Do I need a wedding planner for my destination wedding? I was asked this question many times. I always tell them if you don’t want to mess up your destination wedding, get a wedding planner. The reasons for hiring a wedding planer for any wedding are plenty and obvious but there are people who still doubt it. In my opinion is the real question should be to hire a wedding planner from your home country or a wedding planner in the destination. Before I am going into that, I will list a few reasons why you should have a wedding planner for a destination wedding.
Time for Planning
A wedding is a grand event it needs to be well planned. If a normal wedding in the home or banquet hall nearby itself needs lots of planning, you can guess how much time and efforts you will have to put into a destination wedding.
You and your fiancé/fiancée may be busy with other works and you may not have time to spend on planning. This is where a wedding planner becomes handy. You just let them know your requirements, and they will do everything the way you want. All you have to do is occasionally discuss the progress.
Legal Matters
You may have to go through some legal formalities in your home country if you are getting married abroad. The procedures are not that difficult but the paperwork might be confusing for you. If you got a wedding planner in your home country, they can make the process a lot easier.
For example, if you are taking wedding ornaments with you, you need to pay huge taxes in the home airport if you don’t have necessary documents. If you didn’t know about this law, you will lose a huge amount.
This is applicable to the destination too. You are not familiar with the customs, traditions and legalities of the destination country which would make the case worse. Here also you would need some assistance with all these things.
Coordination
You need someone who knows the local language to help you in the destination. Sometimes, your English may not help you. Moreover, you may have some small troubles in the last hours. If you decide to manage all them, it would spoil all the fun of wedding day. Therefore, it is a good idea to hire a wedding planner in the destination. This would help you to be free from responsibilities and you can enjoy the days very well. If you have booked a resort or hotel, they may provide you a coordinator.
Local Help
You won’t have access to the suppliers, vendors and professionals for your wedding. You need a trustable person or agency to help you deal with vendors, purchase things and hire professionals. Otherwise, you are likely to be fooled or played fraud by vendors. A wedding planner in the destination county is the best option to do all these things. This would help you save a lot of money and troubles.
These are some ample evidence to prove the importance of wedding planner in a destination wedding. You are going abroad and organizing an event. You can’t do that without help. If you decide not to hire a wedding planner, the wedding would be a disaster.
Should I hire a wedding planner from the destination or home country?
Now the question is whether you need a wedding from the home country or destination. The truth is each of them has its own pros and cons. It is better if you have a wedding planner in both places. Choosing between the two depends on your wedding style and other requirements. It is better to have wedding planners in both places.
Familiarity with the Locality
Since the wedding is in a foreign country, you definitely need assistance there. As I mentioned earlier, you need someone to deal with vendors, suppliers and manage all other things. This makes a wedding planner familiar with destination country a necessity.
Most of the time, a wedding planner in your home country may not meet this criterion. However, there might be wedding planners in your hometown who are familiar with your destination country. Some wedding planners operate in multiple countries. If you could find such a wedding planner, they would be better than a hiring a wedding planner from the destination country.
Wedding Style
You may want to organize your wedding in your traditional style to which the wedding planners in your destination are totally unfamiliar. There is no way they can decorate your wedding venue and organize the wedding ceremony if they are not familiar with your local culture.
There you need someone who can do all these things the way you want. Here a wedding planner from your home country would be the best option. However, if you want to organize the wedding based on the style of the destination country, wedding planners from the destination can do well. Basically, you have to consider what style of wedding you want before you choose between a wedding planner in the home country or destination country.
Assistance with the Paper Work
From a wedding planner in the destination, you don’t get assistance in the home country to deal with the legalities and other paper works related to the registration of wedding, customs duty and other related formalities. You will have to do all these on your own. Moreover, you need assistance to plan the wedding. Here you need a wedding planner from your home country.
However, you don’t need a full-fledged team for this. A freelance wedding planner would be more than enough for doing all these things. In the destination also you have the similar issues and you would need assistance from a local wedding planner.
Final Words
Now, you might be thinking that you need to hire wedding planners from both the home country and destination. If you are planning the wedding in your traditional style, you need a wedding planner who is familiar with your culture.
In most of the famous destination wedding venues, you can find wedding planners who organize a wedding in your traditional style. You don’t have to worry about getting a team from home country if you find such a wedding planner. Then all you need in the home country is a little help with legalities and for this, you can find consult with a wedding planner agency or freelancer