Are people marrying abroad just to keep the cost down?

Errm no. It's proving just as expensive, if not more so, than marrying here. We have all the usual expenses, plus flights, plus (since no-one's coming with us) a massive budget for photography and videography to keep the parents happy. Oh, and then there's still the UK reception to pay for when we get home!

No, we're marrying abroad to stop any meddling, and to keep it just about us and our vows, with guaranteed sunshine. If we were going long haul for the honeymoon anyway, and want to elope, we may as well marry there too

We just happen to live abroad - a 20 minute flight from Zanzibar so it seemed like a good idea. On top of that, the paperwork to get the right visas for OH so we could get married in the UK was a nightmare, arranging it all from a distance would have been rather painful, OHs family and friends wouldn't be able to afford to come to UK and then of course we'll have better weather and great food.

Do I wish I was having a UK wedding - well I guess if the paperwork wasn't such a problem and OHs lot could have come then I would have loved to have all my friends there but as it is...... it's not such a bad decision.

Not why we're doing it. We also don't want people interfering and stressing us out, which is why a lot of people may also elope? We want our day to be just that...our day. It's about being married, not the circus of getting married. Aside from that my dad passed away 5 years ago so not having him walk me down the aisle - I didn't want anyone else to - even though I have plenty of Uncles and a brother who could do the job! Yes we are no doubt saving a lot of money doing it the way we are but you can guarantee I'll make sure the Honeymoon isn't as "no frills" as the wedding!! ?

No, not really to keep costs down as such, just to spend the finite budget on things that are important to us. So for the set amount of money (not very much, but a lot to us) we are having a lovely week away in somewhere that means a lot to us with the 20 people we really want to spend time with rather than having 9 hours with a whole heap of people looking at us and expecting us to deliver a good day, with us worrying about speaking to everyone, and making sure they're having a good time at our expense.

Yes for me it is partly to cut down on costs but not only. We love Italy and it was the natural choice for us to get married there. We think we're getting much better value for money over there and we get the scenery and the weather guaranteed ?

Thanks for your reply.