Where is the Cheapest Place to get Married in the World? 
Do you dream of warm golden sand between your toes? A cliff-top breeze? Or a magnificent country manor? When wedding bells are ringing in your future, where you choose to get married can make all the difference to your day and your bank account. A tropical wedding might seem way beyond your price range, but we’ve crunched the numbers and found that getting married in a tropical climate could be more affordable than you think. Using a variety of sources, we have calculated the cost of a wedding in some of the most popular wedding destinations around the world. From flowers to photographers and the all-important venue, we have analysed the cost of all of the finer details which quickly begin to mount up when you start planning a wedding.
The Cheapest Place to get Married in the World
The Indian Ocean is often perceived as an expensive destination. However, our data has revealed that the tropical island of Mauritius is the cheapest country to get married in the world. Costing an average of £12,492 for the full package, a destination wedding in Mauritius is cheaper than every European wedding destination by over £6,500! A pretty sizable saving and a dreamy location too.
Tropical islands in the Indian Ocean proved to be the cheapest wedding destinations time and time again with Sri Lanka, Maldives, Zanzibar and Seychelles all coming in at less than £14,000 for the full wedding package.
Saint Lucia comes in a close second place with the cost of a wedding at £5664, followed closely by Dominican Republic, where a comparable wedding will likely cost £5740.
Venues in the Caribbean are considerably lower (in actual fact many are free if staying at a resort but we haven’t included this as we wanted to compare like for like data). London venue hire costs an average of £5,564, whereas the most expensive destination in the Caribbean is Jamaica, which is priced at £1,417.
Changing Caribbean islands can push venue hire down dramatically, with the Dominican Republic priced at £690 and Barbados priced at £704. This represents a possible saving of over 87%. Take a look at our Caribbean wedding infographic.
The Cheapest Country to Hire a Venue
Once again, Mauritius had the cheapest wedding venues at an average price of just £511! This was accompanied by other tropical destinations including the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Mexico and the Maldives, which all came in at less than £750. These findings suggest that it really does not cost a lot to get married with the sand between your toes.
The Most Expensive Country to Hire a Venue
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Europe proved to be the most expensive place to hire a wedding venue. Our data revealed that France is the most expensive country in the world to hire a wedding venue, costing an average of £9398. This was almost £3000 more than other expensive European destinations including Italy, the UK, Greece and Spain, which were all more than £5000. If you are planning a wedding abroad and your mind first drifts towards Mediterranean coastlines, perhaps these findings may encourage you to look further afield.
How Much Can You Save by Getting Married Abroad?
We are pleasantly surprised that a tropical wedding is considerably cheaper than getting married in Europe and, more specifically, the UK. You can save up to a staggering £13,500 by getting married abroad. Not to mention you also get the best backdrop for wedding photos! If you were to get married abroad with SN Travel, the cost of the venue, flowers and cake will generally already be included (see what we mean in these example destination wedding packages). Therefore, the price for weddings in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and other long-haul destinations will be considerably less than this data suggests, with wedding packages including accommodation and flights for the bride and groom from around £4000 (this is based on a Caribbean destination).
Get The Full Report
You can view the full PDF report which goes into much more depth, details the cost of a wedding in different parts of the UK and includes stats and facts on the cost of a wedding around the world.
About SN Travel
SN Travel are a London based travel agency with 45 years in business, specialising in the Caribbean and long haul destinations. We have extensive experience planning family holidays, honeymoons, group holidays and special occasions like weddings abroad for up to 200 people. Our destination weddings handhold you 100% with a wedding expert in the UK as well as a wedding planner in the destination, all included as part of our service.
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Methodology
For the purpose of this study, we have calculated the cost of a wedding by sourcing the individual cost for each aspect of the day. We have not considered the cost of wedding packages as we required like for like prices for each aspect of the day. Therefore we could not guarantee each wedding package from destinations around the world would include the same things. The total cost of a wedding in each country was calculated by sourcing individual quotes in each destination and working out the average.
This research report was in partnership with Virgin Atlantic, findings from this report are sourced by an independent party to keep the results fair. Therefore, the figures don’t take into account the discounts SN Travel can obtain with our trusted suppliers.
Of course, we have only covered the cost of the actual wedding day in our data analysis. There will inevitably be other costs associated with your day too. We calculated the average cost of the wedding dress, grooms suit, bridesmaid dresses, groomsmen suits, rings, wedding cake and stationery at £9,500. This would be the same worldwide as you, assumably, would source these items beforehand and take all of them with you to your chosen destination. Destination weddings obviously come with the added cost of flights and hotels. But, if you are planning on eloping anyway, a tropical destination could still work out much cheaper than a European wedding. And, if you have your wedding and honeymoon in the same place, you don’t have the added cost of a honeymoon to think about.
