Your wedding day will most likely be the best day of your life, but it can also be the most expensive. From the venue, flowers and food and drink to the ceremony officiate, the costs of a wedding can add up. But the biggest expense can often come afterwards: the honeymoon. While you may wish to be whisked off to a far-away location, you and your future spouse could be in debt if you don’t plan your wedding celebrations and honeymoon carefully.
Cutting back on costs
If you are looking for ways to cut back on the costs of your wedding without cutting back on the fun, here are some great tips on how to do so.
Many couples look abroad for wedding options or something more adventurous, with figures showing that 20% of UK couples now choose to exchange vows overseas. What’s more attractive is the fact that hosting a wedding overseas is often only a third of the cost of holding the day on home turf. Counter-intuitively, it seems the economic crisis has led to more extravagant weddings!
The ‘weddingmoon’
One way many couples are bypassing the extortionate costs of a wedding is by combining the wedding and honeymoon and saving a lot of money as a result. All you need to do is to decide on where you wish to have your wedding. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to tie the knot in the Caribbean or in Bali? Either way, there are many wedding and honeymoon packages available which cater to all tastes and budgets.
Cruise away
One fantastic way of optimising your wedding and honeymoon experience is to plan your wedding on a cruise ship. It doesn’t get much better than being spliced by the ship’s captain. Not only will you experience a lovely holiday with your friends and family, it’ll be as though your wedding celebrations are ongoing, as you relax during your honeymoon.
First thing’s first: start researching the areas you want to visit or similarly look out for cheap cruises available online, to make sure the important friends and family can join you.
Organising a wedding on a cruise has all the elements for a blissfully romantic and indulgent celebration. For more adventurous couples, having your wedding on board a cruise enables you to visit lots of different places without having to pack and unpack at every port. What’s more, the happy couple may even be offered a complimentary cabin upgrade as well as a whole host of other complimentary services and in-room extras, such as champagne and strawberries.
The technicalities
While it is possible for a wedding ceremony to take place on board some ships, there are regulations surrounding this: the ship has to be in port or at least three miles from land in order for the marriage certificate to be valid and recognised. Occasionally, there are chapels on board where religious ceremonies can take place.
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