Was it cheaper to get married abroad?

MSE_Laura_F

Did it work out cheaper overall for you and your spouse to get married abroad?

Why, or why not? I'm keen to hear your experiences.

Did you find you had to cater to fewer guests since a lot of people couldn't make the trip? Were services in that country generally cheaper or more expensive? Was it more or less common to be able to haggle down prices?

silvercar

Having been to 2 weddings abroad this year, the happy couple should really have an understanding that their numbers will be vastly reduced by making this decision. For the second wedding in particular, few friends of the couple made it, so the average age of the guests was far older than if they had had a 'home' wedding.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

might be cheaper for the couple, wedding/holiday combined.

Their younger mates might be happy with a wee jaunt, sun, sea, sex.

Be nice if couple offered the guests free flight and accommodation, get more folks to attend then.

TripleH

We considered an overseas wedding.

Whilst the marriage bits were quite cheap, it was getting there (plus school holidays factored in) and accommodation for guests that was the issue.

I did go to a wedding in Malta. It was very basic 3 guests flew in plus 2 witnesses. This was how the couple wanted it though (they were working out in Malta at the time).

We had a ceremony and a meal (then met some of their work colleaguesfor drinks). It was the nicest wedding I've been to as no expectations or stress, very laid back.

Savvy_Sue

From the other side, I've recently been to a wedding in the UK where the happy couple do not live here, although they grew up here. One family is here in the UK, the other family is split between here and somewhere a 13 hour flight away. 

Guests came from all over the world - where they live now is only about an hour's flight away, although some of that contingent was re-routed all over the UK after their flight was cancelled last minute! So here was probably as sensible as anywhere. 

However, they then took that 13 hour flight to the other 'home' country for a special banquet there. And that's not even their honeymoon, which is planned for later in the year! 

Pretty sure it all cost a lot of money, but it didn't seem to deter many guests. 

Cressida100

I got married overseas. We combined it with a month long holiday. My now ex husband had previously lived in that country for 8 years. We had a fabulous combined wedding day and honeymoon without a lot of fuss. We needed 2 witnesses so we did have a photographer and a court official in the actual ceremony. Perfect for someone who hates being the centre of attention. I cannot think of anything worse than planning a big wedding and wasting a ton of money on a one day occasion. My family were happy to go along with my wishes. We had recently purchased our first home and with mortgage rates at 15% no way did we have the finances for a 'big do'. 

ETA. My ex husband had money in a bank account in that country which we financed the trip with. 

Exodi

I'll probably offend a lot of people here, but I'd say one of the biggest motivators for getting married abroad is cost saving.

You are effectively passing on some of the wedding costs to the guests; your savings on the ceremony/reception are balanced against the flight and accomodation costs for all attendees. You expect that some people may not be able to take a half a week off work and pay £X thousand pounds to attend so you also benefit financially from a smaller event.

I appreciate there will also be people doing this to artifically reduce headcount, due to not wanting to be the centre of attention, or perhaps not wanting family to attend but not wanting to 'not invite' family.

Of couse some couples may opt to pay for the flights/accomodation of (some of) the attendees, though I'd say this is certainly not the norm.

That's not to say I think there's anything wrong with eloping, the costs of weddings in the UK is completely bananas (from someone currently organising one for march 2023).

cheeky-peach

My brother-in-law married his wife abroad; just them and two random witnesses they pulled from the beach a few days before. No family were invited, which is fine for them I guess, but this also meant that none of their children attended either (5 kids between them).

I wanted to go and get married in Vegas, just me and my husband but he wasn't having any of it and wanted family and friends to be there. I think if I was getting married abroad, I would have no expectation of inviting any family thus reducing the cost to all.

Savvy_Sue

an easier way of reducing the numbers (if that's what you need to do) is to choose a 'difficult' day for your wedding. Like Christmas Eve. 

As it happens, the Jubilee Saturday wasn't an 'easy' day for international travellers ... but I don't think the bride and groom appreciated quite how difficult it might be! 

MEM62

It would have been but it was called of because of COVID - we were due to get married in Greece in May 2020.  The whole day would have been circa £3,500 with 20 or so guests.  In the end we were married at Winchester registry office in September 2020.  That was cheaper still as we were only allowed to have two witnesses present and large gatherings afterwards were not permitted at the time.  The cost was the official fees plus lunch for the four if us at Rick Stein's place afterwards. It wasn't plan a but it was a perfect day.       

basilsauce

Yes! But we went to New York, just the two of us, and got married at the City Clerk's office. We had booked a photographer who also doubled up as our witness, my dress was £60 from M&S, we went to a local diner for dinner afterwards and then went to see a concert at Madison Square Garden.