Getting Married Abroad

These days getting married abroad is a lot cheaper than in your own country. Hubby and I were supposed to get married at the end of July this year. Only 1 1/2 months away. Unfortunately our venue we booked it in got in the way and they closed it down at the beginning of March which left us with no other option other than canceling the wedding altogether. We did try looking for other venues but just for the sake of taking one that we actually don’t really like, it’s just not worth it. Luckily we got all our deposits back from the photographers, music etc that we booked in advance. Obviously we lost out on the wedding deposit which was the biggest one but there is not much we can do about it now anyway.

This got us thinking that we might be better of doing a small wedding and have dinner after or go abroad, take the kids with us and get married there and at the same time have the familymoon in the same place. Over the last couple of weeks I did some research online to see where we could get married and have a nice holiday at the same time.

Disney Cruise is a winner for everybody. I came across this only by chance, I can’t even remember how. As a child I grew up with watching Disney, wearing Disney and going to Disneyland Paris. I don’t think there is any child who hasn’t been introduced to Disney. My two kids both love Disney as much as I do. Obviously Chloe is a bit young for it yet to understand but she is obsessed with Minnie Mouse.
The wedding package is $3000 which includes up to 8 guests. You will have the choice of a bouquet of flowers for the bride, a pianist or keyboardist and it even comes with the wedding cake/ champagne. A nice little extra is $100 stateroom credit for onboard services and merchandise. Complimentary dinner for two onboard, too.

The amount of stuff you can do onboard is unreal. It’s definitely magical. Just to give you an idea how much fun you and the kids can have on the cruise ship:
• Musicals are on all the time
• Lots of different sweet and treat bars, juice bars, ice creams
• A huge theatre
• Different pools with giant slides
• Kids Clubs
• Spa for us Grown Ups
• Sports
• Creches etc. etc. etc.

Las Vegas is what a lot of people seem to do these days. Jet off, get married, spend a few Euros and come back. Not an ideal get away when you have two kids though. It’s very busy and I’d be afraid one of them runs off or something. But if you don’t have kids, then this is certainly a cheap option. In saying that it takes around 14 hours to fly from Ireland to Las Vegas.

Italy is an absolute romance of a wedding. Tuscany is very popular for its lights and colours. You will certainly get some lovely photographs there. I can also imagine how lovely it would be to take a ride on one of the boats on the canal in Rome. Plus side is that you can take the kids with you as it works out as an additional familymoon.

I love the Canary Islands. Gran Canaria or Lanzarote would be a beautiful setting to get married. Can you imagine a setup on a lovely beach while the sun sets for example.

Greece is most popular for its hospitality, as well as their cuisine, views and beaches. It’s very popular to get married over there. I have only been to Greece twice and that was to the Greek Island Rhodes. For that reason I would recommend Rhodes as the perfect wedding destination.

Another European destination in mind is Portugal. Sintra, a town located in the Algarve has become very popular over the last 10 years. They offer indoor as well as outdoor weddings. But let’s be honest, if you’re in Portugal anyway, why would you have the wedding indoors? Get out on the beach.