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How To Have a Dreamy Destination Wedding & Save Money


A couple holding hands walks through an Italian field at sunset. The bride wears a white dress, and the groom is in a suit. Warm, golden tones.
September Wedding in Puglia at Sunset

We got engaged in February. We were married that September. In Italy, and it was perfect!


Calling all... loved up, easy going, summer lovin foodies!


Are you newly engaged or in the midst of planning your dream wedding? Are you beginning to realise how much these things amount up to?!


Here are my Top 20 Tips on how to save money whilst still having the most incredible destination wedding





  1. Location, Location, Location

    Go off the beaten track, find somewhere that is not heavily associated with weddings.


    Perhaps somewhere you have visited and loved or somewhere you have always wanted to go. Or it might just be somewhere completely random, that you come across whilst searching, that catches your eye. Tuscany and The South of France are of course beautiful, but you might find it harder to find a venue that is within a certain price range





Bridesmaids in matching outfits walk barefoot in a sunny street, smiling and hugging. White buildings flank the quiet, urban scene. Black and white image.

  1. (Out Of) Wedding Season

    If you are doing this all a bit last minute or your savings aren't quite what you had in mind... choosing a date outside of June/ July & August is going to be a game changer. Often venues will have differnet price points for different times of year.


    We got married at the end of September and the weather was so beautiful





  1. Make Your Own Bridal Bouquet

    My best friend had made her own bouquets for her wedding a couple of years earlier, it was such a lovely part of the day and I loved that my bridesmaids had a creative part in that part of the wedding

    The day before the wedding, me, my mum and my bridesmaids went to a local florist and selected the flowers for our bouquets, which we would also use for headresses for me and my flower girls. I have such lush memories of sitting on the kerbside in the sun waiting for the shop to open chatting with my girl friends







  1. Choose a Mid Range Hotel

    Make a list of your priorites when looking at accomodation. We didn't need anything fancy, just clean, and a short walk to the beach and bars/ restaurants. Otranto was a beautiful little town with lots of options for food and drink. Everyone loved it : )





A person holds a lace wedding dress against curtains, backlit by soft light, creating a silhouette. The Mews Bridal Wedding Dress

  1. Sample Sale Wedding Dress

    I fell in love with the wedding dresses from The Mews Bridal Boutique. My bestie booked me into their sample sale in Notting Hill and I found my dress. It was a Rime Arodaky dress, it was so special, but at 4k it was not something I would have been able to afford with the short timeframe, thankfully with the sample sale I was able to get the dress for an incredible 1k. Thank you to The Mews Bridal !!






  1. Summery Bridesmaids, Groomsmen & Flower Girls

    We kept our Bridal party outfits super simple, linen trousers for the boys and simple white shirts. Linen dresses for the bridesmaids, and a print dress for the flower girls. Due to the time of year... the end of summer sales were on too, so the dresses I had chosen ended up being half price which was a nice surprise : )





Outdoor wedding ceremony in an Italian forest. Bride and groom stand under colorful streamers, surrounded by guests seated on benches. The Apulian sunlight filters through trees.

  1. Minimal Decor

    Getting married abroad without a wedding planner or wedding stylist to decorate your venue... means if you want to style your venue in a particular way, you will likely have to bring things with you. We bought some ribbons to hang between the trees as a focal point for the ceremony, but that's it. I think having an outdoor ceremony, whether that is in a woodland, in an olive grove, gardens, beach or lake... you don't actually need much (if anything) to elevate it







  1. Friends With Benefits

    I am very lucky to have some super duper talented friends. From sorting my hair and make up to designing our order of service and making the bouquets and headresses, these girls brought all the skills a bride could ask for!






Italian wedding outdoor buffet. Sunlight filters through trees, illuminating white table and seafood dishes. Relaxed mood.

  1. Forego The Table Service

    We were not inticed by the formalities of a sit down wedding breakfast, and were more than happy for something more relaxed. Having waiter service for a 3 course meal can really bump up the costs... so if you are imagining a more informal wedding breakfast, this could be the way to go






  1. Personal Touches

    Instead of individual favours for each guest, we popped a few big bottles of limoncello on the table for guests to enjoy whilst chatting as the sun came down.

    We wrote postcards to our guests which served as namecards and we kept it simple with fresh lemons and pillar candles as our table decor (the dinosaur was a gift for a little guest )





Wedding guests smiling outdoors in an Italian courtyard. Olive trees in the background, lit festoon string lights overhead. Sunny setting.

  1. VIP Guest List

    If you are trying to whittle down your guest list... have a destination weddings ; )






  1. Book A Local DJ

    We would have loved to have a live band, but dancing under the stars with my friends and family with a local Italian DJ turned out to be pretty epic





Berry tart with red and black fruits on a white plate, set on a white table. Background shows a decorative wooden stump.

  1. No Wedding Cake (Gasps)

    I love seeing what wedding cakes people choose, and it's such an expected wedding tradition that I can see why this might be a hard one to let go of. But our menu included an array of beautiful Italian desserts, so it seemed like such a waste to add another cake into the mix just for the 'cutting of the cake' photo







  1. Shop Vintage

    I love a good mooch around a great vintage boutique... I found some cool scarves for my bridesmaids to wear in their hair and my bag too! I wore my Grandma's necklace and we made our own wedding rings at the Quarterworkshop in Birmingham. My evening dress was just super simple from French Connection and my headdress was made from the leftover flowers from the bouquets : )




Wedding guests joyfully partying outdoors at night with drinks. String lights in the background create a festive atmosphere.

  1. Booze Run

    Everyone loves a free bar. Luckily for us... this was available for our wedding for a certain timeframe at a very reasonable cost (they were obviously not aware how much brits / my family can drink)

    We had hit the supermarket the day before and prepared an evening bar for when the serviced bar ended... cheap and very cheerful. We of course ran this past the venue first and they even served the drink for us for a couple of hours, legends!!




And that my friends is how we got married in Italy for just a few thousand pounds and had a wedding we will never forget. It was truly magical and we did it all within around 7 months of getting engaged





A hugggeee thank you to Nordica for travelling to Puglia to capture our wedding day! If you have any questions at all or are planning your own destination wedding.. drop me a message here


Faye xx

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Relaxed and Documentary Wedding and Family Photography

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