How to Plan a Destination Wedding: Legal Rules by Country (2026)

To plan a destination wedding, decide first where you'll marry legally: abroad, or at a courthouse at home before you fly, with a symbolic ceremony at the destination. That choice sets your paperwork, how early you arrive and which countries are open to you. Then ask the guests you can’t imagine the day without, dodge storm season, send save-the-dates 9 to 12 months out and count a guest as coming once their room is booked.

Legal abroad or legal at home: decide this first

A legal wedding abroad happens under local law. A mayor, registrar, judge, notary or licensed officiant marries you, and the paperwork is local too: apostilled certificates, official translations, appointments at consulates and town halls, in some places a medical exam. A symbolic ceremony keeps the vows, the rings and the aisle but has no legal effect, because you've already married at home. From the guests' chairs, the two look exactly the same. On r/DestinationWeddings, the usual pattern is a courthouse ceremony a week or two before the flight, often with nobody there but the two of you and your witnesses.

Check the venue's side as well. Some resort packages are built around one kind of ceremony: the Sandals wedding FAQ offers symbolic weddings only at its Curaçao resort, and you have to marry at the resort you're staying in.

You don't owe anyone an announcement about the courthouse part. If someone asks, one plain sentence covers it:

If you do marry abroad, the US recognizes it. "A foreign marriage that is valid in the country where it is performed is automatically valid in the U.S.," says the US Embassy in Italy. The embassy in Mexico adds that a Mexican marriage is recognized "as long as it is apostilled and translated", so budget for an apostille, and a translation if the certificate isn't in English, before you take it to any office at home. Canada joined the apostille system in January 2024, so Canadian couples go through the same step.

Marriage requirements by country (checked October 2026)

Mexico hosted 34% of the international destination weddings in The Knot's 2025 Real Weddings Study, Europe 26% and the Caribbean 21%, so that's where most of this table looks. Where a step depends on your nationality, we give the US version, because US embassies publish the clearest guides. Canadians, Britons and everyone else follow much the same path with their own country's papers, often including a certificate of no impediment (the US doesn't issue one). Each row links to the official page we read. Rules change, so open it again before you pay a deposit. "Start" is our estimate of when to begin the paperwork, counting back from the wedding.

The Mexico row comes from the embassy's page for its northern consular districts, last updated in 2021. It doesn't cover Quintana Roo, where Cancún and the Riviera Maya are, so ask the Registro Civil there, or your planner, for the current list. Paris turns up on plenty of "where to get married" lists, but two Americans can't marry legally there, and the consulate route doesn't help: US consular officers aren't permitted to perform marriages. Tahiti and St. Barts are the French places the rule leaves open. London is a different case: two Americans can marry legally there, but each needs a Marriage Visitor visa, and the residence and notice rules add up to about five and a half weeks in London before the ceremony. Our London wedding guide does the arithmetic.

The six-month trap

Ordering certificates a year early feels organized and backfires. Italy treats public documents from outside the EU as valid for only six months from the date of issue. Portugal wants a birth certificate issued within the last six months, and the same goes for a divorce decree. So order fresh certified copies about five months out, have each one apostilled by the Secretary of State of the state that issued it (an embassy can't do this for you), then get the translations. Portugal adds a clock of its own: at least four weeks to process, then the wedding within six months of approval. Our Lisbon wedding guide walks through the Portuguese registry file step by step.

Same-sex couples

Two places in the table are closed to you: Jamaica's license is for a "single man and single woman", and the US Embassy in Santo Domingo says Dominican law prohibits same-sex marriage. For the rest, get the registry or a local lawyer to confirm in writing before you pay a deposit, or sign the papers at home and keep the destination for the party.

Picking the place and the dates, hurricane season included

Before you fall for a place, ask the four or five people you can't marry without. The grandparent who can't manage a long flight, the sister due in the spring, the friend saving every dollar for a house: they decide the destination more than any brochure does. In one r/DestinationWeddings thread on exactly this, the worries run from a 70-year-old mother to small children.

Then the calendar. The National Hurricane Center puts the Atlantic season at June 1 to November 30, with a peak around September 10 and most activity between mid-August and mid-October. That basin includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf, so it covers Cancún and the Riviera Maya, Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta are on the Pacific side, where the season runs from May 15 to November 30 and peaks, less sharply, in late August. For Hawaii, the National Weather Service in Honolulu says the chance of a tropical system rises in late July and August and usually falls off quickly by early October, later in El Niño years.

December through April sits outside all three. A September wedding in the Caribbean isn't reckless, but it needs a plan B on paper: a covered space held for your date, and a written answer from the venue on what happens to your deposits if a storm closes the resort or the airport. Tell guests to buy any travel insurance early and to read what it says about hurricanes.

Europe's squeeze is bureaucratic rather than tropical: Italian town halls book up in May, June and September. And two Bahamian rules shape the date and the hour. Public holidays don't count toward the two business days a license takes, and legal weddings must happen between sunrise and sunset. Time the vows to finish as the sun goes down and you're fine; an 8 p.m. ceremony on the beach can't be the legal one.

How many guests will come, and what it really costs

For many couples a shorter guest list is part of the appeal of marrying far away. It's also the hardest number to predict. The advice contradicts itself: Zola's checklist says to expect 50% attendance, while a planner quoted by Brides puts acceptance at 90%. Neither cites anything. Couples who post their real numbers on r/DestinationWeddings report 38 of 100, 22 of 34 and, at one wedding in Portugal, 85 of 120.

So estimate your own list instead of borrowing a percentage. One method couples on Reddit use is to sort every invitation by how likely that person is to travel. Say you invite 120 people:

Then expect some slippage. One couple wrote that they "lost about a fifth of our yes list in the last month, mostly flights", and a wedding pro in the same thread tells the couples they work with that an RSVP "doesn't mean anything" until the guest has a room in the block. A fifth off 72 is about 58. Book a venue that holds 72, budget for 72, and don't be surprised by 60.

Budget realities

In The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study (10,474 US couples married in 2025), a destination wedding inside the US averaged $41,700 and one abroad $43,700, against $32,600 for a hometown wedding. A shorter list saves less than you'd think, because only part of the bill grows with each name.

Say your per-guest costs (food, drink, the resort's per-person event fee, rentals) come to $175 a head, and the fixed costs (planner, photographer and their travel, flowers, music, legal paperwork) to $20,000. At 117 guests, The Knot's average for all weddings, that's $40,475. At 60 guests it's $30,500. You halved the list and cut the bill by about a quarter.

Then there are the costs no package price shows:

• License and admin fees: the Bahamas government charges $120 for a marriage license; Sandals lists $555 for its Bahamas license and admin fee. A resort's figure can include its own admin charge, so ask what it covers.
• Paperwork: apostilles, translations and embassy notarizations add up ($50 at the US Embassy in Lisbon, $50 per affidavit in Athens plus a €30 fee, a €16 revenue stamp per document in Italy).
• Italian extras: town hall rental from €500 to €9,200, and a SIAE permit for music, priced by guest numbers and whether the music is live.
• Your certificate, afterwards: an apostille on a Bahamian marriage certificate costs $120 and takes 5 to 7 days.
• Day passes for guests staying at another hotel (see the next section).
• A welcome party and a farewell brunch, which fall to you.
• Flights and rooms for any vendor you fly in.

With deposits due in euros or pesos, months apart, a payment schedule earns its keep. BrideSpark's budget planner works with any currency symbol (it doesn't convert, so pick one currency and stick to it) and emails you a week before each payment is due, and again the day before.

Who pays for what at a destination wedding

The Knot's split is the one most guests expect:

Guests pay for their rooms, but you owe them choices: a block near the venue and something cheaper nearby. How blocks work, and how to avoid paying for rooms nobody books, is in our guide to wedding hotel room blocks.

All-inclusive resorts: where the costs land

• Rooms buy the perks. Sandals says that with five or more rooms booked you may qualify for a complimentary room credit, and with 10 or more for a reduced room rate. Couples on Reddit describe all-inclusives asking them to fill 70% to 80% of a block or pay for the rest, which is an attrition clause by another name.
• Guests find the same room cheaper. A warehouse-club or online rate can undercut your group rate. Ask the resort to match the public price and still count the room toward your block. In one Reddit thread, a couple's hotel raised its block discount from 5% to 10%.
• Day passes. Guests report all-inclusives charging people who sleep elsewhere to come onto the property, even for a wedding. Prices quoted in that thread and another one run from $65 to $200 a person.
• Adults-only rules. At Sandals, a child can attend a wedding only with the general manager's approval, arriving 30 minutes before the ceremony and leaving right after. Parents need to know that before they book anything.

Helping guests who can't afford it

The Knot suggests covering the trip for a key guest who couldn't come otherwise, a grandparent, say. For anyone else, the best advice in a thread about helping a sibling is to name an amount and let them decide how to use it. A fixed sum is easier to offer, and to keep fair, than "we'll pay for your flight" when fares move every week.

Gifts

Guests at a destination wedding have already spent real money; one guest on Reddit put their most recent one at $2,500 to $3,000. Say plainly that their presence is the gift. If anyone insists, a fund link beats a boxed present someone has to fit into a suitcase.

Lines you can put on your website or in a message:

Do you need a local planner?

Most couples marrying abroad hire one. In The Knot's 2025 study, 74% of couples with an international destination wedding used a planner, against 52% for a destination inside the US and 32% for a hometown wedding. Destination planners averaged $2,972.

For a legal wedding abroad, we'd hire one, or at least a coordinator who files marriage paperwork for a living. That's the person who books the town hall, knows which translators the registry accepts, buys the music permit and settles the florist's delivery time in the florist's own language. For a symbolic ceremony at a resort, the resort's coordinator may be enough. Just remember who they work for. They'll run the resort's day well, and they won't mention that the place across the bay doesn't charge for day passes.

Questions to ask before you sign:

• Who handles the legal paperwork, translations and registry appointments, and is that in the fee?
• What's the payment schedule, in which currency, and what happens to deposits if the date moves?
• Who steps in if they're ill on the day?
• Can we talk to two couples from our country they've worked with in the past year?
• Which costs aren't in the quote: permits, hall rental, day passes, vendor meals, overtime?
• Who will be on site on the day, and from what time until when?

A destination wedding timeline, working back from the paperwork

The RSVP date is where destination timelines most often go wrong. Planners quoted by The Knot put it at least 8 to 10 weeks before the wedding, or three months. Your contracts are more specific: the day the hotel releases unbooked rooms, the day the resort wants final numbers, the day the balance is due. Put the RSVP two weeks before the earliest of those, and make booking the room part of saying yes.

Skip the "soft RSVP" on the save-the-date. A couple who tried it said "it didn't really do much", and a destination-wedding travel specialist in the same thread made the better point: the booking deadline does the job. For the card itself, our save-the-date wording guide has destination versions, and wedding RSVP wording and deadlines covers the chasing.

What to put on a destination wedding website

Guests book flights and rooms from your website months before an invitation arrives, so it has to answer travel questions first and the pretty ones later.

Two pieces of wording you can adapt:

A BrideSpark wedding website is free and has a place for every row of that table. Travel & stay holds the airport and shuttle notes plus up to 15 hotels, each with its group code, rate and book-by date, and an optional Expedia search for hotels near the venue on your dates (we may earn a small commission on those bookings). The weekend's timings go in Schedule, and documents, money and kids under Questions & answers. Add the welcome drinks and farewell brunch as events, and guests answer for each one on their RSVP. If half the family reads Spanish or Italian, you pick one language for everything guests see and can write your own text in two languages side by side; our guide to a bilingual wedding website shows how that looks. For everything else a wedding site needs, see what to put on a wedding website.

Frequently asked questions

Is it better to get legally married before a destination wedding?

For most couples, yes. A courthouse wedding at home a week or two before you fly avoids document deadlines, translations and appointment days abroad, and your certificate is issued at home, in your own language. The ceremony abroad is then symbolic, so you can choose anyone to lead it. Marry legally abroad if that country's ceremony matters to you, and start the paperwork three to six months ahead.

Can foreigners get legally married in France or Spain?

Usually not as visitors. In France, two foreigners who don't live there can marry only at their own country's consulate or in an overseas collectivity such as French Polynesia or Saint-Barthélemy, and US consuls don't perform marriages. Spain requires the application to go to the Civil Registry where one of the couple lives. Most couples who want a wedding in France or Spain marry legally at home first.

How far in advance should you plan a destination wedding?

Start 12 to 18 months ahead. Book the venue, planner and room blocks 10 to 12 months out, send save-the-dates 9 to 12 months before, and mail invitations three to four months before. A legal ceremony abroad adds its own clock: Italy and Portugal want documents less than six months old, so order them about five months out.

When should you send save-the-dates for a destination wedding?

Nine to twelve months before the wedding, and no later than eight. Guests need the time to book flights, request leave and save up. Put your wedding website on the card, and have the hotel details and booking deadline live on it before the cards arrive.

Who pays for what at a destination wedding?

The couple pays for the ceremony, reception and rehearsal dinner, and often hosts a welcome party and a farewell brunch. Guests pay for their flights, hotel rooms, meals outside the wedding events and their own activities. The wedding party covers their own travel and outfits. The couple should arrange room blocks and pay any resort day pass guests need to attend.

Should the couple pay for day passes at an all-inclusive resort?

Yes. If guests staying at another hotel have to buy a day pass to attend your wedding, that's a wedding cost. Prices guests report online run from about $65 to $200 a person. Ask the resort for the price before you sign, put it in your budget, and tell the guests staying elsewhere that it's covered.

How many guests come to a destination wedding?

There's no reliable percentage. Published advice ranges from 50% to 90%, and couples report anything from 38 of 100 to 85 of 120. Estimate your own list instead: sort guests into four groups from certain to unlikely, count them at 100%, 75%, 50% and 0%, and expect a few late drop-outs over flights.

Is a marriage abroad legally recognized in the US?

Yes, if it was valid where it took place. The US Embassy in Italy states that a foreign marriage valid in the country where it was performed is automatically valid in the US. You'll usually need the foreign certificate apostilled, and translated if it isn't in English, before using it at home. For a question about your own case, ask the attorney general's office in your state.