I get a lot of emails from Irish couples living abroad, wanting to come home and have their wedding. Once they start planning, they find it incredibly difficult to navigate through the wedding planning process from afar.
If you are one of these couples, I feel your pain. There are so many added layers of complexity as there are certain items that require you to physically be here in the country such as registration of marriage, picking your venue, and if going down the catholic route – meeting the priest and doing your pre-marriage course.
You may also have time differences so trying to get people on the phone or to respond to emails can just be so time consuming.
Plus, there is almost too much information online!
In saying that, it can be done and you just need to be organised and make sure that you are coordinating your trips home very effectively.
If you are like the couples that get in touch with me and are incredibly overwhelmed, time poor and just don’t want the hassle, an option for you is to work with a planner on the ground here in Ireland. There will still be certain things that you need to come home for but all of the running can be looked after in advance.
“One of the major challenges was people actually getting back to us. Because we weren’t in the country and didn’t really get to meet our suppliers face to face, we kind of felt it was easy for them to ignore us and a lot of them took ages getting back to us. Eventually I had to start calling them from here telling them we needed their responses which wasn’t cheap and could have easily been avoided if there was someone on the ground back home.” Anon Couple.
Special Days by Sue looks after many couples returning to Ireland for their big day. I took some time out to ask her about what a ‘Coming Home’ wedding planning package looks like and this is what she told me;
- The most challenging weddings are the ones where one member of the couple is from another country. There needs to be arrangements made to bring their side of the family back, entertain them and look after them. Sue organises full itineraries and ensures that the guests make their way from the airport to the venue.
- Rather than having to deal with potentially 15 suppliers, you only have to deal with one person (Sue) and she does all of the heavy lifting and reports back to you.
- She keeps you on track, within budget and on time.
- Based on her relationships with suppliers across the country, she has preferential rates which means that there are savings to be made to allow you to maximise your budget.
- You save a bucket of time! She even sends out your invitations for you! She also takes your brief of what you want and does all of the research to get you what you want.
- When you know that you can come home for viewings, she will coordinate your trip so that you utilise your time wisely and she cuts out the time wasting so that you can enjoy time with family and friends.
- When you’re ordering key items such as invites, cake and decor, suppliers will send you pictures but it’s still hard to get a sense of what everything actually looks or tastes like. Sue is on the ground and can have a Skype call to show you everything.
As you can see, it’s a fantastic service and means that you can eliminate a whole heap of stress and enjoy the lead up to coming home and celebrating your wedding!
For more information on planning your wedding, visit Special Days by Sue
#sponsored – whilst this is sponsored, please note that all opinions are my own.
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