Are you thinking of a destination wedding? Did you get engaged and dream of the magical sunsets in Maui or the rolling vineyards in Italy? Or maybe it was a little later in the process when you started planning a local wedding and it all felt a bit overwhelming. For us, Mandy had the idea to go to Barcelona right away but it took Jackie a bit longer to see the dream. After an insane amount of thought, way too many pro/con lists, and consulting with literally everyone we know, we decided to plan a wedding some can only dream of. A winery in Barcelona, Spain with incredible cava, music, and tapas.
We are still in the early stages of planning our destination wedding (370 days and counting!) but we’ve already come across 5 major possible stumbling blocks. There are some obvious challenges like ya know the language barrier and the 4,710 miles but those are just minor details, right? These are the things we did not see coming. So, we felt they were great to share!
@jeremywongweddings
1. Get an insanely good planner
We knew we needed a destination wedding planner, but we didn’t realize just how important this step would be. Our planner knows everyone and if she doesn’t know them, she will get to know them quick. She has already guided us in almost every aspect and recently sent us a 275 line excel sheet detailing every step of the wedding week. She is tailoring us our perfect wedding and feel like it will be perfect. @weddingsviaval
2. Set a budget and stick to it
We set a solid budget and have done our best to stay within it. That being said we have run into a few unexpected international surprises that are worth sharing.
- Taxes vs. Gratuity – it’s important you do research on the area you are getting married, as each culture works a bit differently. In the states, we are accustomed to adding gratuity for a service such as catering, florist, music, etc. In Spain, we learned there is 21% VAT (value added tax) on pretty much everything and any gratuity would be on top of that. Since the VAT is something that goes to the government, it is included as part of all deposits and costs from the get-go. This plumped our budget more than we anticipated.
- Conversion – we knew the euro and the dollar weren’t exactly equal but neither of us anticipated it to hit the budget the way it has. 1.00 Euro = 1.08 dollar. That may not seem like that much, but it is 8% more on everything. Here’s a hypothetical example.
- Your photographer has a fee of 2300 Euro
- VAT at 21% is 483 Euro for a total of 2783 euro
- Converted into dollars is $3005.64
- Travel costs – Obviously having a destination wedding means you’ll have to carve out a budget for the travel itself. Be careful here, take your time with flights, hotels, and transportation because it can quickly get out of hand.
Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash
3. Money Transfer
We were ready to make the deposit charges, yay! And we looked at each other and said, so how do we do that? We had assumed we could just hand over a credit card number and they would run it. We learned pretty quickly that’s not exactly how it works. There’s a fee to send things across oceans (who woulda thought?) and not that many secure websites. We landed on TransferWise and I have to say, the experience has been awesome. Once the account was set up you can simply put in all the information for your vendor (another reason to have a great planner!) and the money transfers almost instantly. The catch? It has a small percentage fee – so far anywhere from $20-$60. Obviously, these small charges can add up, so leaving a little contingency space in your budget will go a long way!
@spiritvisionstudios
4. People may not be able to come and may be upset
Unfortunately unless you have the ability to buy them all plane tickets and get them accomodations, many of those you care about won’t be able to make the trip. But unlike a local wedding, a destination wedding is much more difficult for everyone you love to get to your dream wedding destination. This is important to remember because there will likely be some people who cannot get the time off, cannot afford the trip, and those who simply aren’t comfortable traveling. This day is about you and your partner so make sure you’re 100% happy even if people from your list cannot make it. People will always be mad at something, so control what you can and build the wedding of your dreams!
5. Trust your vendors
Coronavirus has made this one especially difficult because we had planned a trip to meet with many of our vendors, but at the end of the day we have to trust them. Another shout out to our wedding coordinator who helped guide us towards vendors she trusted and have worked with before. They are the pro’s and we chose to have a wedding across an ocean, trust is necessary.
Check out some of the vendors we have chosen!
Caterer: @caravanmade
Venue: @paresbalta
Flowers: @bestdayever_es
Video: @paipaiproductions
Photographer: @andreudozphotography
These are just 5 of the things we have run into early on, we’re sure the list will evolve as we learn more! If you’re just getting started, make sure you take note of these few things and do your best with them. Remember, all weddings are stressful so grab a glass (or bottle) or wine and dig into the details of your perfect destination wedding. It will all be worth it!
Cheers to chasing our compass!
Mandy & Jackie
