A wedding abroad needs a longer runway than one at home. Guests have to arrange time off, flights and rooms, and your venue and hosts need numbers earlier. Here's a timeline that works for most destination weddings, counting back from the day.
Treat it as a guide: if your date is sooner, compress it, and tell guests as early as you can.
12 months or more before
Choose where, set a budget and draft the guest list in households. Visit or video-call venues and book the venue and date. If you're using a planner, bring them in now.
- Agree the size and feel of the wedding
- Shortlist places and venues
- Book the venue and date
- Draft the guest list
9 to 12 months before
Send save the dates as soon as the date and place are fixed, and launch your wedding website at the same time with the basics: date, place, how to get there and where to stay.
This is also the time to ask for an early, soft RSVP: how likely each household is to come. It tells you whether to reserve fifteen rooms or forty.
- Send save the dates
- Publish a first version of your website
- Collect soft RSVPs
- Reserve rooms or a villa
6 to 9 months before
Book your main suppliers (photographer, flowers, music), plan the weekend's events and open room bookings to guests. Give guests a date by which they need to choose a room.
3 to 4 months before
Send the formal invitations and open RSVPs. For a wedding abroad, many couples set the RSVP deadline around two to three months before the day, because venues and hosts need final numbers well ahead.
Ask for meal choices and dietary needs with the RSVP, and ask guests when they're arriving and leaving.
6 to 8 weeks before
Chase the households that haven't replied. Confirm numbers and meal choices with your venue, and send the rooming list to your hosts. Check that every room has been paid for.
The final month
Share the final schedule, transport and dress codes. Plan arrivals and transfers, and send a short note to guests a week before with everything they need on the day.
Plan it all in one place
Marrythere connects your wedding website, guest list, RSVPs, events, rooms and guest payments. Setting it up is free.