Guest numbers are the first real decision of a wedding abroad, and everything else follows from them — the venue, the country, the cost and the feel of the week. The counts below are not a sales range: a venue with a minimum of forty is not listed under twenty guests, because selling it to a party of twenty would mean charging you for forty.
What fits each size
Just the two of you
3 packages · from £3,735
Just the two of you. The legal ceremony is identical to a wedding with two hundred people — only the guest list changes. Expect to spend less on the day than on the trip.
Available in Cyprus · Greece
10 guests
3 packages · from £3,735
Closest family only. Everyone eats at one table, nobody needs a seating plan, and the whole group can fit in one villa.
Available in Cyprus · Greece
20 guests
9 packages · from £3,735
The size most couples mean by "intimate". Still one long table, still no formal structure needed, and a villa or a small hotel terrace works beautifully.
Available in Cyprus · Greece
30 guests
25 packages · from £3,735
The most popular size we plan. Big enough to feel like a wedding, small enough that you will genuinely speak to everyone, and almost every venue we work with handles it well.
Available in Cyprus · Greece · Italy · Spain
50 guests
27 packages · from £3,735
A full wedding with everything you would expect at home — a top table, speeches, a dance floor — at a cost that usually still sits below a UK wedding of the same size.
Available in Cyprus · Greece · Italy · Malta · Spain
100 guests
27 packages · from £3,735
A large wedding abroad. Venue choice narrows, catering becomes the dominant cost, and you will want a second coordinator on the day. Entirely doable.
Available in Cyprus · Greece · Italy · Malta · Spain
150 guests
20 packages · from £4,199
Big by destination-wedding standards. A handful of our venues are built for this, and they are the ones with the space and the kitchens to do it properly.
Available in Cyprus · Greece · Italy · Malta
200 guests
13 packages · from £4,199
A major event. Worth a conversation before you fix on a country, because the venues that genuinely seat this many are a short list.
Available in Cyprus · Greece · Italy · Malta
300 guests+
8 packages · from £4,199
The top of what we plan. These are estate and resort venues, and they need lead time — eighteen months is sensible rather than cautious.
Available in Cyprus · Greece · Malta
Counted from the minimum and maximum guest numbers on our 28 published packages, so these move as our venues do. A package counts towards a size only if that size sits inside its real range.
Eloping abroad
For two, or for a handful of people. Same legal ceremony, none of the logistics.
A villa for everyone
Up to about thirty, taking a house for the week often beats booking a block of hotel rooms.
Who pays for what
The question couples ask us privately and almost nobody answers publicly. Here is the convention, and it is a convention rather than a rule.
Your guests pay for their own flights and rooms
This is the convention for a wedding abroad and it is what guests expect, provided they are told early enough to budget and to book. Giving people twelve months’ notice is the single kindest thing you can do.
You pay for the wedding itself
The venue, the ceremony, the meal, the drinks on the day, the styling — exactly as you would at home. Nobody should be asked to pay towards their own dinner.
Nobody is obliged to come
Some invitations will be declined on cost, and that is not a slight. Expect a lower acceptance rate than a wedding at home and build your numbers from the people who have already said yes.
Small gestures carry a long way
A welcome drink, a group dinner the night before, or arranging the airport transfer for everybody costs comparatively little and changes how the whole week feels for people who have spent money to be there.
Plan for the people who have said yes
The commonest planning mistake we see is booking a venue for the list you posted rather than the list that is coming. Fewer people travel than are invited — often by a third or more — and a venue sized for the invitation list leaves you paying for empty seats. Send the save-the-date early, wait for the replies, then fix the numbers. We will hold the venue through that.
Common questions about guests
- How many guests come to a wedding abroad?
- Most of the weddings we plan sit between twenty and fifty guests. The usual pattern is that roughly half to two thirds of the people you would invite to a wedding at home will travel, which is why couples often find the list easier abroad than at home — the hard decisions make themselves.
- Can we get married abroad with no guests at all?
- Yes. A ceremony for two is legally identical to a ceremony for two hundred, and some of our packages are priced for exactly that. You will need witnesses in most countries, and where you have not brought any, they can be arranged for you locally.
- Do we have to pay for our guests to come to a wedding abroad?
- No. Guests pay for their own flights and accommodation — that is the convention and it is what people expect. You pay for the wedding: the venue, the ceremony, the meal and the drinks. What matters is giving people enough notice to budget for the trip, which in practice means telling them about a year ahead.
- How much does an extra guest add to a wedding abroad?
- It depends on the venue and what the package includes, but guest numbers are the biggest single lever on the total because they move the catering, the drinks, the seating and sometimes the venue tier all at once. When we price a proposal we show the per-guest figure separately, so you can see what adding or removing ten people actually does before you decide.
- How much notice do guests need for a wedding abroad?
- Twelve months is the standard we recommend, and we would not go below nine for anyone travelling with children or taking leave from work. Send a save-the-date as soon as the venue is held, long before the formal invitations — people need to book flights and arrange time off, not just put a date in a diary.
Tell us your rough number
Rough is fine — nobody knows exactly at the start. We will come back with the venues that genuinely suit it and a price built on that number rather than a brochure average.
Get your proposal
Flight-inclusive holidays sold through this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed — please ask us to confirm what protection applies to your booking. We are a member of ABTA, so you can book with confidence.