Couples usually underestimate paperwork and overestimate decor. Here is the order in which things actually need to happen when you marry outside your own country.
Residency and notice periods
Several countries require you to be physically present for a number of days before the ceremony can take place. That requirement shapes your flights and your guests’ flights, so it must be confirmed before a date is set, not after.
Documents that take longer than you think
Birth certificates, certificates of no impediment, and any previous divorce or death certificates usually need to be recent, translated, and legalised or apostilled. Legalisation is the slow step. In some of our destinations it runs to several weeks, and it cannot be rushed with money.
Legal ceremony and celebration are not always the same day
Many couples marry legally at home and hold the celebration abroad. This is not a compromise. It removes the largest single risk from the schedule, and no guest can tell the difference.
Guest visas
Your guests’ passports determine their visa route, and those routes differ enormously. We build a guest list by nationality early and flag anyone who needs to start months ahead. A grandparent missing the wedding over a visa is the kind of failure nobody forgets.
Where a planner earns the fee
None of the above is difficult in isolation. It is difficult because it runs in parallel with venue, design and travel, in a language and legal system you do not work in. That coordination is the job.