The days where couples would head to their local church, get married, and return to a village hall or someones house for a reception with homemade food seem to be a thing of the past.
Couples are now heading to exotic location such as the Caribbean, Hawaii or the Seychelles, as destination weddings become the latest trend.
Hundreds of companies are benefitting from the surge in bookings for weddings abroad, including travel agents, wedding planners, cruise lines and hotels and resorts.
Gary Sadler, the Vice-President of Sales for Unique Vacations, the worldwide representative of Sandals Resorts, explained: Personalisation and absolute flexibility is what couples want now; no cookie-cutter weddings.
He added that the destination wedding industry has evolved over the years and couples are expecting more on their special day.
If we offered weddings the way we did 30 years ago, wed be out of business, he said. When I started working at Sandals Ocho Rios in 1990, the bride and groom would get flowers, champagne and have their own homemade videos. That was the end of it.
Today, Sandals weddings include a wedding planner, a wedding butler, a two-tiered wedding cake, a professional photographer and videographer, flowers brought in from the area, champagne and hors doeuvres, the resort venue itself plus other features all of it personalised for each couple at each resort.
Sandals Resorts operates Caribbean resorts in St Lucia, Jamaica, Antigua and the Bahamas and the luxury all-inclusive properties are a favourite for romantic Caribbean weddings and honeymoons.
Cruise weddings are becoming increasingly popular and over the last ten years, cruise lines have developed marketing strategies to entice couples to book weddings at sea.
According to Mintel, a UK market research company, Carnival now carries out approximately 2,400 destination weddings a year; Royal Caribbean hosts 800 ceremonies and Norwegian Cruise Lines holds 300. The British company, Cunard, recently registered its ships in Bermuda so it could offer overseas weddings onboard its three ships and couples will be able to get married abroad on Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth or Queen Victoria from April, 2012.
A recent Mintel survey reveals that people aged between 25 and 44 years are likely to have chosen a wedding abroad over a traditional ceremony at home. And many 18 – 34-year-olds would choose nuptials in exotic foreign wedding destinations when the time comes to get married.
Overseas nuptials are also becoming increasingly popular among the older brides and grooms and those who are getting married for a second time. These couples often look for a quieter and more intimate event.