What to tell overseas guests
Published
Guests coming a long way will do exactly as much preparation as you make easy for them. One clear page, sent early, prevents most of what goes wrong.
An international guest list changes the shape of a wedding. It lengthens the lead time, it fixes the date earlier, and it transfers a quantity of admin onto people who are already spending a large sum to attend. The couples who handle it well do one thing: they publish a single source of truth and keep it current.
Send the date much earlier than feels normal
Long-haul guests are booking flights, leave from work and, frequently, a longer holiday around the wedding. Ten to twelve months of notice is not excessive; six is tight. Send a date-only notice as soon as the venue is confirmed, long before anything is designed.
Say in that first message whether the wedding is a single afternoon or spread across days, because it determines how much leave people book. If you are considering a multi-day format, guests need to know before they buy a ticket, not after.
Entry formalities: point, do not paraphrase
Requirements for entering South Africa depend on nationality, and they change. Do not summarise them yourself, and do not let a well-meaning family member do it either. Direct guests to the Department of Home Affairs and to the South African mission in their own country, and ask them to confirm their own position early.
What you can usefully say, because it applies broadly:
- Passport validity and blank pages. South Africa is known for being strict about both. Guests should check the expiry date and the number of unused pages months in advance, not the week before. A passport renewal takes longer than people expect.
- Onward or return travel. Have the booking to hand at check-in.
- Travellers with children. The documentation expected of minors entering South Africa has changed more than once, and families travelling with children — particularly where only one parent travels — should verify the current requirement directly rather than relying on advice from a previous trip.
- Yellow fever certificates for anyone arriving from or transiting a country where yellow fever is a risk. This is covered alongside the health questions in malaria risk and the Eastern Cape.
Getting here is two flights, not one
Most international guests will land at a major hub and connect onward. Domestic legs are short but infrequent, and a missed connection can cost a day rather than an hour.
Tell guests to arrive at least a full day before the wedding, and say it firmly. Then read flights and transfers yourself, because the transfer from the airport to a rural venue is usually the part nobody has organised.
Driving
Guests who intend to hire a car should know three things: South Africa drives on the left; many hire agreements and traffic authorities expect a licence in English or an accompanying international permit; and the road conditions to a rural venue are not the road conditions on the highway.
Warn them specifically about night driving and about unlit gravel roads. Distances, roads and driving is written to be forwarded to guests wholesale.
Money
Say what currency everything is in, and say it once. Guests will otherwise convert prices badly in both directions.
Useful things to tell them: cards are widely accepted in towns and much less so at a rural stall or a small guesthouse; some cash is worth carrying; and airport currency exchange is rarely the best rate available. If you are the one paying suppliers from a foreign account, budgeting across a currency covers the part that affects you rather than them.
The unglamorous practicalities
These are the details guests thank you for.
- Plugs. South Africa's mains plug standard is unlike almost anywhere else, and a European or British adapter frequently will not fit. Tell guests to buy a South African adapter before they travel rather than hunting for one on arrival.
- Power cuts. Explain load shedding in two sentences so that a scheduled outage at a guesthouse does not read as a crisis. The power guide is the longer version.
- Signal. Coverage at a rural venue may be poor or absent. A local prepaid SIM is inexpensive and solves a great deal; mobile coverage and the backup plan explains why it matters on the day.
- Weather. Northern-hemisphere guests reliably misjudge the southern seasons. Say the month, say the season, say what it means for clothing, and mention that evenings inland get considerably colder than the afternoon suggested. The seasons guide has the shape of the year.
- Wind. Tell people. Hats, hair, light dresses and heels on sand are all decisions guests would make differently if warned. Wind, and what it quietly rules out explains why it is not a small detail here.
- Travel insurance, which for a remote venue is worth more than usual.
One page, one owner, one link
Put all of it on a single page and send the same link every time. Update it in place rather than issuing corrections. Nominate one person — not the couple — who answers guest questions in the fortnight before the wedding, and publish their contact details.
Guests who have been told everything once will not ask you twice. That is the entire objective.