Dreaming of a wedding abroad? I did, and it was perfect. I married a beautiful woman on a beach in front of Cape Town, South Africa, had a wonderful day and great memories. Many friends said they would do it like we did, and to make a long story short, it isn't that difficult to accomplish, if you have the right partner, of course.

The most important thing for this event of a life time is planning, besides your love. Depending on your country of choice, the formalities are different. Of course, I can't give you all the details here, but I will do so for South Africa as an example further below.

One good source of information what kind of prerequisities are asked, are the relevant web pages of the country representatives (embassy and similar). Additionally, some agencies are specialized in guiding you through the process of paper work. Just search for the keywords "wedding", "agency" and your country of choice.

There are many arguments why to marry in South Africa. One is the beautiful setting of course, but also the pretty straightforward process of administrative works. We engaged an agency to handle all that for a small fee. They not only provided the legal aspects of the marriage, but also organized the pastor, the ceremony, as well as some wedding accessoires (like the champagne).

The day before we married we met with our pastor and went through the process once again. He also collected the necessary information for our certificate of marriage.

the wedding on the next day was two-parted: one part within our house (for legal purpose), and the "real" wedding ceremony on the beach as we asked for. We shared fantastic moments, and kept best memories until today. A few weeks later, we received our original wedding documents per mail.

Besides South Africa, there are some very nice places for wedding and honeymoons. One recommended place is Dubai with exotic travel possibilities on the Arabian peninsula.

One other place I can recommend is Costa Rica. A beautiful paradise of green forests and green-blue warm tropic water. One idea is to rent a beach house just for you!

Of course, if you like romantic settings like a baroque palace, you will find Salzburg in Austria pretty interesting. Schloss Mirabell is a favourite destination for weddings. After the ceremony you can leave for travel through the Alps and enjoy Austrian mountains.