Kay’s Wedding in Greece - Cost & Regrets!
As a destination wedding planner, I share a lot about other people's weddings and the cost of weddings, but I thought it was time to share about my own. So I'm pulling back the curtain on my own wedding in Santorini, Greece.
I'll also break down the costs, the highlights and the regrets from both the perspective of a bride and a wedding planner.
As always, for clarity's sake, all the numbers I'm going to share with you are in USD. Watch or read on below!
When I was planning my wedding, I was on a strict budget. My husband and I were both coming home from our Santorini destination wedding to start businesses at the same time. So when I tell you money was tight, it was tight. Thankfully we knew destination weddings could be cheaper than US weddings, so that was on our side.
Let's start with the cost of the wedding and as we go I'll also share some destination wedding regrets or perspectives that I have along the way.
Venue
First let's talk about the price of the venue.
This was the biggest expense for our wedding. We got married at a luxury hotel on the cliff side where the sun sets over the Caldera in Imerovigli. It was an absolute dream. All I wanted for my destination wedding was to reenact that vibe from Mama Mia, where Sophie is on the donkey riding up the hill to her wedding while Meryl Streep is singing the Pierce Brosnan as her scarf is blowing. That's what I wanted. So when I found the venue on the side of the cliff, it was done.
For that venue, we had two separate spaces that we rented. We had our ceremony space that was on the lower level next to the infinity pool, and then we had the reception space on the higher level next to what they called the “exclusive pool.” There were seven hotel rooms that wrapped around the exclusive pool, so we were actually required to book those rooms as well for three nights. In addition to the two event spaces for the wedding, the total cost was around $23,500.
For the family members who were staying in those seven rooms, they did pay for them, so we got some of that money back.
This brings me to my number one regret. When we got to Santorini, we only had those rooms booked for three nights, and frankly, that was all that we were budgeted for. Therefore, we didn't fly into Santorini any earlier than two days before our wedding, and because of that, we missed out on a lot. My husband and I didn't really get to have the experience of actually enjoying the destination that we picked. Our guests got to go on a sunset catamaran, and explore Oia, but we didn't get to do those things. We landed and had to go right away into our meeting with our photographer and my makeup trial. Then of course we relaxed, we had massages, and I got my nails done, which was really nice, but the timeline was really tight. In the same vein, I regret not asking for help more proactively on some of my little to-do list items for before the wedding, like steaming my robe for getting ready (it was all wrinkled from the flight) and going out to get a couple bottles of champagne for the hotel room.
I remember feeling really stressed then my sister-in-law just stepped in and was like, “give me that! I will steam that for you. You go to your massage, what do you want from the liquor store?” And then I literally melted. I was so relaxed. So I wish I was more proactive and asking for that help. That's why I always recommend to my clients that they get to the destination ideally four days before their wedding. So there's plenty of time to unpack, get over the jet lag, experience, the beauty of the location that you're there for, and then you have time to do any of those little last minute errands or meetings with your vendors.
2. Food and Beverage
Next is the cost of the food and beverage. Let's talk specifically about the wedding dinner itself. This was a cocktail hour with a few different hors d'oeuvres, a three or four course dinner including dessert. That was about $122 per person, which is pretty low compared to the rest of Europe. The kicker was the price for the bar. It was my husband and I’s hill to die on that we wanted an open bar for our wedding, non-negotiable. Our venue just didn't really do open bars, and so we had to pay through the teeth for it. And this is something that is so common that I tell all of my clients before they have a wedding in Europe. An open bar in Europe way higher than the United States. We spent $122 per person on food, and we spent $150 per person on the open bar. Looking back, you couldn't convince us. We wouldn't have listened to you. You couldn't have said, “Hey, that's too much to pay for an open bar. You probably shouldn't do that.”
We were resolved, we needed an open bar and were willing to pay whatever.
My one regret as far as dinner and cocktail hour goes is that we missed our entire cocktail hour to go take pictures. It was another one of those things that you could not have convinced me the other way. I didn't want to do a first look. I wanted the first time that Jake and I saw each other to be when I was walking down the aisle, and because of that, we had to put the ceremony earlier and then do photos during cocktail hour. We did really, really quick family photos, but then we actually got in our photographer's car and went to Imerovigli and took pictures with the beautiful quintessential Santorini backdrop. This was the output. I do not regret that.
That was amazing, and I love that I get to have this photo forever. But we did have to miss the time to be with our family and friends during golden hour at our venue, and we made a really great playlist of all of our favorite American songs, and we got the tail end of it when we came back from our photos, and even just hearing a couple of country songs in the middle of Santorini over the loud speakers was just so cool. It was like, “this is our wedding! We're thousands of miles away!” So it would've been nice to be there for more of that time.
Ever since then, I tell all my couples that they need to have a first look because it is so necessary for the timeline. So I'm the biggest hypocrite here, but if I were to go back, I really don't think you could have convinced me the other way. I wanted to see him for the first time walking down the aisle, so it was special.
3. Rehearsal Dinner
The night before, we had a rehearsal dinner with about 20 people, and that was on the other side of the island on the black sand beaches. A really different environment to juxtapose that sunset cliff face side that was happening the next day. The restaurant was so cool, we didn't need to add any decor. We did a family style dinner and beer and wine bar for 20 people. They shut down the restaurant, so it was totally private to us for two hours, and that was about $6,200. Then the rest of our guests joined after dinner, and it was just open to the public as a cash bar, and that was really cool because all the locals were coming in and partying on the beach!
And…there was skinny dipping. I didn't do it, but I know some of my friends and family did. So that's a really fun memory to have!
4. Brunch
We had a brunch the next day that was about three courses served at their restaurant, which was beautiful. That was about $50 a person.
5. Transportation
Next was transportation. This really wasn't a high cost. It was between $400 to $600 to move our people to and from the rehearsal dinner and then have shuttles available at the end of the night to send people home.
6. Plate Smashing
We had a random little expense for plate smashing, and I'll put a picture here of the plate smashing from our reception.
It was the best money we spent on our wedding. It was $100 just to add this element, which was so cool and immersive and Greek and amazing. We laughed so much!
7. Hair and Makeup
Next was hair and makeup. So I paid for myself and my bridesmaids as their gift. Additionally, we also had two moms and grandma get hair and makeup done as well. The cost for makeup, including gratuity, and my trial was $945 and the cost for hair was $750.
8. Flowers
Next were the flowers. I didn't do a lot with flowers. I really wanted the venue to speak for itself, which is kind of what we do now when we plan weddings. For the ceremony, I just wanted two trees to flank us (olive trees because they’re local to Greece). I was so impressed with these trees. I was expecting them to be three feet from the ground. They brought trees that were six or seven feet, and when I see them in the photos, I'll put a picture here. I love them. I love them. I did these trees to keep it really simple, streamlined and really blend color-wise well into the background. In addition to that, I added bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding party, plus candles and flowers for the reception tables. That was all around $4,300.
9. Rentals
For rentals. I didn't spend any money on rental upgrades. The chairs, the linens, the tabletop items were all the free stuff that came with the venue. Now, I really wanted to upgrade the chairs. I really, really did. But it was going to be around $2,000 or so. And when we were thinking about our finances coming home and starting businesses, that $2,000 was covering rent for another month. And literally every dollar counted as we were making these decisions for our wedding. So sadly, the chairs had to go. So these are the chairs that we ended up with. I absolutely hate them, but I have to remember that it's okay. It's part of the story. It's part of our story and the situation that we were in when we were getting married!
Anyway, I will say we've been back to Greece with our clients. We have upgraded the chairs every time, and a little piece in my soul got knitted back together, seeing that come together! I've already resolved and prepared my husband. When we have our 10 year vow renewal abroad, we will be upgrading the damn chairs.
10. Photography
Next is photography. I loved our photographer because the caliber of skill that he shot with was so, so good, and the level, the number of years of experience that he had and the places he'd been published, like Vogue. If I got the same photographer in the United States, I know for a fact they would've been over $8,000. I only paid $3,100.
One regret from my husband that he asked me to insert here: He wished we spent less time taking photos, which kind of goes back to the regret that I mentioned about missing cocktail hour. We probably could have cut down on photos, but again, can't complain.
11. Videography
Videography, we decided not to have a videographer, so we spent $0 on that. Do I regret that? Not really. I think because our photos are so beautiful, I'm happy with that. Every anniversary we go back and we look through our photos, and I even find new ones that I haven't seen before. Do I think I would watch a video every anniversary? Maybe not. But some couples feel totally different about that. So you just gotta do what you think that you're going to want.
12. DJ
Now, let's talk about the DJ. There was a DJ that came with the venue. It was only an additional $500 - $600, but you didn't get to know who that DJ was ahead of time. And to me, the number one most important thing on my wedding day was dancing my face off outside under twinkle lights. That's all I wanted. So I put a lot of pressure on the quality of the DJ. So I actually hired a different DJ.. He had amazing reviews and I paid a premium for him, but it was still only $1000, which was money well spent for me to basically guarantee that he was going to play exactly what I wanted him to play, which he did.
13. Lighting
They also were the lighting company. They are an amazing family and I'm still friends with them today. I've used them for two of my weddings since then. For the lighting, we decided to add string lights over the dance floor, and up lights in an amber tone shooting up the side of the wall. The lighting was $900.
Q&A
Who paid for all this?
We were really lucky that we got monetary gifts from both my side and his side. And then we also contributed a big portion of our own money as
well. Again, this is why we were so tight on our purse strings because any extra that we added outside of what we were gifted was coming out of our safety net for when we came home and started our businesses.
When did we start saving and how much did we save ahead of time?
We were in a really great situation. We were lucky that we were both in very great jobs and we were able to save a ton of money before we were actually engaged. And so we kind of had that money already set aside for something in the future (I'm sure we thought it would be a house before we got married) but we actually just moved that money before we even started planning into an account and said, we cannot touch this. As we started booking things, either we would pay for the deposit or my parents would pay a deposit. Whenever we made a payment, we just moved money from that account. So we were keeping track of how much we were spending and when. When budgeting for your wedding, take into consideration my tips for planning a low budget wedding in Europe to help control costs!
How long did it take to travel there? And were your guests okay with it?
Frankly, this is going to sound so terrible, but if you asked me when I got married, I really didn't care if guests were okay with it or not. I know this sounds so bad, it's just the truth. I literally wasn't thinking about it. I knew that it was a big financial commitment. I didn't want to put the pressure on anybody, but I also knew that I wanted this experience for myself. So I put absolutely zero expectations on anyone to come. And we sat all our friends down two years ahead of time and said, “Hey, we are going to get married in Santorini. This is how much we think it's going to be. You guys have two years to save. If you can't be there, that is okay. We don't want to put any pressure on you, but if you want to be there, hopefully this is enough time for you to save.”
And that's all you can do really, because Santorini is an expensive destination. But at a certain point, we had to accept that our guests are adults, and this is their money, and we can't tell them how to spend their money.
As for travel, it was a long flight. Most of our guests were flying out of Boston, so they flew Boston to Athens and then Athens to Santorini, or they could take the ferry from Athens to Santorini. All in all, I would say it was definitely a full day of travel because of that. And I know a lot of people did have a layover in Munich. Someone went through a security gate the wrong way, the entire airport shut down, and my mother-in-law lost her bag with her dress for the wedding in it. By some miracle, it showed up at the airport in Santorini the day before the wedding!
So yeah, there were people that had issues with the travel, but you're going to get that at any destination wedding in any location anywhere. Overall, we were pretty lucky that most of our family and friends were super supportive. They took the time to save, and we're super grateful for that.
Truly, it was the most unforgettable experience. And I look back and I know that, yeah, there's some trivial little things I could have changed, especially if I had more money. But the reality was we didn't. And that was part of our story. I know looking back that if I didn't do it and I had a local wedding instead, I would have regretted that. And I also know I would not have had a destination wedding if I wasn't already in the events industry and knew what I was doing. It just would've been too stressful and too risky.
And that thought really got to me. When I came home and I started my business, I thought other people are probably chickening out from having this opportunity because they don't have that foundation in events and weddings and have no idea how to plan a destination wedding. And I really thought, “what a shame!” because the memories that I made under the twinkle lights dancing with my family were just unforgettable – I wanted other people to have that too. That's why I do what I do as a Greece Destination Wedding Planner. I'm really passionate about making destination wedding planning more accessible and just easier to plan in general. So to help you, I created a free guide so you can estimate the cost of your destination wedding. The link is below!
Free Guide!
Estimate the Cost of Your Destination Wedding
In Europe before booking a venue!
