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Considering a destination wedding in Hong Kong? Here are our top 10 tips for a destination celebration at our home city!

1. 1)BOOK YOUR VENUE & VENDORS EARLY
3. 1. Hong Kong has limited venues for outdoor weddings (read our blog post on interesting venues) and the good ones on auspicious dates tend to get booked up sooner.

1. 2) LET YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY KNOW
3. 1. Send out a Save the Date as soon as your venue and date has been confirmed to give everyone ample time to plan their trip!
4. 3) GET HELP
6. 1. Hire a wedding planner that ‘gets’ it, it makes all the difference having someone local on the ground to plan and execute the details. Many hotels offer a wedding specialist but they don’t deal with the nitty gritty or guest management, they only handle what involves the venue.

   1. 4) CONSIDERING HAVING A WELCOME DINNER OR POST CELEBRATORY BRUNCH
   3. 1. If you have friends traveling to Hong Kong for the first time, they may appreciate an evening with local flair, be it a harbour cruise on the Aqua Luna or a drinks and/or dinner at a local restaurant. Alternatively, get together after the wedding for a relaxing dim sum brunch or a boat trip to the outlying islands

   1. 4) COME FOR A SITE VISIT

2. Travel restrictions and budget permitting, come for a planning trip to have a makeup and hair trial, do a menu tasting, meet your team and check it all out so there are no surprises later!

2. 6) CHECK THE WEATHER
4. We do have seasons in Hong Kong! Hot and humid in the summer, typhoons from May-Sept and can be cold in January & February. Summer months can see the temperatures soaring to 33ºC and higher and August is traditional reserved for the Ghost Festival which is considered an unlucky time for weddings. The best time for a wedding in Hong Kong would be between October – January as its cool and dry.

2. 7) LEGALITIES
4. If you’re planning to get legally married in Hong Kong, we would advise you to check out the HK Government Immigration page on the Registration of Marriage. No matter where you get married in Hong Kong, if you want it to be legal, you have to give 14 working days notice and start the process at least 3 months beforehand.

2. 8) A WARM WELCOME
4. For friends who have traveled across oceans to get to your wedding, they may appreciate a wedding website with practicalities such as local transport, recommended tours, your favourite restaurants and a n itinerary of the wedding events. It would be so thoughtful too to place a welcome basket in their rooms with some essentials or fun things that they may not have time to shop for.

2. 9) MAKING GOOD DECISIONS
4. Planning a wedding from afar is a bit more challenging. You need to be organised and make good decisions especially if you only have one planning trip scheduled. Make sure you do your homework and have a planner on hand to guide you to making the right choices.
   2. 10) THE BIG DAY
   4. Last but not least, remember that everyone is there for you. It can get overwhelming especially if you’re not used to being the centre of attention. Make sure you schedule your wedding weekend in a way that gives you some downtime just to take it all in and catch your breath! It will all be worth it!
5. Here is a ‘destination wedding’ in Hong Kong from January 2020 (literally the last ‘destination’ wedding in Hong Kong we did before Covid hit). Hopefully, it will give you some ideas!

Video shot by the talented Julie Hill at Elysium Productions at our all time favourite venue, Rosewood Hong Kong.