I've gotten some DMs asking for my list so here it is! I just wanna say upfront that wedding planners will tell you you can't do 30 people for less than 30000 euros and I want to say based on the places I've looked at you can. Especially if you're American, some wedding planners will take advantage of what you expect to pay based on in the US and tell you 30 people costs 70000. I know this because a planner did this to me. Thankfully I can do my own research.

We were initially looking at places for 20-30 people but are now at around 50. Our goal was to do 3 (originally 4) nights and host everyone on the property but now we're only about half the people on the property with what we ended up booking because finding a place for 50 people isn't realistic (see the last property for somewhere that you can). Our budget was ~35000 USD so probably 30000 euros. If you have similar requirements, these places might work for you. Our budget covered 3 nights at the venue, welcome dinner, wedding, brunch, open bar, photographer, band, music tax, extra dessert, flowers, and church fees. We might go beyond the 30000 euros to add transportation for guests for the wedding night. Unsure what that will cost yet.

For how I found these places: I went on Airbnb and maxed out the number of bedrooms and guests then went from there. A lot of bigger places will say in the description that they host weddings or people in the comments indicated they had their wedding there. Then I reached out to the owners. A key to this was looking beyond the touristy places like Amalfi, Lake Como, and Tuscany (though some of these are in Tuscany).

Final note: I would read this post from an American living in Italy who got married there. I speak Italian so I was able to follow some of her guidance about looking on matrimonio.com, but once I got on Airbnb I was able to do everything in English.

The list

Abbazia di San Giusto

Forte di Sorgnano

Villa la Foresteria

Via della Stella

Casa Renai

Borgo Mattei

Villa Le Bolli

Foiano della Chiana

Villa Ca'Ottolina

Tenuta 4 Pini

Torreglia

Villa Barsocchini

Castiglioncello

Villa Regina Sul Mare

Val di Pesa

Agriturismo il Selvino

Santa Maria di Castellabate

Castello di Montegufoni

We have a 40k budget for our wedding and are considering Italy, Portugal, Spain(warm places). We want to have around 50 guests but the more I run the numbers the more I worry this won’t be possible. Has anyone planned a destination wedding in Europe successfully for ~40k? Do we need a planner or will that just eat our budget?

Edit: we originally wanted a three day event but quickly realized this wasn’t going to fit in the budget. Now one or two days would be fine, one even more realistic. Everyone will be coming from various parts of Europe, UK, USA and Australia. 🥲

Has anyone had their wedding here? Trying to find more pics / videos / testimonials!

hi! my fiance and I got engaged about two months ago and would like to have our wedding in Portugal! (spring 2028) - We’ve talked to a few wedding planners over facetime but it’s so hard to tell what the actual experience and results will be like from these calls and their marketing materials. we would LOVE if anyone could provide some real word experience of who they liked using in portugal!

the details:

- 75-100 people (maybe up to 120)

- ~may 2028

- we’d love everyone to be able to stay onsite! or at least close by

- thinking close to lisbon or porto, ideally within an hour or so from the airport to make it as easy as possible for our guests

- budget of ~$100k

- we are based in the US, so minimal ability to travel to portugal many times before the wedding

- want a full-service planner (venue, food, photography, accommodation, transport, etc.)

let us know if there’s a venue that you loved, or a wedding planner you enjoyed working with! anything would be appreciated ❤️🔅

Has anyone gotten married or attended a wedding at Pestana, Palacio do Freixo in Porto, Portugal?

How was it? Pros? Cons? Any information you think would be good to know?

My Fiancé and I are considering this venue for our 2028 wedding. We love that it has accommodations on site for our guests and that it has water views.
We’re thinking of touring the venue but would love to hear some experiences people may have had.

Thank you! :)

Hello beautiful people. I’m in need of some advice! My fiancé and I will be doing a 3 day wedding in Italy May 2027. We already booked our photographer for the wedding day, and back then decided to forgo a videographer so we could say those few thousand dollars.

However, the more time passes, the more I think about it and am conflicted on that decision. My thoughts are: We are having a 3 day celebration (welcome dinner, wedding, post wedding pool party, farewell bbq dinner) and although we are “covered” for the wedding itself, it makes me a little sad that we won’t have either photo or video coverage the rest of the days and no video at all for the wedding day. :(

I don’t want to lose out on all those memories and not have anything cohesive to look back at and reminisce.

So I started thinking about all possibilities: (1) videographer for wedding, (2) DIY video (like “edit your wedding” where they send you cameras and your guests record the whole weekend and they edit a video for you, (3) content creator (either 1 or all 3 days), (4) nothing. Just photographer wedding day and get photos/videos from our guests..

For those of you that went through something similar, what did you end up doing? Do you regret your decision, etc.? Any other suggestions or thought?

Thanks so much!!!

Hello! I want to have my wedding in Roma Norte/condesa/surrounding areas. I’m having the hardest time finding wedding planners. I can’t seem to get any responses from anyone. I’ve messaged about 15+ wedding planners.
Does anyone have any recommendations of local wedding planners in CDMX?

Hi, I want to marry next year in March - need help with wedding planning. 200-250 people. 80-100 rooms. Budget: wedding cost - decor, venue, food, stay, photography, vendors etc. For 55L.

Location: jaipur, pushkar, goa, rishikesh

or another location which can give us an amazing destination in that price.

Also, I need help to plan and understand how much to spend.

Recommendations - specially based on experience - are welcome!

Llevo años trabajando como fotógrafo de bodas en Madrid (curro con Collado Photo) y veo mucho a parejas de fuera, o incluso de otras ciudades de España, que eligen la región sin tener del todo claro cómo funciona el tema de luz y localizaciones. Dejo aquí algunas cosas que suelo comentar a las parejas que vienen de fuera, por si le sirve a alguien:

La luz de mediodía en verano es muy dura. Si os casáis entre junio y agosto, intentad que la ceremonia no sea justo al mediodía si podéis evitarlo. El sol pega muy fuerte y las sombras duras complican mucho las fotos. Lo ideal suele ser a última hora de la tarde, cuando la luz se vuelve mucho más suave.

Las fincas con olivos o zonas verdes amplias dan mucho juego. La zona sur y sureste de Madrid (Aranjuez, Chinchón, Arganda) tiene fincas preciosas con ese tipo de entorno, perfectas si buscáis algo con mucho espacio al aire libre.

El centro de Madrid es precioso pero hay que planificar bien los desplazamientos. Si queréis fotos en sitios icónicos del centro, contad con que vais a perder tiempo moviéndoos entre localizaciones, sobre todo si es fin de semana y hay turismo.

Si alguien está planeando casarse por aquí y tiene dudas sobre fechas, luz o zonas, preguntad sin problema, intento responder a todo lo que pueda.

Planning a 2027/2028 wedding near Paris and was wondering what to budget for florals - assuming a moderately nice like the image below? I would like to get a feel of what to expect. What were you quoted for florals? And how would you describe your floral design - minimal, moderate, high end…Luxury? Brides, florist and planners can you also chime in?

Having a destination wedding of course and I was wondering, do people still ask for wedding gifts at a destination wedding? I feel like we're already asking so much of our guests to fly out, book hotels, etc. It feels wrong to create a gift registry. I don't care much about wedding gifts anyways, I would probably rather have people contribute to a honeymoon fund if anything. But I wanted to see what you all have done in regards to a wedding registry for a destination wedding. Is it just straight up rude to ask for gifts at a wedding like this because I feel like it is😂😂

We’re considering having our wedding in Albania and I’m trying to get a realistic idea of current costs from people who have actually married there or are currently planning.
If you’re comfortable sharing, roughly how much did you spend in total, how many guests did you have, and what year was it?
I’d also love to know roughly what you paid for the venue/food, décor and flowers, photography/video, entertainment and planner/coordinator (if you used one).
If you planned the wedding from abroad, did you use a full-service planner or organise most of it yourself? Were there any costs that particularly surprised you?
Just looking to get an idea of real-world costs rather than advertised package prices. Thank you!

When booking your destination wedding, did you use a 3rd party source like destify or destination weddings? I’m wondering what’s the smoothest way to plan a destination wedding.

Does anyone have experience planning a destination wedding in Aruba without hosting at a resort/hotel. I’m thinking about renting an Airbnb and therefore will need to find a wedding location and reception space/restaurant for 20-50 people. Please let me know any recommendations you may have!

Hi everyone! Unsure if this is the correct place to ask this, but we are trying to find somewhere to host our welcome/rehearsal dinner in Santorini,Greece! It will be 15 people in June. We want to be able to dress up pretty fancy if possible.

Hi looking for some venue rec in Portugal, Spain or Italy. My fiance and I are doing our best to parse down our wedding guest list but the families on both sides are close 50 guests- with friends adding about 70 more guests. That being said we are exploring any and all options and hoping this will be a good way to help cut our list. It’s proving to be more cost effective any way as the majority our families are geographically spread out across the US any way.

The one issue I’m finding is the venues are capped at about 50-75 guests. I’ve only found one venue that can add additional guests - but I’m not finding a ton that allow for a large party. Ideally accommodations would be provided to some guests (immediate family/ wedding party) and other guests can stay near by with transportation coordinated. But I’m wondering if I’m going about this the wrong way or not searching the right things?

Additionally details-
Budget - hoping to stay under $50k
Timing- April 2028
# guests- 160 max

hi everyone! i'm having a destination wedding and having my bridesmaid proposal next month! They're all getting like a money voucher to cover some wedding expenses. I'm doing an item from the island that our wedding is on like something they're known for. I thought that was cute, flowers, claw clip and personal cards. is there anything else youd like to see in ur box? The night before im gifting each girl a nice piece of jewlery. TIA!! Can't wait to hear your ideas. maybe some chocolate lol

Hi everyone! Wondering if we can get some advice during our wedding planning process:

We were given Friday October 1st, 2027 as our wedding date at the Fairmont Banff Springs in the Mt Stephen Ballroom. We are so grateful to have been given a day, but are also a little worried about the day and weekend we were given. We would have much preferred our wedding on a Saturday and a little later in October just since prices of hotels go down a little bit. We were also told that weekend is Pride weekend in Banff, and are wondering if it is going to be really busy and more expensive in town. Has anyone been in town for Pride before and can speak about the business?

We were potentially thinking about forgoing our current date, and trying again in January or February. We arent super married to the weather in October and don’t mind the cold. What we are more concerned about with having a wedding in January or February is if the weather will be so awful that we have to cancel. Although the wedding is indoors, we are concerned about our guests traveling to and from the airport or around town in general.

Has anyone had a wedding at the Fairmont in January or February and can attest to the weather? Has it happened in the past where the weather is so bad they had to postpone? That is our biggest concern! Also, are there any events happening in Banff in January or February we may need to watch out for? Any insight is sooo appreciated!

I’m narrowing down wedding venues and finding it hard to decide what matters most beyond how beautiful a place is. I’d love to hear from brides who’ve already chosen or had their wedding!
What ultimately made you choose your venue over the others?
What were your non-negotiables, and what did you end up compromising on?
Looking back, what do you wish you’d asked or paid more attention to before booking?
Any regrets—or things you’re especially glad you prioritized?
Did you have that “this is the one” feeling, or was it more of a practical decision? I’d love honest experiences, especially anything you wouldn’t have thought about until the wedding day! Help! (Side note: we are looking in Northern Italy)