Many of you know that last July Zahra got married in Croatia. Zahra started doing a lot of research in order to narrow down the location. Once she narrowed down to the country she wanted I got to planning, and realized I king of LOVE wedding planning. Once we picked a wedding planner Zahra got to choose everything she wanted. While this was a wonderful day and a great experience, we did learn a few things, and if we were to plan a destination wedding again, would def. do it differently.
common language.
Destination weddings are AMAZIMNG but depending where in the world you are planning on getting married, if English (or the language you speak) is not commonly spoken, we highly recommend having a translator or someone who speaks the local language in the guest/wedding party. Zahra doesn't speak Croatian, and even tho the main wedding planner did, everyone from drivers to hair and make up crew spoke almost no English. This wasn't and issue for us for most part if I was around (I ran up and down the stairs about 10 times between getting ready and translating haha) but when the grooms party left they didn't know what was happening as no one could explain it to them on English.
research, plan and prepare. Than do it all again.
I m a notorious planner, while Zahra is okay with letting someone else take the lead - so we researched but with more research came more questions which led to more research and so on. What we found is that there is like 1542172411 ways to do this weeding in Croatia and that costs varied in thousands of dollars.
You need to know at minimum these two things in order to have your special day be smooth sailing:
*Documents you will need. (Symbolic and ceremonial weddings are very different).
*how long you have to be in country for wedding of your choice. This is very important - for example Zahra wanted to get married in Bosnia, and while it was possible, she would have to be in country for 30 days before he wedding could take place.
Flow of your wedding, with a DETAILED agenda is important. All weddings have hiccups but if you are in foreign country and don't speak the language - you want to know when and where you have to be, how you are getting there and what you will need. This information is all fun and great but SHARING it with your wedding party and those involved is equally as (if not more) important. This way everyone knows what to expect, knows where to be and you have way less things to worry about.
be flexible.
In a westernized society we have come to expect a certain level of structure, urgency and process of how things are to be done. In many countries, Croatia included, everything runs on ETS (ethnic standard time) where things operate in -ish times, which are subjective and relative. Get familiar with culture of place you are going to - because "Be ready at 5PM or be ready at 5PM-isH" are very different things. Have faith that things will still get done and that your wedding planning got your back. Some flexibility and go with the flow attitude goes a long way.
This tip also goes with everything related to your wedding - We left our apartment, jumped n the car, on the way to the ceremony without Zahra having he sash on and I m pretty sure I only had mascara on one eye - yes stressful but Zahra walked down the island looking like a God Damn put together queen and no one actually cared about my mascara. This is where the lack of urgency works for you.
Have you done a destination wedding?
