Why you want to get married in the Netherlands

This weekend I have a wedding abroad and honestly: incredibly romantic. But for all the guests, it's quite a challenge.

Flights, tickets, hotels, babysitters... Three hours at Schiphol and four hours flying and taxis and checking in and phew. It's quite a lot. It costs you a whole weekend right away. Research shows that most Dutch people want to get married in the United States, the Dutch Antilles, and Italy when they choose an exotic location that cannot be found in the Netherlands. Most marriages of Dutch people are concluded in Turkey or Morocco, in addition to our own country. This is because one of the two partners often has family living there. Well, that's a reason for a wedding overseas. But it's also true that people who say yes outside the borders do this to show how much money they have. A bit of bragging. Showing off. Not the best start to your married life right? It happens.

We decided for a few reasons just to get married in the Netherlands and honestly? I'm still happy about it. It was thirty degrees and it really looked a lot like southern France, but then just half an hour's drive from at home. Saves you a lot of flights and airports and waiting that day after your wedding, when you're hungover and exhausted.

Even more reasons to say ‘I do’ close to home sweet home:

• A lot easier for all your dear friends and family. So: you can celebrate it bigger and invite more people. It's fun, nice and grand, deliciously over the top.
• You worry less about nice weather, so you're less disappointed when it's pouring rain in Holland than when you have a thunderstorm on your wedding day in Tuscany. Because believe us: they also have bad weather in the Algarve. Or in Ibiza.
• You can plan a wonderful faraway honeymoon afterwards. Otherwise, your visit to this other country is your vacation, of course. If you get married in Holland, you still have that holiday for just the two of you. Such a nice prospect.
• You can plan it better. No wedding planner who you can't understand or who organizes everything with their own traditions from the country while you're not waiting for that. You can also visit your location more easily to figure out exactly where you want those flowers to be. Saves stress, a lot of stress. Because you know every detail now.
• The most fun part maybe: you can go back to your wedding location very often. From now on, I will go every year with my man on May 26 to eat and sleep and drink wine and reflect and kiss at Parc Broekhuizen. Even if it falls on an ordinary Monday: that is our anniversary and we celebrate it at the place where it all once happened. Where we once promised each other that ‘yes’. It's a bit tricky and a tad more expensive if you have to move to Bonaire every year.

Convinced? Go ahead, defy that Dutch glory. And if you're lucky, the sun will shine as well. Choose the month of May, guys. Really.