The TTG Top 50 agency, part of the Pure Destinations Travel group, said the launch of its Beach Weddings operation came off the back of a surge in bookings for overseas weddings over the past year, particularly in south-east Asia.

Beach Weddings will specialise in European, Caribbean and Indian Ocean wedding packages, offering secular and religious weddings, as well as other services such as vow renewals and blessings.

“We are so excited to launch Beach Weddings,” said group managing director Lakh Hayer. “We wanted to bring a fresh brand to the weddings abroad market [as] we felt there is a gap in the market in large group weddings abroad.

“There is huge demand, particularly in the Asian wedding sector, where the numbers of guests start from 120 people with an average wedding cost of £150,000. We hope to push beyond £1 million sales in the first year.

“Each of our brands have a lot of experience in booking weddings abroad and we have seen a real increase in this over the past 12 months. There is so much that goes into these weddings, with all the legalities of the destinations and wedding packages at each resort. We really felt we needed to create a specialist agency because it is such a specialist product.”

Beach Weddings clients will also be able to take advantage of a wedding gift list service, concierge service and client rewards club.

The brand will also be supported by the group’s marketing, after sales, operations and finance departments, with all Beach Weddings bookings protected under the group’s Atol and Abta bonding.

Head of operations Caralyn Overs added with the average cost of UK weddings now in excess of £30,000, it was the perfect time to enter the overseas wedding market and put the business’s “many years of combined experience" into a new brand.