My Destination Wedding in Montenegro
My husband and I got engaged in February 2024, and we always knew we wanted a destination wedding. We looked at the usual suspects - Ibiza, Italy - but kept coming back to Montenegro. We'd visited in 2022 and completely fell in love with the country.
I began some mega instagram stalking and found a wedding planner that I wanted to hire, Adriatic Events Montenegro. After looking at a few venues, we landed on Limoneto, part of the Casa Del Mare Mediterraneo hotel in the Boka Bay area. We secured our date for early June 2026, and the planning began!
Building My Supplier Dream Team
As a professional destination wedding singer, I already had a black book of incredible suppliers - mostly UK-based, which meant flying them in. My planner showed me some lovely local options, and Montenegro has genuinely talented people, but I knew in my heart I wasn't going to settle for anything less than exactly what I wanted, especially for music.
So I flew most of my suppliers in (this took my husband a little convincing when I announced we were doubling the photography budget, LOL!) but I’m so glad I did. My photographer Sophie Mort Photography was absolutely amazing and pretty much became my new bestie by the end of the experience!
Here's a tip: you'll spend more time with your photo and video team than almost anyone else on the day, so have a call with them before you book - their vibe match matters just as much as their portfolio.
I have to admit that I found the wedding planning process very stressful at times. Coming from the UK, I underestimated how much slower communication and decision-making can be across Europe. I'd wait weeks, sometimes months, for replies, and no matter how organised I was, things popped up last minute that I couldn't have planned for. If you're a fellow Type A bride reading this then please be assured that it will all work out in the end!
Pick Your Priorities
I lost so much sleep over decor. Genuinely lay awake at 2am worrying about the colour of the knives and forks, because we only had the budget for the restaurant’s standard silver cutlery. Decor was one of the last things we finalised, and by then, budget was tight. Now? I couldn't tell you what the table settings looked like. What I do remember is the energy - my singer, the whole room singing along over dinner, the DJ who kept everyone on the dancefloor all night.
Obviously I’m biased, because I am a wedding singer, but I'd say this even if I wasn’t… having live music and a great DJ was, hands down, the best decision we made. If your budget stretches to a full band, incredible. But if it doesn't - a charismatic singer paired with a DJ will absolutely still deliver the party atmosphere, especially for a more intimate wedding like ours.
The Weather
Ok fellow destination brides, you'll feel this one - when you get married abroad, you're basically assuming guaranteed sunshine, right?! Well. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, I watched the Montenegro forecast religiously... sunshine every single day, except one. Our wedding day. Rain and thunderstorms, 95% probability. Can you imagine the meltdown.
Everyone kept telling me "don't worry, it'll change," or sharing stories about weddings that got rained on and were still magical anyway. Very sweet. Did not help.
So naturally, I took matters into my own hands.
I remembered one of my 2025 brides had actually paid a witch on Etsy (yes, you read that correctly) to cast a sunshine spell, and hers had held off the rain. So I messaged her for the details, found the witch, and bought myself a "good weather" spell and a "perfect wedding day" spell for good measure. I'd also heard the old wives' tale about cooking and burying sausages to please the weather gods. So I bought a packet of pork sausages (I’m a vegetarian by the way) cooked them, and buried them the day before the wedding. By this point my husband was fully convinced I'd lost the plot. The forecast, meanwhile, was only getting worse.
And then, miraculously, the storm arrived early. We got hit with an actual Biblical downpour that night, which washed out our welcome drinks completely. It was meant to be an outdoor sunset drinks by the bay in Perast - instead we relocated indoors to a little wine bar (still lovely, even though it wasn’t what we had envisioned).
But on the wedding morning, I opened the curtains and... sunshine. Not a cloud in sight. Thank you, Etsy witch. Thank you, weather gods. Thank you, sausages.
Tips From One Destination Bride to Another
Don't cut back on the things that matter to you It's your day - have the version you actually dreamed of. For me, that was hiring a white baby grand piano for dinner. Renting it was €900, and when funds got tight I almost settled for the €200 keyboard instead. I couldn't stop thinking about that piano, so I upgraded - and it was easily the best €700 I spent. It became the centrepiece of the room, we all ended up gathered round it singing, and it just looked like money well spent.
Negotiate with local suppliers If you're British, negotiating on price might feel a bit uncomfortable - we're taught it's rude to haggle. But in other countries, everything from decor to transport to AV had room to move. Suppliers in Montenegro work across so many cultures and price expectations, and negotiating is simply part of doing business for them. So don't be shy.
Give yourself more getting-ready time than you think you need Everyone says it, and it's still true. We had a 4.30pm ceremony and I thought I'd left plenty of buffer - the morning literally evaporated.
Let the timings run late - it's fine I was so determined ours would run exactly on schedule. It didn't. Guests took longer to be seated, I wanted a last-minute touch-up of make up after cocktail hour (I’d been melting in the sun), my dad's speech was longer than we anticipated - suddenly we were 30 minutes behind. I made a conscious choice to just let it go. Everyone was having the best time, including my husband and I. We'd built in buffer time at the end of dinner, before the first dance (I highly recommend doing this!) so we made some time back anyway.
Guest count shapes your budget more than you'd expect Rule of thumb: about 25% of invited guests won't make it. Ours dropped more than that, as several of our Dubai-based friends couldn't travel due to the conflict there. Our venue worked on a minimum spend rather than a hire fee, so as numbers shrank, we had to hit that spend regardless - which meant premium drinks packages and a lot of champagne (no complaints from me, though my non-drinking husband felt differently!). In hindsight, if we'd known our final count sooner, we might have chosen a slightly smaller venue and redirected a few thousand euros elsewhere - our honeymoon fund, perhaps.
Build in more budget flexibility than you think you need Honest advice: budget for £5-10K more than your initial number. It creeps up everywhere - dress alterations, travel, welcome drinks outfits, bridesmaid gifts, spending money during your trip. It all adds up.
Extend your trip if you possibly can Destination weddings are rarely a single day - ours ran from welcome drinks Wednesday night, the wedding Thursday, and a relaxed beach day Friday. We arrived Monday and left Saturday, and I still wish we'd had longer to settle in before the whirlwind began. If you can take the extra time off, take it.
The Details
Guest count: 43 (including us!)
Ceremony: Legally married in advance, with a symbolic ceremony on the day - my best friend (also our matchmaker!) was our celebrant, and it was so special
Food: A five-course vegetarian menu (much to some guests' dismay, but the verdict was unanimous - the food was fantastic), plus cocktail-hour canapés, wedding cake, and a midnight snack
Wine: I upgraded from the local wine package to French - spent the night on Minuty and Veuve Clicquot. Thanks to all our guests who couldn’t make it and gave us extra money to spend on drinks!!
Open bar: Yes, always. We wanted our guests properly hosted, and it made such a difference to the atmosphere
Wedding website: withjoy.com
Registry: prezola.com
Wedding dress: Milla Nova from Little London Brides
Evening party dress: Meshki (but bought on Vinted!) I wasn’t sure if I was going to wear this, as I LOVED my wedding dress so much, but I’m glad I had a short dress to change into as it was easier to dance in
Wedding Podcasts I Loved While Planning
The Unfiltered Bride - my absolute favourite, I listened to every episode. They've stopped making new ones, but the back catalogue is still gold - start from episode 1, and enjoyyyy.
Secret Society of Brides - hosted by Georgie, a wedding planner herself, full of great insight.
Let's Get You Wed - discovered this one a little later, still working through the episodes, but loving it so far.
Happy Bridal Era
I hope this gave you a real, honest look at what a destination wedding involves from a bride’s perspective - the stress and the magic. My biggest piece of advice: enjoy every second, because it really does fly by.
Got questions about planning your own Montenegro (or any destination!) wedding? Come say hello over on Instagram - I love talking all things weddings. And if you're after a singer to make your day extra special, I'd love to hear about your plans - send me an enquiry here.