

Hi All!

We are looking to have a wedding in Malta this year. Any advice/info would be really appreciated!
Thanks a lot in advance,
Anna