How to Plan a Destination Wedding WITHOUT Getting Scammed

Aug 19

If you have no idea how to plan a destination wedding abroad and you're worried about getting scammed or making very expensive mistakes, stick around. I'm gonna share my six must know tips for planning your destination wedding the right way. Watch the video or read on below!

I'm destination wedding planner Kay Northrup and I help untraditional couples plan multi-day, intimate destination weddings abroad. I've used these tips to successfully plan weddings across four continents and 12 countries to date! When it comes to planning a destination wedding, there are a lot of unknowns and because of that, a lot can go wrong. So let's air it all out. What can go wrong? What are the ways that you could get scammed or what are the mistakes that you could make that could result in your wedding not looking or feeling or costing what you expected it to? How do I plan a destination wedding without getting scammed? I'm going to identify those mistakes and show you how to avoid them. So, let's get into it!

Make sure you’re hiring legit vendors
You're putting a lot of trust in a stranger that you're paying internationally to actually show up and do the job that you think you've hired them to do. So, how do we know who's legit? What's that process for vetting a vendor internationally? Well, first I go directly to Google. Google, TripAdvisor, and sometimes even Wedding Wire or the Knot will have reviews of the vendor that you can't change. So if you're thinking of working with a company abroad, immediately go to Google review section and see what people are saying– good or bad.
Next, at some point before you sign their contract, schedule a face to face video call with them. You can use Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, or even FaceTime. Get on the phone and see that there's a real person behind the email.
Then I would go to Instagram. I know that kind of sounds silly, but Instagram really is the LinkedIn of the wedding industry, even internationally. See what their page is like, but specifically their tagged section. See how often people are tagging them, how recent has it been that they've been tagged, and what are the types of things they're being tagged in?
You can also leverage the vendors that have worked at your venue before. So if you found a venue that you absolutely love, they might have a list of preferred vendors. I love using this list as a starting point because those are vendors that are already vetted. Your venue trusts them and they have worked at your venue before, which can make your planning process a little bit easier.
Now there's a really key indicator that's going to give you the red or green flag based on if the vendor is legit and that's their contract. If they don't have a contract, that could be a red flag. Within that contract, we want to make sure the terms for cancellation and postponement are there so that you understand what happens to your payments if for any reason you have to change the date or cancel the wedding. Also in that contract, especially for venues, make sure the address of the actual location of the venue is in there and then Google it to make sure that that venue is exactly where you think it is. For example, if you're getting married at the Villa Gale in Portugal, do you want the one in Douro Valley, or the one all the way down in Lisbon?
If you follow all of those tips, that's a really great start for making sure that you're vetting legit venues and vendors.
Use Google satellite to make sure that the venue actually looks like the pictures
Since you're thousands of miles away from the potential venue that you're getting married at, we need to ensure that the place actually looks like the pictures you've seen! Photo angles and editing can hide undesirable aspects of a venue that you won't discover until you get there. To do this first you can set up a virtual site visit to tour the venue live with the venue coordinator. Simply get on a video call and have them walk you through the property so you can see it virtually for yourself. Alternatively, they might already have a walkthrough on YouTube, so feel free to just look up your venue name and the word “walkthrough” and see if someone's already done this.
Next, I recommend using Google Maps, specifically the satellite version. Click on the little Yellow Icon at the bottom right to turn it into street view. This allows you to have a street level virtual walk through of the property. What we're looking out for when we do these satellite walkthroughs - cemeteries, highways and dumps, oh my!
That is how you go the extra mile to actually make sure your venue looks like the pictures you've seen.
Avoid wire fraud
If you've never sent an international wire transfer before, your first one is going to feel a little scary. It's a lot of money that you're moving internationally, but there are some best practices that you can follow to make sure that you're not making any unfortunate mistakes when sending large amounts of money into the ether. My first best practice, never send money to someone in a wire that you have not talked to on the phone first, if you followed steps one and two, you've already had a video call with the person that you're talking to to make sure they were a legit vendor.
You've already had a site visit virtually to make sure the property looks the way you think it looks. So this step has already been covered. While you're on that call, it's really great to confirm the wire details. If they sent them to you in an email, you can simply say, “Hey, I'm just confirming that the wire details that you sent me are correct and you emailed them to me on X date.”
The next best practice when dealing with wire transfers is to get their bank information in a PDF format. That could mean it is included in a “proforma,” or invoice, or in the contract that they've already sent you. Point is, we don't want that information in the body of an email. There's a lot of room for error there. The two main pieces of information that you're going to need to send the wire transfer are the SWIFT code and the IBAN, (routing and account number). These are long number and letter sequences and they're very easy to mess up. Plus, if the person who sent the bank details wasn't paying attention and they enter it wrong, your money is not going to make it to the destination. That's why when they send you the details, it’s important that it comes in PDF format so you know that those details haven't been tampered with.
Uncover hidden fees (before it's too late)
Unfortunately, the wedding industry has a huge problem with price transparency. This manifests in a couple of different ways. You could see hidden fees pop up down the line that were never discussed or agreed upon, or even upfront a venue could be pretty cryptic about what the bottom line actually is. For example, in your contract or your invoice, it might mention the price for the venue, the price for the required caterer they work with, the little fees you might find… but it's not actually added up total anywhere. Because of that, let's talk about some hidden fees that are pretty common so that you can do this investigative work before you sign a venue and find out the hard way.
A lot of times venues will have required vendors that you have to use. That could be a catering company, AV, lighting, florist or a rental company that you need to use if you book that venue. It basically means you're signing a contract to work at that venue, but you're also locking yourself into working with those vendors. It's not the end of the world. It can actually be a positive thing because they've worked at the venue before and the venue clearly trusts them. But what it's eliminating is your ability to then price shop and price compare vendors and pick the one that's right for you. For example, if you really hate flowers and you don't want to spend a lot of money on it, but you want to have some, you might be looking for the cheapest florist that can get the job done, but if you're required to use the venues’ florist, and they tend to work with higher budgets, you're kind of locked in there.
So there is a big question to ask the venue before you book them: What are the required vendors and what are the general starting prices for those vendors?
Next one, internationally a huge fee some couples don’t add in until it’s too late is the VAT tax. VAT means value added taxes. Sometimes these taxes can be up to 24%! Unfortunately, a lot of times when venues and vendors are giving their pricing, they'll give the venue cost “plus VAT”... leaving you to then go find out what the VAT is and add it on. We're not dealing with small numbers here! 24% of $10,000 is…a lot of tax. So moving forward, know that every single number has VAT attached to it, and you need to always clarify if that number is inclusive or exclusive of VAT.
There's other little ways where the price can look misleading in a contract. Sometimes if your venue rental has accommodations attached to it, which is really common for a destination wedding that's multiple days, they might be giving you the price “per night” NOT total. That's a big mistake to make if you're planning on staying for three nights. So always double check that you've multiplied that price by the number of nights that you plan to stay.
There may also be travel fees with vendors who need to make it to your event. Even if you're hiring local vendors who live in that country, they might live in a different town or a different part of the country and still charge for the cost of a train/plane ticket or a cost of overnight accommodations. So if any vendor ever says, this is my cost “plus travel” you should nail down those travel costs before you sign.
And lastly, for hidden fees, the exchange rate. You're planning something internationally in a currency that is not your local currency and exchange rates change every day. One day your wedding could be cheaper. The next day your wedding could be more expensive.
Therefore, I always recommend taking 3% off the top of whatever you're willing to spend on your wedding and keep it in a little fund just to protect you against variance in the exchange rate.

5. Know if You’re getting Up-charged

So many couples ask me, “Kay, are they charging me more just 'cause I'm American and they knowI’m expecting it?” Not necessarily, but let me be frank. Generally we do see vendors in Europe and Mexico charge less than what they would cost if they were in the United States (a lot of times meaning destination weddings are cheaper than US weddings). And this makes sense because the United States is a very inflated wedding market, but it's not necessarily true that foreign vendors are charging you more just because you're expecting it. Now, there are certain vendors internationally that are located in more off the beaten path locations that are working in lesser known towns and venues with the local people there that charge less, but they may not specialize in working with Americans. They may not be proficient in English. And for the ease of your wedding planning process, it is worth paying a bit of a premium for a vendor who is used to working with Americans, not only just for the language purpose, but you'll be able to build a rapport with them. You'll develop comradery with them. They're going to make you feel really heard and seen and comfortable on your wedding day.

6. Investigate why certain dates are “cheaper”

IWhen inquiring with a venue, there could be certain months/days of the year that are cheaper. Right away, that sounds amazing! But I'm gonna caution you…

Before you sign, I want to know why it's cheap. Date selection is just supply and demand. So why is it so cheap? That means nobody wants that date. Why? Is it because it's harder to get to during certain times? Is that date cheaper because it's a feast day and maybe you're getting married in a very religious area and everything is closed down and none of the vendors will want to work that day? Is it cheaper because this whole month it's monsoon weather, or it's going to be super cold at the venue because it's high up in the hills? Are the Olympics happening? Or any major festival or event? Events like that around your venue are going to limit the amount of options that are available to you and your guests for accommodations and excursions. They'll raise the price of those accommodations and there could be a ton of traffic which might negatively impact you and your guest experience.

My advice here, understand why the date is cheap. If you can't figure it out, Google it. We want to know what is going on that time of year so that you can understand the full picture before you book that venue.

These are my best tips for how to plan a destination wedding that you don't want to find out the hard way! Run free! If you're ready to dive into wedding planning using these tips, the next step is to make a realistic budget before you sign anything. To do that, you can download my guide to estimate the cost of your destination wedding in Europe or Mexico. The link is below!