Located in Western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Asheville is a beautiful city filled with historic architecture, a lively art and music scene, plenty of outdoor activities, scenic drives and a fantastic food and beverage community. With so many wonderful opportunities, Asheville has quickly become one of the most popular cities for a destination wedding. With plenty of experience planning Asheville weddings and elopements, we have some advice for couples looking to get married in North Carolina, specifically Asheville. We’ll go over everything you need to know including legal logistics of getting married in North Carolina to choosing the perfect venue and the perfect experiences for your wedding guests. Let’s get started!
Legal Logistics
For couples who are not from North Carolina, local marriage laws can be a bit confusing. We have broken down all the legal steps and provided you with the resources you need to make sure that your marriage is official.
Find an Ordained Officiant to Perform the Ceremony
Obtain a Marriage License
Properly Return the Marriage License
Meet North Carolina Ceremony Requirements
Here is a Detailed Post on How to Legally Get Married in North Carolina
Choose a Time and Place
With a range of wedding venues in Asheville, the possibilities are endless! It may seem difficult to decide on the right venue for your day, but we’ve highlighted some of our favorite Asheville wedding venues here.
There are a few things to consider when choosing the right venue for you!
Budget
Guest Count
Ease of Access
Look and Feel
Although Asheville is great all year round (okay, we may be a bit biased), we do have a few favorite times of the year for weddings! And as the seasons change, the ideal ceremony time will change with it. The ideal time to get married is while it is still light out and thus gives an opportunity for a beautiful outdoor ceremony.
Here is a detailed post on Choosing a Time and Place for Your Asheville Wedding!
Asheville Elopements
Thinking about eloping in Asheville? Why not! With so many romantic, natural settings around the city, Asheville is one of the best locations for an elopement.
All of the marriage laws mentioned above still apply for elopements. You need an ordained officiant, a marriage license and two witnesses present for the ceremony.
Three vendors most often booked for elopements are: officiant, florist and photographer.
Some couples elope and rent a home to spend time with close friends and family or host a dinner downtown.
Looking for more information on planning an Asheville elopement? Check out this post!
Average Cost of an Asheville Wedding
The cost of a wedding depends on many factors including, but not limited to, your guest count, venue location, travel costs, and more. Each wedding is unique to the couple and thus, so is the budget! However, on average, most of our couples spend around $30,000 on a wedding with a guest count of 100 - 150. That averages to around $240/person. This includes everything from save the dates/invitations to wedding favors and cake Again, this is completely different for each wedding. There is no “right” amount to spend.
You should always start with a reasonable budget. Do not overextend your finances and keep in mind that there are more wedding costs to follow after you have paid deposits during the early stages of planning.
Here is a detailed post of an Asheville Wedding Cost Breakdown. This post will cover average vendor costs for an Asheville wedding, a breakdown of the best way to delegate your budget and quick tips and tricks to stay organized and stay within budget!
Chat with your wedding planner about the best strategies to stay within budget. And if you find yourself completely overwhelmed or confused on how to designate certain percentages of your budget to certain resources, take a look at our full service package or ask about a custom package to help us guide you through the financial logistics and process of planning a wedding.
Asheville Wedding Guest Experience
For most couples, planning an Asheville wedding is planning a destination wedding. And so, many guests are traveling to Asheville from out of town and for some it may be their first visit to this amazing city! There are a few things you and your fiance can do to make their experience even more memorable.
Provide fun Asheville souvenirs as wedding favors
Suggest fun activities for guests to enjoy Asheville during your wedding weekend
Create a wedding website
Send out save the dates
Reserve hotel room blocks
Here is a detailed post on Five Ways to Give Your Asheville Wedding Guests the Best Experience!
Stress-Free Wedding Planning
At Carolina Love Events, our intention is to make wedding planning stress-free and fun! We like to team up with couples who are interested in making intentional planning decisions to ensure their wedding day is a reflection of them as a couple. While each planning process is unique to couples, we wanted to offer a few tips on how to make wedding planning as easy as possible.
Some things to keep in mind to create your wedding planning experience as stress-free as possible:
Choose experienced vendors
Create a planning timeline and checklist
Start with a reasonable budget
Make the most of it!
Here is a detailed post on Planning a Stress-Free Asheville Wedding!
With all of these details, keep in mind your first step in wedding planning is securing a venue and date. With our full service wedding planning package, we are happy to assist in researching the perfect venue for your wedding so we can secure a date and begin the wedding planning process! You can read all about the different packages we offer here! Let’s get started and work together to make your dream North Carolina wedding come to life!
