Plan your Peru Wedding with Us!
Why Magical?
If you are thinking about getting married in Peru or have decided already, choosing your Wedding Planner is a very important decision to ensure a magical experience. Magical, in addition to being a company that specializes in high quality tours to Peru, we also have extensive experience in planning weddings in Peru as we planned our own wedding on December 2002 here in Lima. We had over a hundred people join us from all over the world and we took over 50 people to Cuzco as part of our wedding week. Every one of our guests had a terrific time. Since then, we have planned trips for other couples getting married in Peru. We have the experience—from planning weddings, to helping you through the planning process, ensuring your big day is a success. Beyond simply getting you a good rate for travel, it’s the experience planning that sets us apart from others. From helping you arrange all the details for your special day, to making sure the most important people in your life can join in on your celebration, we work extremely hard to make sure no detail is overlooked. In addition to our travel specialists, we have an in-house person, in charge of all the other details of the wedding (reception, welcome packages, photographer, flowers, etc).
Considering a Wedding in Peru? Important Facts:
Start Early: Peruvian Weddings take considerable planning and research, and the best properties & accommodations are often booked far in advance of the wedding date. The earlier you begin planning your wedding, the greater the likelihood you will be able to book the perfect property for you and your guests.
Where? The most popular wedding destination is Lima, but many people prefer other cities such as Cusco, Arequipa, and Puno.
Guest Travel Before/After the Wedding: Most people coming to your Peruvian wedding will want to visit MachuPicchu and other sites in Peru, so part of our job is to arrange a pre or post wedding tour for your guests. In addition, we can arrange extension tours for those looking into extending their stay to other destinations and create a separate itinerary for EACH of your guests.
Events around Wedding day: As your guests will travel to Peru for your wedding, you will probably want to organize some events around your wedding day, maybe a city tour of lima, a rehearsal dinner, visit to interesting sites, cooking classes, brunch after the wedding, etc. We will take care of all the arrangements and help with all the activities that you would like to include on your wedding week.
Language and Traditions: Peru is a Spanish speaking country. You will have to decide if you would like your wedding in Spanish, English, or another language. You also need to decide on which Peruvian traditions you would like to incorporate in your wedding. Being a Peruvian-American company gives us a very special knowledge of both cultures. We are familiar with both cultures and will understand what you will need and help you match your expectations to Peru’s ways of doing things, especially if you have Peruvian guests.
Different Religions and Traditions: We also have unique experience working with mixed religions. We have helped many couples with many religious affiliations to organize their wedding based on their special requirements. For instance, we have helped incorporating Jewish traditions in a Jewish-catholic wedding; we have helped Jewish couples getting married in Peru and organized a wedding reception that was completely kosher. For other more adventurous couples, we have helped with “Shamanic Weddings” and “Andean weddings” in very special and unique locations.
How do we get started?
Please contact us at specialtours@magicalcuzcotours.com or call us at 703-822-5312. We will start with an initial conversation about your Dream Wedding and we can give you more details about how to proceed. We will assign you with a Wedding Specialist who will work directly with you to plan your wedding travel for you and your guests and all the details necessary for your worry-free wedding in Peru. You can also choose to work with our “in-house” wedding planner to help you perfect the details of your ceremony and reception. Through the many successful weddings we have planned over the years, we have learned that Peru is a unique destination and there are many ideas that could be included on your dream wedding. This requires special effort from our wedding specialist team to research unique activities, especially if you like to try a new venue or a special activity or location.
Wedding Planning Process
- You get engaged – Congratulations!
- You and your fiancé start to realize that instead of paying so much money for a traditional wedding, you can create a truly unique experience that you will remember forever by inviting your friends and family to a wedding in Peru. A wedding in Peru can save you significant amount of money while turning your wedding day into an unforgettable “mini-vacation” for you and your guests or as many of our couples have mentioned “here in Peru you could afford a “princess-like” affair for the same amount of money you would have spent back home,”or one of you is Peruvian and want to show your international guests your unique culture.
- You have called us to get more information and you trust we will do a great job with your wedding in Peru
- You decide to hire us to Plan your wedding and/or related tours for your guests
- We assign a Wedding specialist that will work with you and your fiancé to pick the exact location, offers the best travel packages for you and your guests, and coordinates with you and an on-site wedding coordinator to arrange the ceremony and reception. You can choose any Travel package from our site or we will create a customize one for your group.
- You will decide if you will travel with your guests. If you want to take this option, we recommend a tour after the wedding. We usually like to call this package: “Chapperoned Honey Moon”
- Once the plans are finalized, you and your Wedding Specialist will set up your personalized wedding website (free to you and your fiancé), which will have event information, travel information, ways for your guests to contact your Weddings specialist, and information on you and your fiancé as a couple. You will then use the website to get all necessary information to your guests so they have time to make plans to attend.
- You and your guests book their travel packages with your specialist, and everybody that you want to be there arrives as planned. We will work with each of your guest if they want to alter the original itinerary and or add any extension trips.
- Your wedding ceremony is exactly what you wanted, in the place you wanted, with all the details you discussed before you came.?
- You and your guests leave Peru with life-long memories of your one-of-a-kind Wedding celebration.
- When you return, you can post pictures of your celebration on your website, so your guests that could not make it can enjoy the events, and those that attended can relive the great memories!
Examples of Details we will arrange for you
Wedding Events—We will help you sort through the wedding venues, and options for your ceremony and party as well as options for your rehearsal dinner or other pre-wedding events you may want to host.
RSVP & Individual Assistance to each Guest—We will provide help with your guest list being in charge of the RSVP for your wedding. They will contact us letting us know when they will be coming, which hotel they will be staying, number of people, etc. We will sort everything out for you and provide weekly reports on each of your guests. We will of course assist each of your guests in their individual needs.
Transportation: Airport Pickups & Transportation to/from wedding related events
Hotel: We help you pick the hotel for them and their guests (which usually depend on the price, location in relation to their relative’s house in Lima if you have family there or the events plan before/after the wedding). We recommend you pick a hotel as a “base of operations”. This way, all the transportation would leave from that hotel to the different events. This makes things easier for everyone (no guests lost or late). However, we sometimes offer a second or third cheaper or more expensive option as well, in case there is someone interested in those options. This information is usually included in the “Save the date” that the bride & groom send out.
Save the Date — In the US, the bride & groom send a letter to their guests where they explain all the details related to your wedding: where to stay (they usually have already a hotel of choice in which they have a preferred rate) and include time and location of all related events so the guests can plan accordingly. We help you to put this together since usually this document includes the information on the trip to Cuzco and other destinations if chosen in there. We can either print this for you in Magical Stationery, or you can have them print it themselves in regular paper or special stationery.
Trip to Cuzco & Other destinations — Depending on what you like to organize for your guests, we customize a trip for your guests. We usually recommend you choose a standard trip as a base trip (let’s say a 4 day-3 nights in Cuzco). However, if any of the guest(s) wishes to make changes, we can work with them independently and customize it.
One-to-one Assistance to the guests — We work with each of the guests on their reservations. We assign one person from our team to manage the details and he/she personally customizes tours if needed. The “Save the date” is sent by you but includes OUR contact information, so the guests contact us directly. (So you don’t have to worry about answering several people and getting worried about several small details that we can solve.) We have been doing weddings for more than 9 years now and we have experience with many different situations–We will of course keep you in the loop.
Transportation to Events & Lima Package — In addition to the tour to Cuzco, we will also transport your guests to the different events during the wedding week, as well as the hotel nights and any other dinner or city tour that you choose to include. Based on our experience, this is the best way to do it (pick a date in which you think your guests will arrive and create a Lima Package.) If some guests arrive earlier or later, we can customize it one-to-one accordingly. Including this, frees your guests of having to take taxis, which most of the time, are not the best in Lima, and guarantees everyone is on time at all events.
Credit Card Payment — As you know, our company is based in the US (however with offices in Lima), so we have the ability to accept credit cards and process them in the US. This also gives our clients “peace of mind” in not having to send money to an unidentified account in Peru.
800 number—We have an 800 – number and US numbers so your guests can contact us without having to make an international call. Your guests can call our Operations team and to the person in charge of the wedding.
International Tickets—We can also help them with quotes for your international tickets if you prefer.
Professional Wedding Travel Assistance — A dedicated Peru Wedding specialist with years of experience planning successful Peru Weddings.
Packages for you AND your guests —Your Peru Wedding specialist will work with airlines and hotels to offer the best packages for you, your fiancé, AND your guests.
24×7 Emergency Support —To ensure your wedding travel goes off without a hitch
Complimentary Wedding Website —Fully featured, with photo capabilities, to help you properly announce your Special Day to your family and friends
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What exactly is a Destination Wedding? When a couple decides that they want to exchange their vows and celebrate their love in a dream location that they and their guests will have to travel to, they are deciding on a Destination Wedding. The entire wedding party will travel to the destination and enjoy a long weekend – or an entire week – and be on vacation while attending the wedding. In Peru, especially, guests would want to visit Machu Picchu, considered one of the 7 wonders of the world.
2. Why plan a Peru Wedding? There are many reasons to choose Peru as a wedding destination. Many couples look for a wedding in Peru as a way to have a unique and memorable wedding experience. Often, when looking at a guest list, many people will have to travel from far away states or countries. A Peru Wedding allows them to travel somewhere exotic and fabulous, where they can also enjoy an unforgettable vacation; as opposed to asking guests to book a flight and hotel in a less exciting hometown. Some couples are in love with Peru and want to spend the most special day of their lives there. More couples decide to choose Peru as they are from different areas of the country, and do not want to decide against one hometown for another, so they opt to go to a location that will, from now on, be somewhere special to each of them. One of the most common reasons to choose a Peru Wedding is to save money. Peru Weddings often allow couples to save a significant amount of money versus a traditional wedding! (or have a royal, princess-like wedding for the same money you would spend at your local holiday inn.) Most importantly, the most common of our couples are mixed couples, in which one of them is actually Peruvian and they want their guest to share his/her special background and meet his/her family.
3. Who are you as a company? Magical Cusco Tours is a US-Peruvian company, with expertise in unique special tours. A wedding in Peru is how our company started; Wendy and Brian spent so much time organizing their wedding that every detail was organized to the detail that decided to create the company!
4. Why book your Peru Wedding with Magical Cusco Tours? Magical Cusco tours offers a full service “one stop shopping” approach which has one goal in mind – to make the planning and coordination of your Peru Wedding as simple and stress-free as possible. Peru Weddings are different from typical weddings and honeymoons, and therefore require the planning of an experienced travel agent–a Peru Wedding Specialist. Furthermore, Magical Cusco tours, offers a complimentary wedding website to its couples. The site helps organize and get the word out to guests, and serves as an interactive community for you, your guests, and your Peru Wedding Specialist.
5. How much experience do your specialists have? Our Peru Wedding Specialists are Peruvian with extensive experience working with international couples, so they will understand your customs, beliefs and religious backgrounds. We are in the business of planning successful Peru Weddings and take that seriously (and have fun doing it).
6. What are your fees? We charge a fee for organize your wedding that includes all the services listed above. Basically, we will take care of all the details and make sure you get your dream wedding. Please note that all our fees are in included in this one time fee and we do not take commission from the suppliers we will use for your wedding.
7. How will I communicate with my Peru Wedding Specialist? An event as important as your Peru Wedding takes a lot of coordination and planning. In the beginning stages, your Peru Wedding Specialist will want to speak via phone so they can get to know you and your fiancé. We have an 800 number in the us and direct lines. Once the planning gets moving, email is a great way to exchange information and work out the details. Our Specialists have been quoted as saying that they consider themselves the “surrogate mother/father of the bride”, and they enjoy being part of the planning process for such a special event. Why would you want to have a Specialist who isn’t excited about your planning?
8. How far in advance should I plan my Peru Wedding? This really varies. Some major factors are: how many guests are going to be invited, which month you picked for your wedding (Peru has high/low season months). For a traditional wedding, a month or two is acceptable notice for “Save the Date” cards. Peru Weddings however, involve travel arrangements, and therefore should be sent out at least 4-6 months in advance. This is to allow the guests to properly budget and plan for the trip, and to make sure that they are able to obtain reservations, especially international airfare.
9. Can I hire Magical to take care of the wedding details and have someone else organize the wedding? ABSOLUTELY. Many hotels have on-site wedding coordinators, who maintain reputable local vendor lists and can help organize your big day. If you already have someone that is helping you, we will be happy to help you with all the wedding related events and work with your wedding coordinator to make sure we are on the same page.
10. What are the legal requirements when getting married in Peru? This depends on the type of wedding that you like to do in Peru. Most international couples, get their married license in their country since they want to keep it simple for future paperwork requirements, and perform the ceremony in Peru. However, if you like to get legally married in Peru, our Wedding specialist will explain the requirements in detail. At this point, do not worry about the legalities; we can help you through that.
11. Do you have a list of locations that you work with? We can work with just about any hotel and location in Peru. Most couples get married in Lima as all international flights arrive there. However, more adventurous couples may prefer small towns like Cuzco or Arequipa.
12. Do you get the best prices for travel packages? All of our packages have competitive pricing and will always include best value services for each level you choose. Even when booking hostals, we will never book hotels or services that are not good and will only include the ones we recommend. It is sometimes hard to explain why one operator is more or less expensive than another. Magical Cusco Tours is not one of the cheaper operators in Peru. Our focus on service and the quality of our local partners, limits our ability to reduce our costs to the minimum as many of other operators do. We have determined that it is better not to cut corners and to assure that our clients are well taken care of during their stay in Peru. Furthermore, our “full service” approach to Peru Wedding planning and coordination sets us apart from the rest. We are unequaled in our offerings of a 24-hour, in-house staffed emergency travel assistance hotline, a free wedding web site great for communicating with your guests just to name a few.
13. I’m concerned about my guests being able to afford to come, what does a Peru wedding cost for the guests? And do we have to pay for our reservations in full right away? Because we customize every wedding to the unique dreams and needs of our couples, each wedding is different, as are the costs. All these costs are dependent upon many variables including, but not limited to, availability, hotel, time of year, etc. Specifically, for a Peru wedding, we need to consider: (1) International Flight fare, (2) Most guests will purchase a 2 or 3 night package for the wedding festivities; (3) Some will want to take the extension trip to Machu Picchu. So each guest’s budget will depend on the activities that each decides to do. Depending on how far in advance you organize your wedding, and send your “Save the date”, we can help your guests with their level of accommodations (you may have an uncle that wants a 5-star hotels and a cousin that needs a less expensive hostal) and can work with you and your guests setting a payment schedule.
14. Do you offer bilingual Peru Wedding Specialists? We offer English and Spanish speaking specialists to our couples. Also, if one of you is Peruvian, we will help coordinate with the local guests and family members.
15. “I know a travel agent in Peru that can do my wedding” Unless that travel agent has planned weddings in Peru, or weddings at all, you are taking a risk that your dream Wedding will not be the way you envisioned it. There are so many details to the planning – from getting the right hotels, to ensuring flights and other transportation are properly coordinated for all of your guests – that even one detail overlooked could turn your Big Day into less than the Wedding of your Dreams. Experience is the most important attribute that you should be looking for in your Peruvian Wedding planner. Have they “done a wedding in Peru before?” or are they used to working with the American/Canadian or European traditions? Do they know Peru, the right suppliers; do they have the right contacts? Going with proven performance and experience in planning weddings in Peru is the only way to ensure that your Wedding in Peru is a success.
16. “Why shouldn’t I just have my guests plan their own travel?” On the surface, it would seem like the easiest way for your guests to arrange travel would be to have them plan it on their own. Unfortunately, when guests are left to take this “everyone fends for themselves” approach to travel, you can miss out on some very important benefits that happen when you and your guests work together, not to mention they will end up calling you for suggestions anyway (especially if one of you is Peruvian). For Peruvian couples living abroad and culturally mixed (Peruvian-International) couples, we can work with your family members in Peru to coordinate the details of the wedding and incorporate the local guests to the celebration.
17. “Why shouldn’t I just do it all on my own?” Over the years, we have heard some amazing stories from clients who have decided to have a Wedding in Peru. Unfortunately, we have also heard quite a few horror stories over the years from brides and grooms who have decided to plan their weddings completely on their own. With the massive amount of details involved, it is very possible that – without expert help, a small detail can be overlooked and result in any one (or combination) of the wedding disasters that we have heard of: Paperwork Problems: Bride and groom don’t have necessary paperwork – it was a fun vacation, but not a marriage. Hotel Fiascos: Wedding Guests’ rooms were not reserved correctly, rate went up unexpectedly and those that couldn’t afford it were placed in a 2-star hotel on the other part of the city. Hidden Clauses: The hotel contract had a hidden attrition clause in it, where the bride and groom were responsible for any rooms not booked. The happy newlyweds were forced to pay for hotel reserved under their names. Guests left at the airport since transportation hired never showed to pick them up, guest were late for ceremony, etc.
18. “What you see is What you Get”: We’ve probably all been to a wedding where we booked a hotel that was very different than what we expected – the unit differed from the pictures, the location was inconvenient or subpar, the noise level was too high. By working with us, you can ensure that the accommodations you select & recommend to your guests have been “verified by a real person”, and are what they expect when they get there. The “In Hotel”: By working with you and us to book their hotel, guests can ensure that they are staying “where the action is” – ensuring that they spend their time sharing your special day with you and your fiancé.
