How to organize a wedding abroad

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Read to the end: here it is important to think over every detail.

Schedule preparation time

Budget 6-8 months for preparation. This way you can plan everything calmly, evaluate different options, and you won’t panic when people delay answering your messages.

If there are guests at a wedding abroad, they must be invited as early as possible, at least 2 months in advance. They will need time to take time off from work, get visas, find tickets and housing.

A symbolic ceremony for two can be arranged in a few weeks. But then the plane tickets will be more expensive and there is a high probability that you will have to agree to the options that remain. Especially during the wedding season from May to September.

Decide who will be the organizer

In fact, there are not so many people who can take up the preparation.

You yourself

On the one hand, these are pleasant things that you are able to solve yourself, and you will save money on intermediaries. On the other hand, you will need extreme composure and a lot of free time.

Tour operator

When there is no time or you don't want to fiddle with documents, you can just go to one of the travel agencies that organize weddings abroad. There, you simply state your wishes and pay for a suitable package tour. It happens that ordinary tour operators also sell wedding packages.

Wedding planner

This specialist will undertake the preparation of a custom wedding with any wishes that are not available in ready-made tours. You can find a wedding planner in Russia and take him with you or, if you have enough English, hire him on the spot.

Search the internet for “wedding planner *”, where * is the name of the city you want to get married in and see what options are available.

Prepare documents

It must be remembered that the set of required papers will vary greatly depending on the selected country. And before you start collecting it, you need to decide which wedding option - a symbolic ceremony or a formal wedding - is more suitable for you.

Symbolic ceremony

It is actually a tourist trip to another country where you are hosting a wedding celebration. With or without a white dress, with guests or together - your holiday has no legal burden: you go to the registry office in Russia. Therefore, just choose any country and prepare a classic set of travel documents.

• International passports.
• A valid visa, if needed.
• Round-trip tickets.
• Accommodation reservation.
• Medical insurance.

Official wedding

Here you become a husband and wife according to the laws of another state. If the marriage was concluded according to all the rules, Russia also recognizes the RF IC. Article 158. Recognition of marriages concluded outside the territory of the Russian Federation, your union valid. You will need all the same documents as for a symbolic wedding, plus a set of others.

The first thing to do is find out if foreigners can officially marry in this country. For example, for a formal wedding in Indonesia, your religion is important: you need to be a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or Catholic. And in France you will have to stay in the country 40 days before the wedding.

Then you need to prepare documents confirming that there are no obstacles to your marriage: you are not married and are not blood relatives.

• Russian passports and copies.
• Birth certificates.
• Certificate of divorce or death of a past husband or wife, if someone was already married.
• Certificate of marital status from a notary.
• Notarized translation of all documents into the language of the country.

When all the documents have been collected, go to the consulate of the country of your wedding and find out if everything is correctly executed, whether all seals are affixed, whether it is required to put an apostille on the documents - this is an additional stamp confirming the legality of papers abroad.

Then ask the Russian Foreign Ministry how to make your foreign wedding certificate valid in Russia. Most often, you need to put an apostille on it or make a consular legalization procedure - each country has its own rules.

If everything is fine with the documents, you can send copies to the mayor's office of the selected city in another country, find out free days and pay state fees. It happens that in order to select a date, the personal presence of the future spouses or their trustee is required.

Perhaps, for an official wedding, a local wedding organizer who is well acquainted with bureaucratic procedures is not a whim, but a necessity that will save you nerves.

Choose a place for the ceremony

The location is limited only by your imagination. You can even get married on a ship or in a tree house. However, in the case of an official wedding with off-site registration, the place will need to be agreed with the mayor's office. Let's consider the classic options.

Beach

Private beaches, usually owned by hotels, are suitable for the ceremony. So next to the wedding, strangers will not sunbathe. In archipelagos like the Maldives or Seychelles, you can even choose a small uninhabited island and sail there by boat. All organizational issues are resolved with the hotel.

Villa or castle

There are many old estates in European cities that are rented out for weddings. Most of the villas and castles are located in scenic locations next to a lake, sea or forest. To find out prices and availability, look for the site with contacts and contact by phone or email. Usually, customer requests on Facebook are processed quickly.

A restaurant

Many restaurants have special venues for weddings: green lawns with a lawn, gardens, gazebos with white canopies. Check out photos of real weddings on TripAdvisor as you choose your venue.

You can also enter the name of the restaurant on Instagram and see what weddings have already been in this location. Or even write to the newlyweds and ask them.

Help guests prepare for their trip

How many friends and relatives to invite to a wedding and whether to pay for their travel is always a delicate question. It is important that it is clear from the invitation who will bear the costs of the plane and accommodation.

It will be more convenient if all invitees live in the same area or even in the same hotel. If you need to go to the place of the ceremony, order a round-trip transfer for the guests, and a wedding car for yourself. Such services are provided by taxi and transfer services.

If there are a lot of guests, a wedding site will come in handy, where you should put all the important information: departure dates, time and place of the wedding, maps, phones. You can create a wedding page for free (the link is one of these options).

Create a wedding menu

It is important to discuss the menu and the number of guests with the wedding venue. Learn the gastronomic traditions of the country where you are getting married so you know what to expect.

For example, we are used to the fact that in Russia snacks remain on the table all evening. But in Europe, they are removed when the serving of individual dishes begins. In Italy, the first course is pasta, so don't be surprised that the first thing to do is serve ravioli to your guests. In America, after appetizers, before serving hot, everyone eats salad.

If there is no restaurant near the place of the ceremony, you will need to take care of catering - organizing an off-site feast. The catering service can arrange both a light buffet with snacks and a full-fledged banquet with a change of dishes.

Do not forget about food for the staff who will work at your wedding: musicians, photographers, presenter. If the driver of the car stays at the wedding venue until the end, he must also be entered in the staff menu.

Find Music, Photo & Video Professionals

Usually wedding venues offer their host, DJ, photographer and videographer, but only as a recommendation. You are free to hire another person or bring your favorite specialist with you - it happens that it turns out even cheaper. That being said, you already know that you can trust his taste.

Discuss in advance the musicians' repertoire or DJ tracklist. Otherwise, you may find that you do not know any of the local hits and have no idea how to dance to it.

Competitions and games at weddings in other countries are not always accepted. Therefore, if you wanted to arrange something like this for your guests, warn the host.

Discuss decorations and flower choices with your florist

Find out who decorates the place of the ceremony. Talk to your florist about the color scheme and what kind of flowers you prefer. It will be good to prepare in advance photos with the compositions and the bride's bouquet that you like, so you don't have to frantically remember the names of flowers in a foreign language.

And don't forget the groom's boutonniere. Fortunately, the word "boutonniere" sounds like this in many languages.

Prepare your wedding dresses for shipment

If you are bringing a wedding dress from Russia, it is better to take it in your hand luggage. For this, there are special covers with a hanger. The dress will have to be folded and, most likely, it will be remembered. But it’s better to have him ironed in the laundry later than pulling your hair out if the airline loses luggage.

It is easier to compensate for the lost groom's suit, but it is also safer to transport it in hand luggage folded and packed in a case. Do not carry wedding rings in your luggage. Keep them in a secure inner bag pocket.

If you are planning to buy bridal gowns in the country where you are getting married, allow yourself plenty of time to shop. Even what you liked very much on the store's website may simply not work.

Organize the bride's makeup and hairstyle

You can contact hairdressers and makeup artists from local salons and book an onsite service. Hotels where weddings are often held can also recommend their specialists.

And in almost every city in the world there are our compatriots who work in the field of beauty and maintain their page on social networks. If time permits, it is better for the bride to have a test makeup and hairstyle done by the selected masters.

Calculate your budget

We specially left this point for last: in order to calculate the wedding expenses, you first need to find out the prices for the flight on your dates and services in the country where you plan to get married. The price of plane tickets will vary depending on the date, the cost of ceremonies is usually the same - at most, you can ask for a discount if you get married on a weekday in an unpopular season.

Decide which items from the above are relevant to you, make a list and start finding out the prices. If it turns out that your desires greatly exceed your capabilities, do not get discouraged ahead of time. Think about what you can save on: a simpler dress, fewer guests, or a more budget-friendly country.

Let's say you dreamed of a wedding on Lake Como in Italy until you saw the prices for villas - also look at Montenegro. There are similar landscapes and a completely democratic wedding price. We wanted to say yes on the warm sand of the Caribbean, but tickets are prohibitively expensive - in the south of Thailand there are stunning beaches with wild jungle around.

A villa in France can be replaced with an estate in the Czech Republic, without losing the desired mood, and instead of distant Brazil, go to relatively close Portugal.

Before booking any services, specify what is included in the price and ask to send details of everything. So you can, on occasion, remind you that you, as a newlywed, were promised a SPA program or breakfast in your room after the wedding.