getting married abroad..cheaply..has anyone done it?

ladydriva

hiyas, as the title says im wanting info about gettin married abroad cheaply. has anyone ne tips, ideas, past experience

many thanx

nearlyrich

Well it cost us $25 for a licence to get married and we had a milkshake at the nearest cafe which was a Mcd's to celebrate. I won the holiday to new Orleans in a competitioon at work.
A lot of people get married abroad to save money but some spend a lot more then they would in the UK.

SoggyMoggy

Depends what you call "cheaply" - £3,500 sounds a lot on paper, but it covered an all-inclusive fortnight in the Caribbean, the wedding in a beautiful Barbados hotel garden, the photos, the clothes, the rings and the flowers.

I made my dress - fabric cost me £70 at John Lewis - and my OH's silk waistcoat. I bought silk flowers at a local garden centre and made my bouquet and headpiece.

My shoes were strappy sandals from Littlewoods (under £15), Mum bought my underwear (such as I needed in that climate!), relatives also helped out by paying for our night's accommodation at Heathrow prior to flying out, and the car parking, as wedding presents - we'd both been married before and didn't need home-making stuff, so practical presents like that were invaluable.

I had a new wedding ring but we "recycled" OH's ring from his first marriage, as it was a handsome piece of jewellery, very heavy, and I had no hang-ups about re-using it.

Sounds mercenary to have put a figure on it, really, but we were intrigued to find out that the whole thing (including what the relatives had contributed) had added up to "only" £3,500, when some people wouldn't blink at spending that on just the dress, or a ring, or booze for the reception or whatever.

And we had a WONDERFUL time!

ladydriva

thanx for all your replies,

soggymoggy,,, which hotel did u stay in get mearried at please? price sounds really good!!!
thanx

SoggyMoggy

It was the Discovery Bay Hotel, St James Beach - it was 1999, so things may have changed since then, but we were delighted with everything.

We went with Kuoni, they're still offering it:

http://www.kuoni.co.uk/weddings/Caribbean/Barbados/Discovery_Bay_By_Rex_Resorts/index.html

Considerable refurbishment was planned for last year. I've just been reading some of the reviews posted by other people who've stayed there, and you can just take your pick - as with any holiday destination, some loved it, some hated it. It had a charming, old-fashioned and faintly shabby air about it at the time, but at no time did I feel it was dirty or uncared for. The rooms were clean, the food was fresh, the staff were extremely polite and helpful, it poured with rain at exactly the same time every afternoon (including just after our wedding), and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Good luck to you, whatever you decide - I'd already done the traditional meringue-frock-and-hundreds-of-relations-I'd-never-met-type wedding, this was just for us, and it was perfect.

fabwitch_2

Do enter the wedding competitions as not many people tend to enter. I too won my wedding in Las Vegas and had a fantatic time. Good luck

fabwitch_2

http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/index.php/cat/Competitions

If you go to this link there are loads of wedding competitions, Do enter and Good luck

mrtg0525

Me & The Wife got married in Vegas earlier this year. I was on the West Coast for a work-related conference anyway and she's American (and lives over there) so the total cost was something like $500-600, which covered the license, the ceremony, a good meal afterwards and the petrol to get there from San Jose and back. Well, and another $80 for a night in the hotel...

tonyivb

It was in 2000, but we got married in Guernsey!

The cost was not the issue for going to Guernsey, but the fact that it is a tax haven meant that there was no VAT and the booze was cheap.

From memory I think it was about £6000, thats not cheap, but to get the same package in the UK would have cost well over £10k

The one difficulty was that you had to stay on the Island for 6 days before you could get a license (not sure if that is still the case).

Good luck

jeff1969

Went to Hawaii and got married there on May 1st 2003, was a weeks stay on the island and a weeks cruise for the honeymoon.

Used NCL and booked an outside cabin with balcony, cost around £2000, and the wedding ceremony was around $900.

Boths sets of parents came with us and paid for themselves and they classed it as a holiday


The website for the wedding company is http://www.hawaiiweddings.net/packages.cfm , they arranged everything via email and were/are the nicest/kindest couple of people you could ever wish to meet.

ct1980

Having it abroad is loads cheaper than here. I'm getting married in September in Florida. the holiday was already booked before we decided to get married. Our wedding licence will cost $94 which is around £47. The ceremony is costing (inc person to marry us, cake, flowers for bride and groom,2 bottles of champers, wedding planner & location £800, photographer £330. I'm not sure about meals as we are pre-ordering from a menu. It is going to be around £3500 if you include my dress, BM dress and flower girls.

My firend has made my invites and would take a penny for them, I have bought bits and pieces off ebay like favour boxes and tiaras for the BM.

I booked my wedding direct with hotel.