So where and why did you choose your destination?

One night not long after we got engaged I was trying To work out how to have a Wedding that would suit both me and my other half. I had always dreamed of a White Wedding but my other half has extreme stage fright hated the thought of speaking in front of people and being the centre of attention. Suddenly the idea came to me - Lapland - you can't get much whiter and we can go abroad just the two of us so no nerves for him! So thats how our choice came about, it just seemed a perfect way to suit what we both wanted!

1. To avoid a lot of fuss. To make sure the day was about us and the vows we were making, not a theatrical production for family and friends. To avoid interfering people. To avoid having to make vows to my H that I'd previously made to ex H in front of the same guests.

2. Zanzibar. Always wanted to go there, far enough that no one would want to come, fab place to tie in a luxury honeymoon (we had half the HM on Zanzibar and half on safari in Tanzania) and most importantly we could have a C of E wedding there.

3. Decided within days of getting engaged. I suggested it, H liked the idea but was worried what his parents would think. Told them, they were happy, and booked it!

We got married abroad as we both come from very big families and decided to avoid any invite issues by going away.

We decided to get married in New York as it's my favourite city other than home, plus I have a sister there so this avoided her not being able to come. I wanted a church wedding which we could do there and we both love the buzz of the City. The church is allsoulsnyc.org which was beautiful and really helpful and friendly.

It wasn't a big decision for us as this way we had a 'traditional' wedding in a church not on a beach, but without any guest issues - we just had our parents and siblings with us and had a really fun time. It also meant that we could fly down to Florida for our honeymoon and even including this we still came under budget as we didn't need to pay out for huge venues, big wedding cakes etc. We went to Anna Maria Island for our honeymoon which was heaven and having been I would've been tempted to get married there (it's really old town america with little wooden chapels, white beaches, beach restaurants, dolphins etc) if you don't know it it's worth checking out floridaholidayonline.com

1) I am from the North and OH family is down south, tons of family issues on both sides and we didnt want a fuss just me and him

2) We love Florida so it just seemed the perfect place

3) A week ha ha its so much cheaper and people can come if they want ?

Hello!

1) My husband is of Italian descent and I thought that getting married in Italy would be the most romantic thing ever, and it was!

2) Apart from my husband's ancestry, I really love Italy, in particular Tuscany. We have visited it several times and it enchants us every time. We wanted to share our passion with our family and friends.

3) Well the only "Problem" with the wedding abroad was the possible expenses for us and our guests, because it could cost more than getting married in the UK. It took us about 2 months of deliberation but at the end we did find a reasonable deal that made everyone happy.

Cheers!

Really enjoying reading everyone elses reasons - Making me feel more confident that we are doing the right thing (I've had a few wobbles!)

1. We chose to marry abroad because we've both got massive families. We don't actually like most of our extended family (between the racists, alcoholics and bitches it's really a close call as to who is the worst!), so we did the acid test of 'would you buy them dinner?' and the answer was no! We are super close to our immediate families though and our parents all get along great so we thought it would be a lovely excuse to have a family holiday.

2. We chose Santorini as it's affordable for our friends to travel to and not too far for my best friend and FSIL to travel with their toddlers. We looked at further afield but even though we sound like snobby twats who hate everyone, we are actually very close to the 30 people who will be joining us! They all probably couldn't have come if we were jetting off to the other side of the world. We ummed and ahhed for ages about where in Europe to get married but we settled on Santorini because even though it's a really popular destination -none of us have ever been there!

Oh yeah and there is no way we could afford an all inclusive bar at a UK based venue and that's what we are going to be able to do!

3. It was quite a quick decision to get married abroad but picking the destination and the company to go with took about 4 months of emailing and waiting for responses.

Less than a year to go now!!! Get me to the gym!!!

Hi,

My fiance and I got engaged Februaury this year when we were in Antigua attending the wedding of his friends (they were older and had been previously married so with no ties it was easier for them to do it that way)

Up until 2 weeks ago we were going for the church wedding and reception shabang. He had always joked about going abroad to get married but I wasnt sure, then one day my mother suggested we should just elope as it would be a whole lot easier (and the whole thing of, is so n so coming? you have to invite so n so lol) we looked at each other and said yeah lets do it

We've chosen Grenada at their new Sandals resort(half the price of wedding here and its a honeymoon too!) lol

If we hadnt have been to that wedding at the begining of the year I think we would be a dubious about going for it, but now we're both so relaxed as nothing to plan just yet and we can just enjoy waiting for it

1) Why did you choose to marry abroad? We didn't want an expensive or traditional wedding. Las Vegas seemed fun and quite "us". Since we have booked it then l am completely convinced it is the right thing to do -lots of family issues and people behaving very badly!

2) Why did you choose that country in particular? We both like America and with it America then it wasn't too tricky to make happen or be legal

3) How long did it take you to decide and come to that decision? A while as we did contemplate a traditional wedding just after getting engaged. We then realised we couldn't face the level of stress, expense and family moaning (both families had very different ideas about how and where our wedding should be!) this would entail. So we started contemplating other options.

Hi,

we always knew we would get married abroad and as much as I like beaches the draw of snow is greater, therefore it was always gonna be somewhere snowy. Neither of us have large families and have a tight knit of close friends, so we don't want a huge do with the usual hangers on or the formality of it.

He proposed on 14th jan this year on immeljavvi (Levi, Finland) beneath the northern lights and both of us were just struck with the absolute beauty of Lapland. I can't describe why I love it so much. So whilst still on holiday we decided to return there and get married. After doing some research online we found a reputable company (we are aware it can be done cheaper ourselves) and preliminarily booked 14/01/2015 for our wedding at luvatuuma ice chapel (that was a hard decision as after visiting Lainio ice hotel I really didn't want yo get married there and I just didn't lke it, bare walls, an alter-not for me, I actually wanted a Kota with a wood fire, but have been swung by the beauty of luvatuuma).

we sent out the save the dates and my only regret is that my bf can't make it as I'm selfishly getting married in term time :-) however 28 of my cliosest friends and family are coming out to the arctic for a week of fun and snowboarding and I can't wait to share my favourite place with them.

Only downside is I'm struggling to find fake fur jackets I .like.like

1. I never wanted the big white wedding, I'd hate all the attention. Also I don't like the idea of paying out thousands of pounds to feed distant relatives & people I hardly know & finally my Mum & Dad have been divorced 20 years & my Mum won't be in the same room as my Dad so it's just easier to have a simple wedding abroad.

2. We chose Skiathos as we have holidayed there 6 times before & love the island. We always said if we got married we'd do it there as it is like our second home.

3. About 30 seconds!

1. We decided we wanted to get married with no pressure, and both of us, not being close to our family thought doing it on holiday would be a lovely idea.

2. We've chosen Malta, basically, because it's a short residency you need before the holiday and it met our budget requirements.

3. I've been looking for about 2 weeks. We decided we'd like to get married early next year, and it would be a destination in Europe, so that narrowed things down. Italy, Greece, Cyprus where our first thoughts, but Malta has now won.

We chose to marry abroad mainly for the price and the weather. I would be heartbroken to pay thousands of pounds only for it to rain all day!

We thought about where we had been on holiday before and somewhere that was not too far for guests, especially those with children.

We were thinking about Cyprus or Greece but have now gone with Paphos in Cyprus. I went with this after coming across a lady on Facebook who plans weddings in Paphos. She has been fantastic so far and made everything very stress free :-) We are also using her to book our guests flights and accommodation, so everything is in one place.

We have told our guests that we understand if they can't make it as it is a big ask, but have found that the majority of people are using the wedding as their annual holiday so are more than happy to come.

Sooo excited, this time next year we will be married!!!

1) Although I love other peoples weddings and have enjoyed being a bridesmaid in my friends' weddings I have never wanted to be a bride myself. My family don't get on well together and I'm not entirely comfortable being the centre of attention. However after ten years together we would like to get married so eloping seemed the perfect solution. Also our 30th birthdays are coming up and neither of us wants a big party so we thought we'd treat ourselves to a big holiday to celebrate instead and we could get married when we are there.

2) We chose Las Vegas because we wanted to visit the national parks in the south west of the USA (Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Monument Valley) and drive a bit of Route 66 for our 30ths and it is super easy to get married in Vegas and there's so much choice of wedding and photography packages. I also think the tackiness is quite funny and will put us at ease. We're going to get married in a pretty state park not far from Vegas with lots of red rocks and a lake.

3) As soon as we thought about elopement we naturally thought Vegas straight away.

Liking this thread!

OHs parents are retired and now live in the South of France, and we get to spend quite a bit of time with my family as most are only 2 hrs away, so thought it would be nice to do something involving his family more.

It has worked out cheaper (certainly no more expensive) for a week in the South of France, in a beautiful part of the world with the reception in an old barn and accommodation for everyone in an old cognac estate. Also the wine is cheap If anyone fancies a nosy, its www.longeveau.com

We had discussed getting married in France before OH proposed, so went from there. I had no preconceptions about what sort of wedding I would like, I had never let myself fantasise about the big white wedding until I knew it would be a reality! It didn't take us long to decide on South West France, but took a few months of searching and 100+ emails to find the right venue that covered all bases of letting us do what we want to, onsite accommodation and beautiful scenery. It is also only an hour or so on a plane, or drivable if people fancy a road trip, so meant most of our nearest and dearest could come too for a wedding holiday!

Have you narrowed down any options or favourites yet?

Hi Ladies

We got engaged in March last year and we're getting married in New York City in September 2014.

1) We chose to get married abroad because I don't like being the centre of attention and with my fiance's big family we were never going to be allowed to get away with a small wedding if we stayed at home.

2) We wanted to get married somewhere that meant something to us and somewhere that we could and would want to revisit in the future. We've chosen to get married in Central Park as we both love New York and Central Park in particular. I can see us going back for significant anniversaries.

Hannahlb4884, we're getting a train from New York to Chicago and will be driving Route 66 for our Honeymoon. This is one of our dream holidays that we've been planning on and off for about 6 years - I'm so looking foward to it.

3) It took us about 3-4 weeks after we decided to get married abroad to think of New York as we initially concentrated on beach locations. I can't remember which one of us suggested it but as soon as it was mentioned it took about 30 seconds to decide. We're lucky that our immediate family (parents and siblings) are coming with us as are some of our close friends. We think there will be about 20-24 in total.

I can't wait x

Hi NYCBride,

Wanted to say hello because we're also getting married in Central Park in 2014. Spookily, we also got engaged in March last year!

We chose New York for many of the reasons you've already stated. There's only 4 very close family members coming with us so it's going to be pretty intimate.

Where in Central Park are you getting married? We've chosen Ladies Pavillion and got our permit despite it not being necessary with such a small party. Was so tough to decide, there's so many beautiful locations in the park!

Your honeymoon sounds amazing, my mum and her partner are flying to Boston and doing a road trip via Niagra falls to get to New York which sounds so much fun!

Hi Ddpunk,

It's so great having another Central Park bride on here and also that we're getting married the same month. We're the 27th September - what about you?

We're getting married at the Cop Cot near the pond. I agree there are so many lovely spots to get married that we had a hard time deciding. I've definitely got a list of other places in the Park we want to have photos taken!

We initially thought there would be 11 of us as it was going to be my mum and my sister and her family and my fiancés parents, sister and brother in-law. We're totally blown away that so many of our friends are coming as well but it has upped the ante a bit for us. We'd planned to go somewhere close by for a nice meal after the ceremony but now we're looking to see if we can book a private dining room somewhere.

I'm new to the forums but will post some more details when I've found my way around.

x