A millennial couple spent less than $4,000 on an intimate destination wedding in Morocco. Here's how they pulled it off.
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- A UK-based couple invited 28 guests to their wedding in Morocco in September 2023.
- Almaz Burgess, the bride, said she and her husband saved by booking an Airbnb as the wedding venue.
- The 31-year-old also said they kept costs low by hosting their reception at a local restaurant.
Even before getting engaged, Almaz Burgess knew she'd have a destination wedding.
Burgess, a 31-year-old advertising account director, is from New Zealand but met her now-husband around six years ago after moving to the UK. They "hit it off straight away," she told Business Insider.
The couple did over a year of long distance when Burgess returned to New Zealand at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After she returned to the UK in 2021, the couple legally married in London in front of friends, but they always knew they wanted to do another wedding once travel restrictions eased so their families could meet.
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"We wanted to do it somewhere neutral because we felt it was unfair to say, 'OK, all of my family and friends traveled to the UK,' and then his family doesn't have to travel anywhere," Burgess said.
Another challenge was mitigating the cost, which isn't a walk in the park for destination weddings. According to a study by The Knot, the average international destination wedding is $42,000 — nearly $10,000 more than standard hometown nuptials.
Wedding venues in Greece and Italy were quoting them $10,000 — so they turned to Morocco
A year before the wedding, Burgess began researching destination weddings in Greece and Italy. It didn't take long for her to realize neither was the right fit, as most local venues were set up for weddings with 100 to 200 guests, while Burgess and her husband sent out 40 invites but ended up having 28 guests total.
Burgess also said venues gave them prices that were out of their budget.
"I remember in Italy, the venue rental was like €10,000 just for the day," she said, which is about $10,700.
So, they gravitated to Morocco — Marrakesh specifically — another destination they'd had in the back of their minds.
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"In Morocco, they have the traditional Riad," she said, referring to a Moroccan house that typically has an indoor garden or courtyard. Many are listed on Airbnb, so Burgess contacted hosts to see whether they could accommodate a wedding.
"The one that we chose, the owner that I was messaging on Airbnb, she was just really accommodating and enthusiastic," she said, adding that the host also offered to help organize the occasion. It was helpful, considering Burgess didn't have a wedding planner and couldn't speak the local languages.
The couple paid about $1,500 for their wedding venue
For three nights, the Airbnb cost £2,000, or about $2,500, and slept 12 people. Burgess and her husband's family, who stayed at the Airbnb, contributed, bringing the cost down even further.
"What we ended up paying in the end, which we class as venue rental, was about £1,200," she said, or about $1,500.
The ceremony, carried out by one of the couple's friends, took place in the courtyard of the Airbnb in front of a swimming pool. It was short, sweet, and more reflective of them as a couple than their legal ceremony.
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"We tried to keep it under half an hour," she said, "to not bore everyone."
Post-ceremony, the guests had cocktails on the Airbnb rooftop, where they were surprised by a Moroccan band the Airbnb host helped the couple hire. "We didn't know what to expect," she said. "They were so fun, kind of a party band, there to hype people up."
Later, the wedding party walked to a hotel restaurant for a reception-style dinner. Setting up the space with candles cost £400, about $500, and the meal cost £1,500, or about $1,870.
"It honestly felt like a venue that we had hired, and there was no one else there," she said.
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"They already had all the tables and chairs, linens, glassware," she said. Without a wedding planner, Burgess said there was a lot of trust involved in working with the restaurant as they hadn't been before.
"Some people wouldn't be able to handle not knowing. But for us, the experience of our guests was more important than all the final tiny details," she said.
Keeping costs down ensured most guests could attend — but it didn't feel 'cheap'
By giving guests a save-the-date card a year in advance and keeping venue costs low, it eased the burden of travel costs for Burgess and her husband as well as their guests, she said.
"We didn't want people to rule it out because they felt like, 'Oh, it's too much effort,'" she said. The couple also cut costs by ditching floral arrangements, as they are "expensive" and wouldn't last long in the heat, and not having a bridal party.
"Being a bridesmaid can be very expensive," she said. "I was like, 'I don't really want to pay for their dresses, and they probably don't want to pay for a special dress.' So, like, who cares?"
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Burgess also did her makeup and hair and bought her dress — which wasn't technically a wedding dress — online from the Australian brand Bec + Bridge for less than $200.
Even though they chose their wedding with costs in mind, Burgess said it didn't feel "cheap."
"I know people go into a lot of debt for weddings, and if that's what they want to do, that's totally fine," she added. "But I think it's really sad that people feel like they have to do that because they have to meet a certain standard or have this wedding they've seen on Pinterest."
"You can't have absolutely everything," Burgess said. "But if you are creative, you can still have an amazing wedding."
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