Getting married abroad.... Thoughts, opinions?
Discussion
I'll start this by saying I can't see if it’s been covered before as the search function isn't working and also I had no idea where to post so I shall let the mods do their job.
The OH and I got engaged at the weekend. Initial discussions about the wedding venue have left us in agreement that we won’t get married in this country. Main reason being that I have a family of around 70+ people (aunts, uncles, cousins (now plus partners and children) etc), of which I only speak to about 10 on a regular basis. Therefore we seem little point inviting them, however the fallout from this will no doubt be immense unless we do just go abroad and do it.
What I'm after are suggestions of venues from people who have gone overseas (thinking further afield than Turkey/ Cyprus/ Italy, more Carribean, Thailand, Seychelles etc) to tie the knot. Views, costs, good and bad points would all be appreciated.
The OH and I got engaged at the weekend. Initial discussions about the wedding venue have left us in agreement that we won’t get married in this country. Main reason being that I have a family of around 70+ people (aunts, uncles, cousins (now plus partners and children) etc), of which I only speak to about 10 on a regular basis. Therefore we seem little point inviting them, however the fallout from this will no doubt be immense unless we do just go abroad and do it.
What I'm after are suggestions of venues from people who have gone overseas (thinking further afield than Turkey/ Cyprus/ Italy, more Carribean, Thailand, Seychelles etc) to tie the knot. Views, costs, good and bad points would all be appreciated.
darreni said:
We got married in Las Vegas, great way to do it.
The chapel had a live webcam to broadcast it over the net for friends & family.
Reccommended.
That sounds like something Jodie Marsh would do.The chapel had a live webcam to broadcast it over the net for friends & family.
Reccommended.
What happened to ceremony at the church followed by a few drinks and food at the village hall or rectory. These are the best weddings I have ever been to.
Weddings aren't expensive, Bridezillas are.
thegavster said:
The problem I had was that you need to be ruthless to do it abroad, we had far too many people who assumed they were going to be invited and were more than happy to have a long weekend in Italy for it.
Not sure how it would have turned out if it had gone ahead, but I can post up some more info later for you.
Further afield should put people off. Ideally we are hoping for a close family affair, parents, siblings and best friends which would come to about 12 people. Not sure how it would have turned out if it had gone ahead, but I can post up some more info later for you.
Eric Mc said:
Check the legal situation regarding recognition of the marriage, especially under UK law. There was a recent court case where it was deemed that a particular foreign marriage was not a legally binding one here in the UK (that may be what you want, of course 
).
Quiet Eric, I need to keep that loophole available! ).darreni said:
We got married in Las Vegas, great way to do it.
The chapel had a live webcam to broadcast it over the net for friends & family.
Reccommended.
Would love to for comedy value, but I don’t think OH will like it!The chapel had a live webcam to broadcast it over the net for friends & family.
Reccommended.
Nolar Dog said:
Far East.
Just the two of you.
No family, no friends, no fuss.
Am really pushing for Thailand but the OH has never been and has said that it doesn’t appeal to her! Just the two of you.
No family, no friends, no fuss.
GreenDog said:
Go abroad - Gretna Green isn't that far away !
Actually that's where I got married, the divorce took place in England though
That’s my fall back, if plans start going to pot, round up the 12 (mentioned above) or so of us and head up thereActually that's where I got married, the divorce took place in England though
A couple of things to think about;
> the language - if the ceremony is in a non english speaking country will your guests follow the service
> residency - might it just complicate things as some countries you have to be a resident for x days before the wedding.
> friends and family - I know you say you've not got many and they will all say of course they will come and they will but you might be forcing them to spend money they can't really afford.
> planning - unless you have someone good in the country where you're getting married this can be an added complication.
I say all of this as a French Resident who last year came back to the UK to get married as it was on balance simpler!
> the language - if the ceremony is in a non english speaking country will your guests follow the service
> residency - might it just complicate things as some countries you have to be a resident for x days before the wedding.
> friends and family - I know you say you've not got many and they will all say of course they will come and they will but you might be forcing them to spend money they can't really afford.
> planning - unless you have someone good in the country where you're getting married this can be an added complication.
I say all of this as a French Resident who last year came back to the UK to get married as it was on balance simpler!
darreni said:
We got married in Las Vegas, great way to do it.
The chapel had a live webcam to broadcast it over the net for friends & family.
Reccommended.
I got married in Las Vegas too, in jeans and a t-shirt, cost about 50 quid (plus the holiday).The chapel had a live webcam to broadcast it over the net for friends & family.
Reccommended.
Face it, weddings are gay, getting dressed up, the big day, etc etc, what a load of crap.
Get married, get large room with Hot tub, get very drunk, get a lot of sex from new wife, bet a lot of money with large cigar in hand.
I got married 2 months ago in Greece... just a small wedding with 340 guests!
We looked through the various options of getting married abroad and thus have gone through the whole process of pros/cons of each place. I didn't want a UK marriage as wanted something different and also my wife is Greek, so we needed to shift people from different places to get to the wedding.
Thus we went through the whole Caribbean, Las Vegas, Italy, Seychelles options and we knew we had a few close friends that would follow us anywhere.
The problem came down to family being able to afford to get to some places and it is a lot of burden on some to make the trip to far off lands. I wanted my parents, three sisters, my two nieces, my grandparents and select cousins to be at the wedding as I am close with them all.
Thus anything long-haul would not work for my nieces or my grandparents as it was too much burden on them to fly so far, and they wouldn't be able to make it so we looked at Italy.
Italy costs worked out very similar to UK prices, though with much more (and much nicer) food plus most included free drinks all night. It would require a bit of recceing (sp) for locations so you have to add in flights over there, and then you have to sort out the actual wedding which wouldn't be at the venue as there are limited places that have licenses. Anyway it was proving too hard and not gaining us much more so we opted for Greece and got my wife's mum to be weddding planner. Probably what she wanted all along.
As for legality, I have done a lot of research on this and my only conclusions are: Your marriage is registered in the country you get married in, you cannot register it in the UK, though the marriage is recognised in this country, you need to get an affidavit signed in the local country for any official proof documents back home - and if you are in a mediterannean country allow at least one day to sort that bit out, Greece maybe the birth of modern civilisation but they haven't moved any of their everyday processes on!
We looked through the various options of getting married abroad and thus have gone through the whole process of pros/cons of each place. I didn't want a UK marriage as wanted something different and also my wife is Greek, so we needed to shift people from different places to get to the wedding.
Thus we went through the whole Caribbean, Las Vegas, Italy, Seychelles options and we knew we had a few close friends that would follow us anywhere.
The problem came down to family being able to afford to get to some places and it is a lot of burden on some to make the trip to far off lands. I wanted my parents, three sisters, my two nieces, my grandparents and select cousins to be at the wedding as I am close with them all.
Thus anything long-haul would not work for my nieces or my grandparents as it was too much burden on them to fly so far, and they wouldn't be able to make it so we looked at Italy.
Italy costs worked out very similar to UK prices, though with much more (and much nicer) food plus most included free drinks all night. It would require a bit of recceing (sp) for locations so you have to add in flights over there, and then you have to sort out the actual wedding which wouldn't be at the venue as there are limited places that have licenses. Anyway it was proving too hard and not gaining us much more so we opted for Greece and got my wife's mum to be weddding planner. Probably what she wanted all along.
As for legality, I have done a lot of research on this and my only conclusions are: Your marriage is registered in the country you get married in, you cannot register it in the UK, though the marriage is recognised in this country, you need to get an affidavit signed in the local country for any official proof documents back home - and if you are in a mediterannean country allow at least one day to sort that bit out, Greece maybe the birth of modern civilisation but they haven't moved any of their everyday processes on!
We're currently planning a wedding abroad at the moment.
We've opted for a guest list of about 20. Couple of close friends, parents and siblings. We're then having a small party back in the UK afterwards for everyone else.
We're looking at Cyprus as it's easy to get to for everyone, has nice venues and has good weather.
We've taken the tactic asking the guests to pay for themselves - if they come, great. If not, shame. The advantage of this is that they can spend either 2 days at the venue just for the wedding or they can make a week out of it and have a holiday - up to them.
We looked at further afield - Carribean and Hawaii sprung to mind - but there's problems.
1. The people you invite will have to have a main holiday out of it. No-one will go to Barbados for a few days for example.
2. You then have to stay there for your honeymoon (Unless you're loaded and have loads of time off work) This means spending your honeymoon with all your family because it's their main holiday.
If you're getting married as just the two of you, or with a maximum of 4 guests, then I'd say go further afield.
If there's more people and you want some privacy on your honeymoon, look in Europe/Mediterranean then go on to honeymoon.
I have a mate who got hitched in Barbados. Just him and his OH, no guests. Picked some witnesses up in the hotel:
Business class flights
5* hotel (Joe Cole was staying there at the same time)
Wedding (with steel band, etc)
2 weeks
£5k all in.
If you don't mind close relatives not being there, that's the way forward.
We've opted for a guest list of about 20. Couple of close friends, parents and siblings. We're then having a small party back in the UK afterwards for everyone else.
We're looking at Cyprus as it's easy to get to for everyone, has nice venues and has good weather.
We've taken the tactic asking the guests to pay for themselves - if they come, great. If not, shame. The advantage of this is that they can spend either 2 days at the venue just for the wedding or they can make a week out of it and have a holiday - up to them.
We looked at further afield - Carribean and Hawaii sprung to mind - but there's problems.
1. The people you invite will have to have a main holiday out of it. No-one will go to Barbados for a few days for example.
2. You then have to stay there for your honeymoon (Unless you're loaded and have loads of time off work) This means spending your honeymoon with all your family because it's their main holiday.
If you're getting married as just the two of you, or with a maximum of 4 guests, then I'd say go further afield.
If there's more people and you want some privacy on your honeymoon, look in Europe/Mediterranean then go on to honeymoon.
I have a mate who got hitched in Barbados. Just him and his OH, no guests. Picked some witnesses up in the hotel:
Business class flights
5* hotel (Joe Cole was staying there at the same time)
Wedding (with steel band, etc)
2 weeks
£5k all in.
If you don't mind close relatives not being there, that's the way forward.
Eric Mc said:
Gosh - you sound like you aren't enamoured with most of the human race.
Old people dancing - what a liberty. They should just curl up and die quietly.
It's like you can read my mind... Old people dancing - what a liberty. They should just curl up and die quietly.
Big family weddings are fine for some - it's just not what we want. Neither of us wants (or needs) the stress and hassle of arranging a wedding, so we're effectively just having a holiday in the US and getting hitched whilst there. With even a modest UK wedding with 50 guests somewhere half-decent coming in at £5k-10k minimum, we can both think of better things to spend the money on!
gradeAfailure said:
Eric Mc said:
Gosh - you sound like you aren't enamoured with most of the human race.
Old people dancing - what a liberty. They should just curl up and die quietly.
It's like you can read my mind... Old people dancing - what a liberty. They should just curl up and die quietly.
Big family weddings are fine for some - it's just not what we want. Neither of us wants (or needs) the stress and hassle of arranging a wedding, so we're effectively just having a holiday in the US and getting hitched whilst there. With even a modest UK wedding with 50 guests somewhere half-decent coming in at £5k-10k minimum, we can both think of better things to spend the money on!
Eric Mc said:
I agree with you on big weddings.
Not sure I agree with your view on old people though (seeing as I am rapidly approaching that category - see the "Who's the Oldest PHer?" Thread).
The big question is though Eric, you might be older than the average PH'er, but how good is your dancing?Not sure I agree with your view on old people though (seeing as I am rapidly approaching that category - see the "Who's the Oldest PHer?" Thread).
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