Planning an overseas wedding can seem like a daunting experience and can be difficult to know where to start. Planning a wedding within the UK is a hard enough task, but having to plan a wedding abroad when you’re not in the same area is a huge task, so it’s important to make sure that you plan early and are extra organised with everything. The benefits of planning a wedding overseas is that you will already be on your honeymoon so there is less to organise in that respect.
The key to ensuring you plan an amazing wedding overseas is to plan ahead. The average wedding takes around 12-18 months to plan so this gives you some guidance on when to look at your wedding date with venues, but when you are planning an overseas wedding you will want to allow more time. It’s a good idea to create your own timeline or checklist of things to do, so that you can tick each one off when they are complete. This will also ensure that nothing is missed.
A lot of the main tasks when planning a wedding will still be the same, but it just means that you might need to allow yourself more time to do them. With the increase and developments in technology lately it means that you are able to do venue tours at venues abroad without having to visit them in person. This allows you to view multiple venues on the same day.
Set aside and create your budget
One of the most important things you need to do is to decide what budget you have to allocate to your day. When planning a wedding abroad things will be more expensive, so it’s important to remember this when creating your budget. It’s easy to overspend when it comes to planning your dream wedding, especially if you are planning a wedding abroad, as things will be more expensive and if your suppliers for example have to travel, then these are costs that will need to be factored in.
Choosing your dream venue
After deciding on your budget, choosing your venue has to be the next big important step. There are loads of choices when it comes to choosing where to get married and again this will depend on what budget you have allocated for your venue. Choosing your venue abroad can be a bit more difficult because you may not be in the same country to visit it in person, but many venues now offer a virtual tour which is a great way to still see the venue but not have to travel there in person to do so.
Research suppliers and ask for recommendations
Looking for suppliers for an overseas wedding can be very difficult as you won’t be able to see them and talk to them in person, but with technology you are able to have meetings via zoom. As you won’t be in the same country for a while you might want to ask your venue for their recommendations for suppliers that they have worked with before. It’s a good idea once you do find someone that you ask them for a demo online or make sure that you like their style and how they work.
If you have some suppliers in the UK that you really like and would want to use for your wedding day, you could always speak to them to see if they would be willing to travel for work. Their travel costs will be something that you might need to consider into your budget, but if you really love what they do then it will be worth it. You might have a favourite photographer for example that you’d love to have on your day, just be mindful of your wedding date as some suppliers may not be able to travel abroad in prime wedding season, so you might want to think about this when choosing your wedding date.