Tips for Planning a Destination Wedding

You’ve decided to get married and forgo the traditional getting married at home wedding. A destination wedding can be a great vacation, a wonderful experience bonding two families together, and a great way to celebrate your wedding with those you love. Here are some tips to pull off a flawless destination wedding!

1.Pick a Place that Fits You. Choose a location that has some meaning to you, is within your budget, and that will best match what you want your ideal wedding to be. If you want to get married somewhere exotic or far away, plan for a much smaller wedding since you can’t assume everyone will be able to spend the money and the vacation days to attend. People do love a destination wedding, especially at a beach, since they can use as a nice vacation too, but not too many of your guests will be able to fly to Fiji.

2. If you plan to have your wedding at a hotel or a resort, make sure you check out the venue as well as the hotel amenities, room prices, group discounts, and activities for your guests. If you plan on inviting guests from far away, you want them to get a deal and have a good time too.

3. Don’t factor in your guests cost for travel in your budget. Guests should pay all their own expenses — it helps if you insist they not buy you gifts, and ask your travel agent or wedding coordinator about group discounts on air and hotels. Sometimes offering to cover the room bill for your bridal party is acceptable, but not necessary.

4. Start Early. Unless you’re doing a drive-through in Vegas, start researching and planning your destination wedding as soon as possible. Not only do you have to reserve your venue, but vendors also fill up quickly for prime seasons and days.

5. Ask as many questions as you can. No question is stupid and you’ll never know unless you ask. Write your questions down and ask them all when you meet or speak with your event coordinator. Even the most common sense questions will help you feel more at ease when the big day gets close. Also, the closer you get to your wedding day the more people will start asking you questions, and it’s always good to have an answer for them.

6. Be a little flexible, you may want a long veil, a six-foot train, or white doves to be released as you say I do, but some things may not be practical for your big day. A long veil will get caught in the wind, a long train will be heavy dragging on the sand, and who wants the threat of birds who have been cooped up in a cage all day released over your guests. Your vendors and planners have been through all of this before and they know what works and what does not. That doesn’t mean that if you really want something that it can’t be done.

7. Work with local vendors when possible. You may have a cousin who is pretty good with a camera or an Aunt who makes cakes, but these people are going to a new destination where they may not know what angles work the best for sunsets and traveling very long distances with a cake in the trunk is incredibly nerve wracking. The vendors your coordinator recommends have more than likely done numerous weddings similar to yours and know what works.

8.Consider your guests and place a gift basket in each room that is full of essentials for the trip (suntan lotion, bug spray, etc.) and goodies that will make the trip easier for them, snacks, bottled water, a map of the area and maybe a good restaurant or two.

9. Plan to get to the destination a few days before the wedding to make sure everything is covered, greet your guests, and to nail down any final details. This may help you recover from the trip there if you are coming a long distance.