would Portugal be too obvious what about Malta No Oh what about Hawaii Olivia you are single today we're talking about location location location and how to choose your ideal wedding destination in five easy steps but Before we jump in please subscribe to this channel for more destination wedding tips every single week over the next couple of weeks we're talking about the foundations of planning a destination wedding so you don't want to miss anything without further ado let's jump right in you need to imagine this step-by-step process is kind of like a filter you've got a lot of options at the top and we're going to slim it right down until you have one clear winner so the first step is to do a massive brain dump I love a good brain dump I love a good brain dump helps me out so much when there's just too many ideas going on in my brain so if you were a couple who loves to travel then surely you have so many ideas in your head you're probably a seasoned lonely planet or conde nast reader like I am and you just love seeing the world so where do you choose well write down every single possible idea that you have every single one also you don't have to limit this brain dump to the places that you have been to you also can put in places that you want to go to I will be doing a video on how to plan a destination wedding in a country that you've never been to I've done it before for some clients who have never been to Portugal before but decide to get married here so it is entirely possible write everything down step two is to rule out the places you can't picture the two of you are planning to get married abroad and you might have different ideas of what that marriage abroad could look like it's a very good idea to brain dump together and then callate each other's answers so so for example my heritage is the Caribbean and I spent a lot of my childhood in the Caribbean and although perhaps my future spouse would want to get married in the Caribbean to me it's very normal for me I don't find it particularly special to have a beach wedding in the Caribbean I've spent half of my life on a beach in the Caribbean in the same breath maybe if you or your spouse are from a certain country like if one of you have put is put to use for example you might not want to get married in Portugal because you know it really well or you might want to get married in Portugal because you know it very well but this stage is just to rule out the places that you can't imagine places that just don't feel like they're completely driving with either of you and talk it out make this a group activity the first step is a soft research so now you have a list of places that you can kind of imagine yourselves getting married in and both of you are kind of into the idea of this is where you do your soft research now soft research means that you're not actually contacting anyone at this stage you're getting as much information as you possibly can from friends and family the internet and any sort of blogs or publications that have written on the subject of weddings in that country what you want to be figuring out here is the cost of flights the roundabout costs of weddings for your number of guests or so you also want to look at the average cost of accommodation for your guest list you also want to figure out a good time every year to get married there as well another thing you can add in to your soft research list is probably your legalities so if you plan to have a legal wedding in that country then you'll want to add that to your soft research in this particular stage the step four is to rule out the overly complex for you or your guests so now that you've done your soft research you need to rule out the places that are just too complicated for you to get married in and this is completely subjective so for example I don't have an issue with getting married in the place where I don't speak the native language but for some people it will be and for some guests that might be a huge hindrance to think about yourselves and also about your guests in how old complex it could be and start and finally step 5 start inquiring so at the end of ruling out the places that are too complex that you're not feeling and having done some soft research you probably have a much smaller shortlist than you had at the beginning so with your smaller shortlist at this stage you want to start actually inquiring you want to do more intense research around wedding venues around pricing around how weddings are done their customs local cultures activities that you may be able to do with your guests what is actually available to you for the ideal wedding that you would want this is also when you'll want to start reaching out to any wedding planners if you are planning to have a wedding planner and maybe start doing some soft venue sourcing so please do bear in mind that if you reach out to a wedding planner for venue specifically that there may be a cost to this venue sourcing is a very personalized thing it does actually take a lot of time for us to do so there may be a cost associated to presenting you with some venues that we think would be great for you at the end of this five-step process you should have one clear winner or maybe you have two clear winners but as you keep inquiring into what is possible for your budget and what you're actually imagining you'll find that there is a true clear winner out of all of this do check out my video on should you even have a destination wedding which is linked in the iCard above and in the description down below until next time take care see you soon bye bye [Music]
