Roughly one in four engaged couples now choose to have an overseas wedding. Traveling abroad for your nuptials can be a great way of avoiding the stress of a home-based wedding, and it sure does make for some spectacular photos, but you need to make sure that you cover the bases if you want your destination wedding to go off without a hitch.
From transporting your wedding dress to making it legal, here are the essential tips to making your overseas wedding a success:
Boarding Pass destination wedding invitation
Is it Legal?
You don’t want to go through the whole process of getting married only to find out that the ceremony wasn’t legal, so the number 1 thing you should do before planning an overseas wedding is check whether your vows will be valid in the country you are traveling to, as well as back home.
If you really want to get married at a particular destination, whether it be Denmark or Dominican Republic, but your marriage would not be recognized back at home, you could always have a quickie wedding at home before flying out for the big event.
Hiring a Wedding Photographer
It is much easier to get what you want from your wedding photographs if your photographer speaks your language, so it might be worth finding the perfect wedding photographer at home and flying them out. Sure, it’s one extra expense, but it’s worth it if it means you’ll get perfect photos of the occasion.
Transporting Your Wedding Dress
The majority of airline companies will enable you to take your wedding dress on board as hand luggage, and I suggest this is something you do if you want to avoid a dress disaster. Luggage in the hold goes missing so often that it really isn’t worth the risk.
Bespoke or Package
Do you want a completely unique wedding or one that is offered as part of a package? Many exotic resorts have a wedding ‘menu’ where you can choose various options to design your dream wedding, but obviously, there are limits to what is on offer. So, if you would like a really unique wedding, you may have to arrange each element separately. This is a lot of work, so you might want to think about hiring a wedding planner to take care of the logistics for you.
Consider the Weather
If you’re planning an Indian beach wedding, the last thing you want to do is book it for Monsoon season. Monsoon Wedding might be a great film, but it’s hardly a suggestion!
Get Wedding Insurance
As well as travel insurance, it is a good idea to purchase wedding insurance when traveling abroad to get married. There are so many things that can go wrong from missed flights to lost and stolen rings, that you need insurance if only for your own peace of mind.
These tips cover the basics of preparing for an overseas wedding, but the process is much more involved, which is why it is suggested that you start planning for an overseas wedding even sooner than you would a wedding in your home country.
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