Hi Again,

Thanks Anne - please let me know how you get on in May.  I haven't booked anything yet.  I've taken tips from everyone on here and sent a couple of emails.  My fiance still has to sort out whether it is a church do' or not (he's catholic). As I mentioned, photographer and flowers is one thing I think about - am sure we'll get a good reception.  

Sanela & Steve - I did try to contact you through the website, but it didn't seem to work... could you just pop your email address on here  - am sure will improve your buisness.  Like the previous post, I'd like help, but would rather not have a wedding planner as such - more someone on consultant basis, but having Sanela on day might be very useful.  At the moment, there are no definates - but I'm keen to find out more about it all.

Thanks,

Claire  

Hi Anne,

We're getting married on June 7th in St. Blaises' Church so if you are around Dubrovnik at that date feel free to drop by for a look!! It is really worth making the trip to meet with the Croatia Tours rep in Dubrovnik - we felt a lot more relaxed about the whole thing after meeting her.  She brought us to the florist, a few venues, showed some samples of the photographers work, booked the old timer car to bring the bride to the church, etc.  We looked at the Labirint got our reception but we didn't like their (buffet) menu so we opted for the Dubrovnik Palace instead.  They have their own co-ordinator who is extremely helpful (Ines Presecan - ines.presecan@dubrovnikpalace.hr).  She has helped us organise the reception (cake, drinks, decorations, menus, etc).  Pretty much anything we have wanted she has been able to do for us.  We are paying our deposit (25% of estimated costs) and we have to sign a contract so its all legal and above board.  2 people that we know of (a friend of my fiancee's cousin) got married in Dubrovnik.  One had his reception at the Palace and another one had hers at the Nautika and both had great days.

Croatia Tours have helped book the church, priest, band etc and have been helpful too.  We're just waiting to pay for our flights & accom.  We have about 50 travelling over too so it should be great craic (hopefully!). 
Good luck with the planning - its been much easier to organise than I imagined!! 

Dermot

Dermot, who is your florist, band, photographer? if you know

Hi Sarah,

The band we have booked is called 'Taliri'.  We have been told that they usually play for
5-6 hrs for €900.  They play on arrival at the reception, play instrumental music during the meal and play pop/dancing afterwards with some breaks during and after dinner.  Croatia Tours booked them for us and the hotel has told us that they are 'wonderful' and have played for many weddings at the hotel.  Croatia Tours' rep company (Globtour - €300 fee) in Dubrovnik use the same photographer (€500 for 200/250 photos, 2 albums, all photos on DVD/negatives) & the same florist for all the weddings they organise but I don't know what their names are.   Flowers for the bride & bridesmaid are approx €150 and flowers for the church are approx €150.  Organist/singer for the church is €200 and document fee is €60.  Croatia Tours & Globtour can also organise transport for the bride/groom and guests to & from hotel/church/reception.  Bus is €200 and open top old time car is €200.

Hope this helps!
Dermot

we are also getting married in dubrovnik - july 2006. as yet we are still trying to decide on a restaurant with sea views. I have mixed reaction about labyrinth (is it too expensive and posh for what you get?), or is nautica a better option? any ideas?

jane

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let you all know I am a Canadian photographer with roots in Dubrovnik. My mother was born here and I spent many a summer vacation in my grandmother's house in the old city. I know it like the back of my hand. I'm here now in fact. Normally I trapse around the world photographing everything from Afghan women (spent two years in Afghanistan) to refugees in Sudan for magazines like Time, British Marie Claire and Canadian Geographic. Recently I've been thinking of filling a void here - shooting weddings. Please feel free to have a look at my website: www.lanaslezic.com. You won't find any wedding photography but you'll see my style which definitely lends itself...I had an exhibition here in fact last September in Sponza palace - there was a wedding there the other day too! Good luck with all your plans and let me know if I can help at all photography wise...
Best,
Lana

I have read all ur fab wedding plans for croatia but they were 2 -3 years ago could i please get any updates on how it went what 2 do and not 2 do? as im from cork, ireland i dont have a clue about the paper work ect.

Thanks

Hello,

We are a couple from the Uk who are planning to get married in Croatia. Can any of the people from the Uk or Ireland on this forum tell us how they went about sorting out their documents/which website they used. We are not going to use a wedding planner so are interested in finding out information from people who sorted out their documetns through the British/Irish embassy in Zagreb. We especially want to know how the living in the country for 21 days policy operates, as on the British embassy website it says you have to, but on this forum people have said you do not have to.....


Thanks for any help you can give!!!


Catherine and Ewan      

How did it go? im thinking about it 2 for next summer from cork? about 100 ish of us? any advice would be great.

Ruth



I am from Ireland and am getting married in Dubrovnik next May.

We will have a party of about 40 to 50 people and would like to reserve a section in a restaurant for the evening, on the terrace if possible. As it is a wedding party we would like to stay late if possible. We've heard that restaurants stop serving at 11 but presume that they'll leave us stay on if we're drinking. Nautica are charging 200 euro per hour after 11pm to stay open.
 
We're looking for a restaurant that-
is lovely,
in the town centre,
has a terrace with views,
good food service
and reasonable prices.
will stay open until 1 or 2am (just so we can remain there, don't want food after 11pm).

We're planning to get married in St. Blaise's church.
Hotel- we don't have anywhere booked yet. We're seen brochures for the main hotels (argentina etc.)The Pucic Palace looks lovely but prices are too expensive.
Anyone recommend somewhere?

 
Any other information that would be useful would be much appreciated. I am visiting Dubrovnik this autumn to plan the wedding want to know what places to check out.
Cheers,
P [/quote]
 P, you should check out hotel excelsior's taverna rustica. See http://www.hotel-excelsior.hr/home.aspx?PageID=6

You can have your wedding on the terrace of the Rector's Palace, Sponza Palace, Lovrijenac fortress. All of these venues require catering as they are not restaurants. Also, they are obviously more expensive.

Also check out the newly opened Hotel Hilton Imperial on Pile.

Another place that I thought of is a restaurant that recently opened a bit above the parking lot by Pile. It is above the Capitano Bar. You will see it when you go this autumn. You can inquire by them. I havent been there, but the terrace looks lovely. Another place you can check out is the Labirint restaurant http://www.labirint-dubrovnik.com/ within the old town, but towards Ploce, and the East West Club restaurant on Banje Beach (between old town and hotel excelsior). http://www.ew-dubrovnik.com/ I think having the reception at the East West Club on the beach would be absolutely gorgeous with views of the old town, sea, and lokrum. I think you would be able to get a good deal at one of these places.

Please update us. I plan on getting married at St. Blaise too. Only, I am having a lot of people so I might have to get married in the cathedral (its behind St. Blaise).

Which hotel should you stay at... Pucic Palace is way too expensive. Stay at Hotel Excelsior, Argentina, or Imperial. They are the closest to the old town, to your church and reception place and 5 star. Still too expensive? How about Hotel Stari Grad? If you want to venture out further from the old town of dubrovnik check out hotel dubrovnik palace.
[/quote]

Hi

I am just back from dubrovnik this week, I was there to start planning for our wedding which is June 07, we are expecting approx 70 people and we are getting married in St Blaise church, the church is fantastic, but at the moment there is scaffolding on the front and the side, they cannot say if this will still be there next year so fingers crossed it is.

As regards a reception, I wanted a restaurant with a view of the old town, that would allow me to have a band or some music and allow us to stay there after our meal for drinks but there was no where that would allow this near the old town. We went to the dubrovnik palace then and although i didnt want it that far out i feel in love with it immediatly, the views are spectacular and the hotel is fantastic, it will allow me a separate terrace where i can have a meal and music for the evening / night, there is also a bar, so hopefully now we can book the place in the next few days,

I have booked the wedding with croatia tours, and so far everything has been great, they recommended places for me initially but i had my head set on east west beach club before coming out, then when i saw east west, i realised that it was on a public beach and they couldnt close it, and i wasnt keen on the idea of having loads of topless women in front of us while we ate. I soon found out why craotia tours recommended some of the venues and didnt encourage me with my own choice, but they left me to figure it out myself when i was there (im strong minded!!!) so i viewed my choice of venues plus theres and i went for theres in the end,

For the price i am paying for a planner i think its worth it as i dont have to worry about it at all on the day, its alot cheaper than expected and considering i am planning it from ireland i know the person who is doing the organisation for me and feel very assured after meeting her that she will do exactly what we both want,

they showed me the photographers work and its fantastic and brought me to the florist, but its not like at home that u have to choose your flowers etc months in advance, you choose them a few days before your wedding when you arrive in dubrovnik and there is a fantastic range to choose from,

as regards paperwork and documentation, i was told by the croatian embassy that we have to be there one month in advance of a wedding, but the irish embassy (or consulate i think it is) told me i dont have to be there in advance at all. when i spoke to croatia tours they suggested i had a civil cemony here first before a church blessing in dubrovnik, it is far more straight forward, and there can be no hiccups, I still have to do the marraige course here and get my church documents sent to the bishop of dubrovnik.

If i can be of anymore help let me know, and i would be delighted to hear what other people are doing, or what they have found out,

I am looking for favours for my guest tat the wedding, I would like it to be something of dubrovnik, has anyone any suggestions?


Thanks
Anne

Hi Everyone

We are an Irish couple getting married this summer in Dubrovnik.  We have been to Croatia for the last few summers and love the place so decided the old town of Dubrovnik is the perfect location for our big day.

In terms of paper work (civil / religious) for Irish citizens - first port of call is The Dept of Foreign Affairs for the civil side (tel: 01 478 0822 and ask for Barbara O'Leary ).  Barbara will send you (a) Questionnaire to be completed by Irish citizen seeking "Certificat de Coutume" for marriage board and (b) Statutory Declaration by Irish Citizen seeing "Cert de Coutume" for Marriage Abroad.  You complete both these, get a solicitor or Comm of Oaths to witness and submit them to the Dept of FA with long birth certs approx 4 months before the wedding (can't do it any sooner unforunately).  FA will put a stamp apostile on these, you then send them off to the civil authorities in Dubrovnik and you can have your civil ceremony in Croatia the day before your religious wedding (we are getting married on a Mon and are looking after the civil side on the Fri before).  Your marriage will be legally recognised in Ireland if it is civilly registered in Dubrovnik.  Croatia Tours had suggested that we have a civil wedding in Ireland first before travelling to Croatia but we felt this would "dilute" the whole wedding as we'd technically be married before heading over so I rand FA myself to find out the story - absolutely no need whatsoever to have the civil ceremony in Ireland first - it can all be done in Croatia.

You need to speak to your parish priest about the religious side of things.  He completes paper work with you, looks for baptismal, communion and confirmation certs and sends this off to your bishop, who in turn sends the paperwork to the Bishop in Croatia.

The paperword side of things does seem a bit daunting at first but once you get your head around it and speak to FA and your local parish priest it actually is quiet straight forward.

We are getting married in St Blaises, drinks reception on a boat (Tierena), dinner in Labrinit Restaurant (we have organised a band that will play til 2am) and then there is a nite club for those who want to party til dawn.

We opted to use a local wedding planner, Nina Bos, and she has been fantastic.  We met with Croatia Tours as I've booked our last few summer hols through them and they have looked after a lot of our guests travel for this summer but I felt that it would be better to have local coordinator.  I suppose because I am very familiar with Dubrovnik I had very set ideas on the venues we wanted use.  Nina is a star, she sourced the band, florist, photographer, boat, restaurant - nothing is too much trouble for her.  Her email address is ninabs64@yahoo.com

Over the years I've stayed in The Argentina, Excelsor and The Palace.  We're staying in The Palace for the wedding as I think it is the nicest in terms of views and facilities (great spa and swim up bar!) - it is however 5km out of town so if you want to be closer you should stay in The Argentina which is also a fab hotel.  The Hilton is nice but it does not have an outdoor pool and the (pebbly) beach is a walk away - not fun in the height of summer!

Hope this info is of some help - I'll let you all know how we get on this summer.  Good luck with all the planning!

Hi,
I am planning a wedding this September in Dubrovnik. I would be so grateful if someone could recommend a good photographer. We would only need him to take pictures of the ceremony and after the ceremony. It will be a small civil wedding on the beach...
Thank you...  

Glamourgirl

Dear all,
Could someone recommend a good make-up artist that is not too expensive? Also, I was planning to do my hair in the Hotel Excelsior hair-dresser shop. Is that a good idea?
Any advice / recommendations? Many, many thanks!

Glamourgirl
 

Hi

I was delighted when I found this sight.I am planning to get married next June in Dubrovnik.I have spent the last six months totally frustrated waiting on Irish Travel Agents to get back to me with details.Now I am going to do it myself.So if anyone can help I would be so grateful.

My first obstacle is 170 guests.I know the Dubrovnik Palace will cater for this amount,I am looking into the Excelsior also.Has anyone used these hotels?I am also bringing over my fiances cousins band. We hoped that going abroad would be cheaper but with such large numbers I'm not sure(unfortunately they are mostly my parents friends so I have no choice!!) I was quoted 47euro a head minus winre in the Dubrovnik Palace.Has anyone used traditional Croatian dancers?

If anyone can help it would be great
Many Thanks
Leonie

Hi,

We are travelling to Dubrovnik in September to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary and are staying at The Amoret Apartments. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a location to renew our wedding vows? I am not sure what I want (it is to be a surprise for my husband), but I do know that we would like something very simple in a beautiful location. It may be as simple as arranging access to an amazing location for an hour for a bottle of champagne before dinner? I had thought we would find a suitable restaurant ourselves in the days before the anniversary but we’d be glad for some suggestions. I don’t think we need a celebrant as such but I would be open to advice.

Thanks!

I've enjoyed reading through these postings.

Can anyone tell me realistically how difficult it is to arrange a wedding in Dubrovnik? And are there lots of hidden costs involved in going through an agency?

Also, does anyone know approximately how much a wedding/room/music/etc costs at the Pucic Palace?