Destination weddings are quite different to weddings in your own home country, not least due to the often-complex logistics, language limitations and limited time available to be ‘on the bottom’. What couples often don’t realise, though, is that your budget works in another way too. Having planned weddings throughout Europe for a few years, I’ve compiled a listing of the 5 unexpected destination wedding costs you may not pay attention to. This may hopefully give some food for thought when considering what form of wedding you need to have, with helpful links and guidance along the best way.
Destination wedding costs you may not expect:
1. Transport
It’s an exquisite truth about destination weddings that your guests have made an enormous effort to be there to have a good time with you, and providing some type of transportation for them at key moments is taken into account a pleasant method to show your gratitude for that. We regularly have a scenario where our couples’ chosen wedding venue is sort of distant, and guests are staying in several different hotels inside a really useful area. It isn’t possible or easy to simply call an Uber or local taxi firm and expect that each one guests will have the ability to get to and from the marriage that way, particularly with larger guest numbers and lesser populated locations.
Mostly, our couples provide transportation in the shape of coaches – often proceeding along a route that visits several of the hotels where guests are staying and bringing them to the marriage venue, with the reverse being true at the tip of the night. This (or something similar) can optionally be repeated for welcome and farewell events, though we are likely to recommend the marriage day as crucial one.
The fee of this transportation ought to be considered in your budget, together with the style of vehicle you’d prefer to use. Lots of our couples use local coach corporations to move large numbers of guests without delay, nevertheless we have now also hired a complete fleet of Mercedes MPVs to navigate the streets of Florence before!
2. Welcome gifts
Elegante by Michelle J couples historically love giving welcome bags or little gifts to their guests. That is considered one of the more enjoyable destination wedding costs to take into consideration should you love gifting, and the great thing about it’s that it’s very adaptable to your budget. Giving your family members just a little something on their arrival in your destination country is a thoughtful touch that sets the tone to your whole wedding weekend, helps them settle into and embrace the situation, and may remind them what to anticipate. There are a number of other ways you’ll be able to go together with welcome gifting, but they’ll include:
- Schedules to your wedding events, including locations, timings and dress codes
- Details reminiscent of where and when the transportation might be used
- City/destination guides for the local area
- Recommendations for cultural things to do to boost their trip
- Gifts reminiscent of jars of local olives, bottles of venue-made wine or just thoughtful handwritten notes
- Cards on which guests can request a song, leave a bit of recommendation or a pleasant message
We regularly help our couples with handing out welcome bags, either by hand delivering them to hotels or by displaying them at welcome parties – the precise details rely on what’s inside and the way soon you’d like your family members to have their gifts.
Need to know more about creating amazing wedding welcome bags? Click here.
3. Extra events
Speaking of welcoming your guests, considered one of the unexpected destination wedding costs we predict is very important to cover is that this: the fee of additional events. When planning a marriage in your own home country, pre- and post-wedding events are totally optional and, after they do happen, are sometimes quite informal or low-key. Nonetheless, at a destination wedding it’s becoming an increasing number of expected that welcome and farewell parties will probably be on the schedule.
We love helping our couples design their pre- and post-wedding parties, because they’re an actual opportunity to begin the celebrations early, allow everyone to mingle ahead of the marriage day (leading to a good livelier atmosphere), and really benefit from the destination you’ve chosen.
Whether you want the thought of sunset drinks and nibbles on a city rooftop, lounging around a pool helping yourself to a hair of the dog, or an adventurous group activity to see the local sights, we’ve got the art of wedding events covered.
Read our guide to throwing a trendy wedding welcome party here.
4. International suppliers
Next on our list of unexpected destination wedding costs is the potential expense of bringing suppliers from overseas. Wherever possible we attempt to work with local suppliers in your destination country, as we like to support the talent in the world and strive to bring authenticity to your experience. Nonetheless, occasionally it just isn’t possible to search out the team we really want.
Depending on the remoteness of your wedding destination and the event of the marriage industry in the world, it might be crucial to bring suppliers over from your own home country to work in your wedding. Sometimes we simply can’t find the proper fit for you abroad, or we wish something very specific that isn’t available – on this case, flying them in is the choice that gives you the most effective possible experience.
You could find out more about why and after we might select to do that in our blog in regards to the 7 aspects influencing the fee of a destination wedding – click here.
5. Luggage and travel
Finally, an unexpected cost to your destination wedding that has less to do with love and more to do with logistics! Planning a marriage involves a whole lot of stuff, a few of which we’ll source in your destination country and a few of which could have to travel with us. When my team and I travel to your wedding, we regularly bring with us your menus, place cards, welcome bag items for assembly…not to say our own event essentials kit with all the things we could possibly need over the course of your wedding!
In fact, there aren’t any hidden costs for our luggage – but you’ll find that you furthermore mght have greater than you’d tackle a traditional holiday, so it’s price considering what’s going to need to come back with you. An incredible example of that is your wedding dress, which must be fastidiously transported especially on a plane. We wrote a complete blog about travelling along with your wedding dress here.
Chances are you’ll also resolve to upgrade yourselves to higher seats on the plane, a chauffeur on arrival, a nicer hotel room…that are all things that couples often don’t consider until closer to the time. Giving this some thought ahead of time may also help this remain a pleasure, reasonably than turning into an additional expense you’d forgotten about.
Moreover, I typically do 2-3 planning trips with my UK couples and sometimes 1-2 with US couples, though it is feasible to make it work without if crucial. These also needs to be factored into your budget, and are a useful a part of the method.
Planning a destination wedding is probably the most exciting experiences you’ll have in your life and, having worked with a large number of couples over greater than a decade, I’ve seen these unexpected costs pop up and surprise people time and time again. Elegante by Michelle J couples now benefit from this because they’re well prepared, and hopefully now you’re too. Keep in mind that weddings overseas might be designed to suit many various budgets, and a very good wedding planner will probably be honest, transparent and helpful relating to what you’ll be able to do with yours.
GET IN TOUCH to book a complimentary consultation with Michelle.
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Find out how to plan a marriage in Italy from the UK and from the US.
Images on this blog by Alex Wysocki.
