First and Foremost
Before commencing the planning stage, you will need to find a wedding planner, and ideally, your desired wedding venue.
Some venues offer wedding packages inclusive of a wedding planner team or your wedding organizers can help you find a wedding venue with wedding packages that fit your needs.
In some cases, you may need to hire an additional wedding planner team at the venue of your choice if they are unable to accommodate your wishes.
Once chosen, the next step is decoration planning.
Get in touch with your wedding planner and communicate your every want and need from budget plans, photography, flower arrangement, hair and make up and so on. Together with Bali's highly experienced wedding planners, you can work to make your visions come true.
When to Start Wedding Planning
At the very latest, start your Wedding Planning six months prior to your special day. We recommend you to allocate a full year of preparation and planning, so each and every detail can be delicately done with no rush. Early planning is also essential to help secure the Bali wedding venue of your dreams.
Bali offers exceptional wedding venues for an outdoor celebration. The best time for a Bali wedding is during the dry season from May to October. If you are planning your Bali wedding to take place around November to April, you may opt for the indoor Chapel wedding to avoid the risk of rain.
If you wish to legalize your wedding, ask your wedding planner what you need to prepare. If your wedding guests need special assistance, you will need to inquire in advance whether the venue is equipped with facilities for the disabled. Note that this may cause you to narrow down the venue options.
Wedding Venue Categories
There are 3 main categories of wedding venues in Bali:
1) Hotel Wedding - the hotel's chapel or garden/outdoor venue
2) Private Villa Wedding - villa garden/outdoor venue
3) Independent Wedding - exclusive wedding venues, from chapel, garden, and more.
With different features and packages, make sure you opt for a venue that fits your expectations. Every Bali wedding venue boasts a stunning backdrop, however, it's best to consider a plan B in case of bad weather. Some venues offer a back-up plan of their own.
Narrow down your options independently or get your wedding planner to assist the choosing and booking process. Each venue has different cancellation policies, therefore, it may be best to learn about each venue in full with your wedding planner.
Hotel Weddings
- Wedding venue and reception venue are all in one place. If you and your attendee stay there you are free from moving.
- When you plan the outdoor wedding you need plan B for the rainy day.
- Hotel provides wedding venue, food & beverages, and accommodation too.
- Some hotel have their own Wedding Planning Team.
- If not you need to hire Wedding Planner at your own.
- You have some choices of reception venue in hotel. The ballroom can be whole reserved while other venues may be not.
- You should consider in case of rain, if you wish to have your reception outdoor. Book the additional tent or relocate your reception to indoor ballroom.
- Some hotel does not allow you to bring vendors and/or equipment from outside but you should use the hotel facilities. You may feel some inconvenient with this.
- Total expenses of wedding may be higher than other venue category.
Villa Weddings
- Wedding venue and reception venue are all in one place. You and your attendee are free from moving.
- Since villa wedding is mostly the outdoor wedding you need plan B for the rainy day. Check the villa where will be your back up venue.
- Normally Villa only provides venues and facilities.
- You need to arrange other than venues by own, therefore it's essential to hire Wedding Planner at your own.
- You can choose Wedding Planner as you like.
- Since you book the whole areas of villa, you can experience the real private.
- If you plan to have your wedding and/or reception outdoor you should have a back up plan for the rainy day like prepare the tent or any other.
- You can freely bring vendors and/or equipment as you like.
- Since reception food & beverage will be catered by any catering vendor, and no professional kitchen is available at most private villa therefore the quality of food could be less superb than other venue category.
- May feel inconvenient with the small number of toilet for big number of attendee, also no toilet for disabled is available.
- Most villas have a minimum stay policy plus additional one night charge as the event fee.
- Total expenses of wedding may be higher than other venue category since you need to cater all from outside like wedding planner, food & beverage, etc.
Independent Wedding Venues
- Wedding venue and reception venue are all in one place. You and your attendee need the transportation for moving from/to where you stay.
- If you plan to have outdoor wedding and in case of rain, you still have the indoor wedding chapel as the back up venue. Exclusive Wedding Venue is perfectly prepared for any situation.
- Exclusive Wedding Venue offers everything from the venue, ceremony itself, and food & beverages too.
- Most Exclusive Wedding Venue includes Wedding Planning within their wedding services, which makes you don't have to shop around.
- If you wish you still can have additional Wedding Planner.
- The venue is most likely exclusive use for your wedding and it makes you feel the great private.
- Exclusive Wedding Venue is perfectly prepared for any situation, when you plan the outdoor reception and in case of rain, they have indoor reception venue as the back up.
- As no accommodation is included you can choose your place to stay according to your preference and the budget.
- Since the Exclusive Wedding Venue have and offer almost everything you need, you don't need to cater things from outside and it slims your expenses down.
What does the Wedding Planner do?
Wedding Planner serves you and your attendee variously on the Day as follows:
- Make the planning and arrangement of the Wedding/Reception Venue which fits your wish.
- Make the planning and arrangement of the Ceremony Type, Venue Decorations which fits your wish.
- Make the planning and arrangement of the Food & Beverages, Entertainment Program for your reception.
- Make the planning and arrangement of the best vendors such as Photographer or Hair & Make Up Artist.
- Arrange the transportation for the Day.
- Create the time table for you, your attendee, and the staff on the Day.
- Cost management for everything related to your wedding.
How to choose the best Wedding Planner?
It is no doubt that whether or not you can select the best Wedding Planner is the most important key to success in your Bali Wedding. You should list some candidates by carefully research the SNS or their website, then contact them personally to know who is the best for you. Here is the check list for you to choose the best Wedding Planner.
- Check the range of their services; Do they serve you on the Day only? Or help you to arrange the accommodation and/or transportation for whole your time in Bali?
- Check their ability of accurate suggestion to your requests.
- Check their flexibility of acceptance your requests.
- Check their promptness of reply to your inquiry.
- Check whether they direct your event on site on the Day by him/herself.
- Check whether they have the trustable plan B in case of the rain.
- Check whether the quotation is accurate and no any unclear expenses is included.
Venue Decoration and Food & Beverages
Once you decide your Wedding Venue and Wedding Planner, the next step is to fix the Venue Decoration and/or Food & Beverages by consulting with your Wedding Planner. Both decoration and food & beverages are important items to make your dream wedding comes true.
You also need to discuss well the plan B in case of the rain. If you or your attendee need any special arrangement of the food like halal food or vegan food, ask your Wedding Planner to work on.
You may also need the transportation arrangement for your attendee to/from the Wedding Venue. Just consult your Wedding Planner to help you.
How to choose the best Vendors?
Select vendors are as important as the decoration or food & beverages. You don't want to miss any of Photographer, Videographer, and Hair & Make Up for sure. There are many selections of those in Bali, which makes you hard to choose. Together with your Wedding Planner you can check each vendors' website or SNS to narrow down and find the best one for you.
There are various entertainment you can add on your event like MC, band, DJ, Balinese traditional dance, and fireworks etc. For the reception with 50 guests or more MC is highly recommended for the flawless and exciting event. As some venues are not allowed Balinese dance or fireworks, just check with your Wedding Planner.
The Day
All the preparation are done? This is it, the Day!
Most Bali destination weddings have the rehearsal of the ceremony and the technical meeting with the wedding team 2 days prior to the Day. This is very important to make your Day success.
On the Day, your Wedding Planner will run the event along the timeline he/she made. It is important that Two of you enjoy the wedding and reception with your attendee but rely everything on your Wedding Planner to do for you. He/she will fully support you throughout the Day. This is why you should have the good Wedding Planner for your Day to make your dream Bali Wedding happen.
