Lesson 2: How to Choose the Right Overseas Wedding Experience for You
Planning a destination wedding can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! Finding the right wedding experience is about discovering what you and your partner truly want for your big day. Here’s how to make it easier.
Keep It Simple and Be Open-Minded
Start by asking yourselves what you both value in a wedding. What kind of experience are you dreaming of? Take your time to explore different venues and understand the types of experiences they offer and the associated costs.
Tip: Don’t rush into decisions like setting a budget or choosing a venue until you have a good understanding of destination weddings and how they work in different countries. Keeping an open mind will help you find the best experience and value for your money
Understand the Wedding Market in Each Location
Every wedding destination has its own style and price range. It’s important to get a good overview of what each place offers. If a particular location catches your eye, dive deeper into the venues there and learn about their wedding packages and prices.
Tip: Visit our website, select a location, and enter your guest number to see how much an entry-level wedding might cost at various venues. This will give you a great starting point for understanding your options.
Explore Different Wedding Experiences
Immerse yourself in the different types of wedding experiences available. Do you picture a cliffside ceremony, a lush garden setting, or a beach wedding? Once you know what kind of experience resonates with you, you can look at different price points and find a venue that fits your style and budget.
Wedding Planning Around the World
Wedding venues generally price and package their offerings in two main ways:
- Wedding Packages: Many venues offer pre-packaged wedding options that cover everything from the ceremony to the reception. These packages can often be customised but give you a great starting point. This is a popular approach in places like Asia, where large hotel chains and even some smaller local resorts offer comprehensive wedding packages.
- Custom Weddings: Some venues offer a fully tailored experience where you build everything from scratch. This can be ideal if you have a specific vision in mind, but it often requires more planning, coordination and execution on the day to get all the details right.
Tip: On our site, you can explore approved venues worldwide that we trust to deliver exceptional experiences. We’ve worked together with our venues to put all the details, prices and packages there to make it easy to compare, helping you get a clear picture of what’s available in different locations.
Be Ready to Change Your Mind
With so many stunning options—from underwater aquariums in the Maldives to elegant cliffside villas in Phuket—it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Michelle and I went through the same thing. We initially wanted a beach wedding but ended up exploring various venues, from trendy beach clubs to intimate cliffside villas.
In the end, we chose a venue that offered the perfect balance of luxury and intimacy. It was a journey of self-discovery that showed us what we truly valued. So, don’t be surprised if you change your mind a few times along the way—what matters most is finding the perfect experience for you and your guests.
Here are photos of the beach wedding experience we were originally going for as well as the clifftop beach wedding we chose in the end. To understand why we were so happy we made the change, check out our wedding video here.
Personal Tip on Wedding Experiences
Choosing the right wedding experience is a journey of discovery. You’ll learn a lot about what you and your partner truly value, and that clarity will help you narrow down your options and find the perfect venue for your special day. Remember to keep an open mind, explore your options thoroughly, and trust your instincts!
The Easy Way – Using the Platform to Find Your Wedding Experience
After travelling extensively, conducting site inspections and meeting the teams at thousands of top-rated venues, we’ve curated a list of the most reputable venues known for their exceptional experiences.
To bring these venues closer to you and allow you to visualise each venue’s wedding experience, we’ve worked hard with our venue partners to get all the information together on our site. Now you don’t have to fly over to visit your venue, you can visit them all online.
WHAT TO DO NOW
- Understand what wedding experiences are out there by visiting lots of venues online on our site
- Decide on the experience you love the most
- Favourite all the venues you like most
STEP BY STEP
1. Find Trusted Venues with Amazing Wedding Experiences
Filter venues to match your specific needs based on your number of guests, preferred destination, venue type or wedding experience. Use Find It.
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Entering your number of guests will also automatically calculate the basic wedding cost at each venue.
These prices come direct from our venues and are Best Price Guaranteed.
Tip 1: Use minimal filters to start to not limit yourself. Then use more filters later on, once you know what you like.
Tip 2: Select your currency to make the prices more relevant.
Tip 3: Sort your venues by price afterwards.
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2. Visit Venues Online – Hotel Overview
This is the hotel overview and will help you understand what the hotel is like overall, before jumping into the wedding side. Use Visit It.
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See all the pictures, videos, venue map and virtual tours (if available).
Tip 1: The venue map is great to help you understand the logistics within the resort. Check out where the main guest facilities are in relation to the wedding locations if privacy is important to you.
Tip 2: Chat with the venue’s contact directly by sending a message “Ask Venue”. Just like an internal Whatsapp chat, it’s much easier and quicker to have a conversation compared to email. Our team will also be there to help assist you there too.
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3. Visit Venues Online – Ceremony & Reception Locations
Visualise the venue’s top wedding locations. Use Visit It.
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Many venues have a lot of wedding locations on offer, however only a few of them are popular.
So to make things easier, we show you up to 3 of their most popular wedding locations and tell you all about them. You’ll see the locations, different wedding setups and past wedding photos (where available).
Tip 1: Check the capacity and any special requirements for each of the wedding locations.
Tip 2: Check the “Party Until” area to see curfews for each of the wedding locations.
Tip 3: Some of our top venues have extra information to provide. You’ll see this under “What we love” and “Things you should know”.
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4. Visit Venues Online – Food & Drinks
Here you can get a quick summary of the food and drink menus and the cost. Use Visit It.
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We’ve simplified the menus to basic, standard and premium to make it easy for you to compare.
However don’t worry about this too much now, the next lessons will cover Food and Drinks in detail so you’ll know exactly what to focus on.
Tip 1: No food or drink menus are set and can be customised after you book.
Tip 2: Make sure your currency is set to your home currency so prices are more relevant.
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5. Visit Venues Online – Past Weddings
Here is where we put feedback from previous couples. Use Visit It.
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