Modern lovers are increasingly abandoning the classic wedding day with a bride price, large feasts, a huge number of relatives, a toastmaster and outdated competitions. Instead, couples decide to hold a romantic and touching ceremony in another country - on a beautiful island or in an ancient castle in Europe. How to organize a wedding abroad, how much it will cost, as well as other nuances of such a celebration, we will discuss in this article.
Calculate your preparation time
Allow 6–8 months for preparation.
This way, you can calmly plan everything, evaluate different options, and won’t panic when people delay in responding to your messages. If there will be guests at a wedding abroad, you need to invite them as early as possible, at least 2 months in advance. They will need time to take time off from work, get visas, find tickets and accommodation.
A symbolic ceremony for two can be arranged several weeks in advance. But then plane tickets will be more expensive and there is a high probability that you will have to agree to the options that remain. Especially during the wedding season from May to September.
Ethiopia
You may be surprised, but Ethiopia is the only country in Africa where Christianity is the official religion. The majority of the population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, so the wedding ceremony here resembles a Russian one.
On the wedding day, the groom and his friends go to the bride's house. But the parents of the young woman close the door on them. To get into the house, they must dance, sing songs and make up jokes so that the door will be opened for them. As soon as the groom gets inside, friends spray aromatic tinctures. This is a symbol of the beginning of married life.
The wedding table of this tribe is very modest. There are no delicacies or gourmet treats here. Ethiopia is a poor country, and I treat my guests to what I cultivate myself. First of all, they don’t use cutlery here. All food is eaten with the hands. There are no traditional plates either. Instead - figs. This is a yew cake, which is placed on the bottom of a tin dish, and a treat is placed on top.
The hostess of the house treats the guest of honor to the most delicious piece, which is called gursha. She puts it into her guest's mouth with her hands. Refusal can greatly offend the hostess.
Decide who will be the organizer
In fact, there are not many people who can take on the preparation.
You yourself
On the one hand, these are pleasant matters that you can solve yourself, and you will save on intermediaries. On the other hand, you will need extreme composure and a lot of free time.
Tour operator
When you don’t have time or don’t want to bother with documents, you can simply go to one of the travel agencies that organize weddings abroad. There you simply tell us about your wishes and pay for a suitable package tour. It happens that ordinary tour operators also sell wedding packages.
Wedding Planner
This specialist will take upon himself the preparation of a non-standard wedding with any wishes that are not included in ready-made tours. You can find a wedding planner in Russia and take him with you, or, if you have enough English, hire him on the spot.
Search the Internet for “wedding planner *,” where * is the name of the city you want to get married in, and see what options are available.
Is foreign marriage recognized in Russia?
The grounds on which a marriage registered abroad will be valid in Russia are given in Art. 158 SK. The obstacles are detailed in Art. SK. Keep in mind that domestic authorities officially recognize only legalized documents.
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage has been officially legalized by 28 countries (Portugal, Finland, Germany, France, Spain). Another 16 states recognize same-sex cohabitation and partnerships, but limit the rights of couples. For example, in Estonia, Hungary, Andorra, and the Czech Republic, IVF, adoption, and surrogate mother services are prohibited.
Important! In Russia, same-sex marriage is invalid by law. According to Art. In the UK, marriage is understood as the union of a woman and a man, i.e., heterosexual.
Article 1 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation “Basic principles of family legislation”
Prepare your documents
It must be remembered that the set of required papers will vary greatly depending on the selected country. And before you start collecting it, you need to decide which wedding option - a symbolic ceremony or an official wedding - is more suitable for you.
Symbolic ceremony
This is actually a tourist trip to another country where you are having a wedding celebration. With or without a white dress, with guests or together - your holiday has no legal burden: you go to the registry office in Russia. Therefore, just choose any country and prepare a classic set of documents for entry.
- International passports.
- Valid visa, if required.
- Return tickets.
- Accommodation reservation.
- Medical insurance.
Official wedding
Here you become husband and wife according to the laws of another state. If the marriage was concluded according to all the rules, Russia also recognizes the RF IC. Article 158. Recognition of marriages concluded outside the territory of the Russian Federation; your union is valid. You will need all the same documents as for a symbolic wedding, plus a set of others.
The first thing you need to do is find out whether foreigners can officially get married in this country. For example, for a formal wedding in Indonesia, your religion is important: you need to be Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or Catholic. And in France you will have to stay in the country for 40 days before the wedding.
Then you need to prepare documents confirming that there are no obstacles to your marriage: you are not married and are not blood relatives.
- Russian passports and copies.
- Birth certificates.
- Certificate of divorce or death of the previous husband or wife, if someone was already married.
- Certificate of marital status from a notary.
- Notarized translation of all documents into the language of the country.
When all the documents have been collected, go to the consulate of the country of your wedding and find out whether everything is correctly drawn up, whether all the stamps are affixed, whether an apostille is required on the documents - this is an additional stamp confirming the legality of the documents abroad.
Then find out from your domestic Ministry of Foreign Affairs how to make your foreign wedding certificate valid in Russia. Most often, you need to put an apostille on it or go through the consular legalization procedure - each country has its own rules.
If everything is fine with the documents, you can send copies to the mayor’s office of the selected city in another country, find out free days and pay state fees. It happens that choosing a date requires the personal presence of the future spouses or their authorized representative.
Perhaps, for an official wedding, a local wedding planner who is well acquainted with bureaucratic procedures is not a whim, but a necessity that will save your nerves.
India
Red or pink wedding dresses are a traditional choice for brides in Indian culture. In the northern regions, married women draw a red dot in the center of their forehead.
Indian marriage has a feature that distinguishes it from others - a young married couple is formed not by the young couple, but by the groom’s parents. They choose a future wife for their son and negotiate with her parents about the upcoming wedding. A girl may not know her betrothed at all, but she can only submit to her parents’ will. This tradition was formed several thousand years ago, but has not changed at all since then, despite the large number of castes and cultures in India.
According to tradition, in India, before scheduling a wedding, the parents of the newlyweds carefully study their horoscopes, choose the optimal date for this event, and future relatives are invited to the viewing.
After an agreement on the wedding is concluded between the parents, a meeting of the newlyweds is organized, or rather, two meetings - first at the bride’s home, and then at the groom’s. These meetings are called “ashir-vad” in India. The parents bless the marriage and the engagement takes place. According to Indian wedding traditions, the newlyweds prepare gifts for each other, and they are also generously given by their parents and close relatives. It takes about two months from engagement to wedding.
A wedding in India is a special celebration; people spend a long time preparing for it and spending a lot of money. If the family is wealthy, from 15 to 20 thousand dollars are spent on the wedding. 700-800 guests are invited, who need to be provided with housing and food for many days, because the wedding with all the preludes lasts more than a week.
Choose a location for the ceremony
The location is limited only by your imagination. You can even get married on a ship or in a tree house. However, in the case of an official wedding with on-site registration, the location will need to be agreed upon with the mayor's office. Let's consider the classic options.
Beach
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Private beaches, usually owned by hotels, are suitable for the ceremony. This way, strangers will not sunbathe near the wedding. In archipelagos like the Maldives or Seychelles, you can even choose a small uninhabited island and sail there by boat. All organizational issues are resolved with the hotel.
Villa or castle
exclusiveitalyweddings.com
In European cities there are many old estates that are rented out for weddings. Most villas and castles are located in picturesque locations near a lake, sea or forest. To find out prices and availability, look for a website with contacts and contact by phone or email. Customer requests on Facebook are usually responded to quickly.
Restaurant
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Many restaurants have special areas for weddings: green lawns with a lawn, gardens, gazebos with white canopies. Check out photos of real weddings on TripAdvisor when choosing a venue.
You can also enter the name of the restaurant on Instagram and see what weddings have already taken place in this location. Or even write to the newlyweds and ask them.
Maldives
A very hospitable country with a hot climate. A sea of fruit, cozy bungalows right next to the water, azure beaches, yacht trips, paths of candles on the sand - this is what newlyweds go to the Maldives for.
Wedding season is here all year round; there is no need to wait until spring or summer to get married. For the ceremony, you can choose a very small island (even uninhabited!) to protect yourself from curious vacationers on the beach.
Flight from Moscow:
~9 hours
Ceremony:
only symbolic
Ceremony cost:
from 60 t.r.
Flights Moscow ✈ Male from 30,100 rub.
Help guests prepare for their trip
How many friends and family to invite to a wedding and whether to pay for their travel is always a sensitive issue. It is important that the invitation makes it clear who bears the costs of the plane and accommodation.
It will be more convenient if all invitees live in the same area or even in the same hotel. If you need to travel to the ceremony site, order a round-trip transfer for your guests and a wedding car for yourself. Such services are provided by taxi and transfer services.
If there are a lot of guests, a wedding website will come in handy, where you should post all the important information: departure dates, time and place of the wedding, maps, phone numbers. You can create a wedding page for free (follow the link for one of these options).
Budget and organizational features
In order not to waste a lot of time and nerves on organizing the ceremony, it is advisable to contact a competent agency. You can order a turnkey wedding. Its cost will depend on a number of factors: the place and time of the honeymoon, the format of the ceremony, and the place of residence.
When planning your budget, consider the following expenses:
- flights;
- payment for the hotel (bungalows, villas);
- meeting at the airport, transfer to your place of residence;
- organization of the ceremony itself;
- renting a holiday car or other transport;
- decoration of the wedding venue (if required);
- festive dinner;
- photo session and video shooting;
- bride's hair and makeup;
- bouquet and boutonniere;
- tours and excursions;
- additional services (wedding script development, professional artists, musicians, etc.).
This is a partial list of what you can spend your money on. Keep in mind that a wedding in Europe will probably cost more than a ceremony in exotic places (but again, it depends on the specific country and your needs). The budget option will cost approximately $500-3500. But these are very relative prices.
Create a wedding menu
It is important to discuss the menu and number of guests with the wedding venue. Find out about the food traditions of the country where you're getting married so you know what to expect.
For example, we are used to the fact that in Russia snacks remain on the table all evening. But in Europe they are removed when individual dishes begin to be served. In Italy, the first course is pasta, so don’t be surprised if you are asked to serve ravioli to your guests first. In America, after appetizers, before serving the main course, everyone eats salad.
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If there is no restaurant near the ceremony site, you will need to take care of catering - organizing an outdoor feast. The catering service can arrange both a light buffet with snacks and a full-fledged banquet with a change of dishes.
Don't forget about food for the staff who will work at your wedding: musicians, photographers, and host. If the driver of the car remains at the wedding site until the end, he must also be added to the staff menu.
In which countries can Russians register a marriage so that it is valid in their homeland?
A full marriage ceremony with a simplified process of legalizing the certificate is possible in several countries:
- Dominican Republic;
- Bahamas;
- Austria;
- Brazil;
- Barbados,
- Australia;
- Grenadines;
- Mauritius;
- Hungary;
- Iceland;
- Cyprus;
- Greece;
- Cuba;
- New Zealand;
- Slovenia;
- Seychelles;
- Fiji;
- Poland;
- Mexico;
- Sri Lanka;
- Romania;
- Jamaica;
- Czech Republic;
- Montenegro.
Advice! Take into account the specifics of legalization and carefully choose the location for the celebration.
Find music, photography and video experts
Typically, wedding venues offer their own host, DJ, photographer and videographer, but only as a recommendation. You are free to hire another person or bring your favorite specialist with you - sometimes it works out even cheaper. At the same time, you already know that you can trust its taste.
Discuss the musicians' repertoire or DJ's track list in advance. Otherwise, you may find that you don't know any of the local hits and have no idea how to dance to them.
Competitions and games at weddings in other countries are not always accepted. Therefore, if you wanted to arrange something like this for your guests, warn the host.
Symbolic or official registration?
The bride and groom have two options for a wedding ceremony in a foreign country:
- Legal marriage registered abroad.
A very complex and rather expensive option, but at the same time unusual. Russian citizens cannot legally sign in all parts of the world. - Symbolic is a beautiful outdoor production starring the newlyweds, exchanging touching vows and a professional actor as the registrar.
You can organize such a wedding absolutely anywhere in the world. Usually, lovers first register their relationship in the registry office of Russia, and then arrange a romantic holiday abroad.
Discuss decorations and flower choices with your florist
Find out who is decorating the ceremony site. Discuss the color scheme and what flowers you prefer with your florist. It will be good to prepare photographs in advance with the compositions and bridal bouquet that you like - this way you won’t have to frantically remember the names of flowers in a foreign language.
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And don't forget about the boutonniere for the groom. Fortunately, the word “boutonniere” sounds something like this in many languages.
Scotland
In Scotland, the groom traditionally wears the kilt of his clan. After the marriage ceremony, he must wrap a scarf decorated with the flowers of his clan around the bride's shoulders. This symbolizes her membership in a new family.
The wedding day is strikingly different from our norms. The Scots, oddly enough, prefer weekdays for weddings, because... They believe that on weekends you need to rest from any business, including weddings.
To confirm the seriousness of his intentions, the Scottish groom gives the bride an unusual brooch (Luchen booth). This brooch attracts happiness, good luck, and health. It is for this reason that the young wife later decorates the outfits of her children with this brooch, thereby protecting them from any negativity in life.
The groom can also give his beloved an elegant silver spoon - a symbol of material well-being. A wedding ring is sometimes passed on to a girl by inheritance; the groom can do without a ring at all.
Prepare wedding dresses for transportation
If you are bringing a wedding dress from Russia, it is better to take it in your hand luggage. There are special cases with a hanger for this. The dress will have to be folded and, most likely, it will wrinkle. But it’s better to take it to the laundry later to iron it than to tear your hair out if the airline loses your luggage.
It’s easier to replace a lost groom’s suit, but it’s also safer to transport it in hand luggage, folded and packed in a case. Never carry wedding rings in your luggage. Keep them in a secure inner pocket of your bag.
If you are planning to buy wedding dresses in the country where you are getting married, give yourself plenty of time to shop. Even what you really liked on the store’s website may simply not be suitable.
Yemenite Jews
Most Jewish communities do not have any special wedding attire. But Yemenite Jews are an exception to this rule. Girls here usually get married in special costumes, which are inherited from their ancestors.
The wedding day is the day when the bride is brought to the groom's house. And this day is accompanied by songs, loud music and drum rhythms... The groom takes a shower, changes into new festive clothes, which also includes a decorative sword on his shoulder. A certain rhythm of the drums indicates that the groom is about to come out. People come running to admire this spectacle. Traditional bara and hawshaliah dances accompanied by songs precede the entrance of the well-dressed groom. Guests are invited to the house.
Some residents invite guests on short excursions to Mount Ba'dan and the valley to show off the beauty of the area. At noon, the groom and his entourage (shawah) - friends, relatives and guests - go to the bride's house and return with her. Those who remain at the groom's house go to pray and later join a multi-course meal. After this, everyone (men) gathers in some kind of public hall, essentially a khat room, where they drink tea and chew khat. This whole thing continues until twilight prayer (up to 5 - 6 hours depending on the time of year). Chewing khat is still accompanied by songs and music. With the onset of darkness, the bride is brought in to the same music - drums and horns. Everyone expresses their respect to her, standing in one line. The marriage contract is signed immediately.
After the husband leaves the bedroom on his wedding night, he is greeted by friends who share a festive meal, including holiday staples and sweets. And again - dancing and dancing!
