My wedding plans started in February 2013. I was visiting my boyfriend in Southeast England and had been there for several months at that point. One day, after discussing how difficult it was to fly back and forth and how we'd need to make a decision, we decided to move forward and get married.

My visa was going to run out in a few months, so we decided to have a quick wedding at the local registrar. Doing this gave me time to leave and head back to America following the wedding while I waited for my residential visa. It took a few months to come, but going through the process in the way we did, I didn't ever need a fiancé visa. This is important, since I was planning on living in England; each visa you buy costs a small fortune. Mine was around $1,400 to $1,600 for a residency visa, which is required if you want to live in the country and work toward citizenship.

A typical visitor's visa lasts six months, and anyone can get it. If you choose to get married while you're visiting the area, you don't need a fiancé visa. If you are living in separate countries and want to get married but have already used up your visitor's time, you'll need to apply for the fiancé visa and a residency visa following the wedding. By taking the steps the way we did, I saved around $1,500 in fees for the extra visa. After getting married, I had to return to the United States while waiting for the residency visa because you have to exit and re-enter the country to become a resident; my time on my visitor's visa had run out at that point.

The most challenging aspect of the destination wedding included the fact that my family was overseas. We decided to have the wedding in England, so that meant that my family had fairly short notice to plan for flights and time off work. We had already decided to have the wedding approximately seven weeks from the time of our engagement. Neither of us were too bothered about having a long engagement.

That did cause some trouble, though, because flights can be very expensive as you approach the day that you want to leave. With only around six weeks of notice, flights to the United Kingdom were easily more than $2,000 a person. If you can give your guests a few months' notice, the flight costs can be much, much lower.

As for the wedding itself, we had to struggle with the idea I had of a big American wedding versus the traditional U.K. wedding. In England, weddings seem less extravagant on the whole; in America, catering, the dress, the venue, and all the decorations would have cost thousands of dollars. Here, it added up to a little under $3,000 total. It was underwhelming. Bridal stores didn't pump me up and make me feel like this was special; instead, I was just buying a dress — the pomp and excitement of the wedding is a very American trait. If you want to have a very girly, exciting, pumped-up feel to your wedding in the United Kingdom, either head to a big city like London, where there are well-known bridal chains, or prepare to bring in your family and friends early.

Not having the excitement around the wedding did make it much easier to just plan it in a straightforward fashion, but I never did get swept away in the fuss the way you would in the United States. To help get a little more satisfaction out of the process, I updated my social media pretty often, so my friends could see my dress choices and accessories.

We had around 50 guests, most of whom were from my husband's family, and my mom and dad flew in. I had to decide if I wanted to invite my entire family or not; my choice was to invite only my immediate family and to then hold a reception in the United States later.

There were a few struggles with trying to plan a wedding in the United Kingdom versus in America. There are fewer photographers who I would consider to be at a professional level, dress stores are not common and are overpriced on the whole, and while our cake was amazing, it had to be made specially and privately at a fair expense. In the United States, everything is commercialized, whereas in the United Kingdom, a lot of the things we did were specialized. This comes at a cost, and the exchange rate is poor; the U.S. dollar is currently worth only 65 pence. Imagine paying close to double for everything you want or need.

If I could redo my wedding, I would change a lot. I would research the venue much further before deciding on the catering, for one thing; food is different here, and my American parents struggled with the food options (in my opinion). To people who aren't familiar with British food, it can be very heavy; lots of creams, cheeses, and butter are always in the mix. There are a few options for dealing with this. Either choose to hire someone who can cater to American tastes (this is rare), or prepare to request specialty dishes by providing recipes.

For instance, I made sure our menu had mix-and-match sandwiches along with the sausages and traditional English dishes. That way, no one had to go without something they could eat comfortably. You may also consider French cuisine, as it's more similar to American tastes, in my opinion. American food such as burgers, fries, steaks and even ice cream tastes different in the United Kingdom, so even if you order something that appears American, it may not taste the same. Prepare to taste-test everything before the big day.

When my parents came into town, they stayed at the venue where our reception was going to be held. The TV didn't work well, there was no private room phone, and temperatures in hotels and rooms tend to be colder in England. I would advise warning your guests about things like this. I was so used to the differences at that point that I didn't think to tell them about bringing extra blankets or having woolen clothing during the spring. Simple things like U.K.-to-U.S. plug adapters are also vital, so they need to be provided to your guests.

After planning the wedding, it was easy to see how it could have been improved. It was a much more family-oriented event without the commercial feel of American weddings. However, England has a lot of great florists, wedding shops, and caterers that I could have used had I researched more thoroughly and took more time to plan the wedding. I was already in the country, but I didn't know it well enough to make those decisions yet. Getting a planner for a destination wedding is something I would definitely advise.