How did you pick your destination for your DW?

Newbie33

My friend is currently looking (for a May 2010 wedding). She'd like something that isn't too touristy / Americanized, not overly expensive (one of the reasons they are doing DW is cost) and beachy.

Besides the DW bio, I just don't know where to start helping her look and everyone on The Nest says to pick your destination first!

Thanks!

captainleela

I would suggest she look into the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and maybe Turks and Caicos. It's just going to take a LOT of googling and narrowing down...looking at a ton of different locations can be overwhelming, but it will also help her start forming a more solid idea about what she wants/doesn't want in a location. Have her look at people's bios and write down their location/resort, then google it and cross it off the list if it doesn't look right. That's what I did...I kept lists and lists of locations to look into....going through the list one by one helped me narrow it down.

sweetcatastrophe

it's definitely super overwhelming at first, but approaching it systematically is definitely the way to go. all we knew when we started was that we wanted a tropical location in the caribbean that was reasonably priced for both airfare and hotel. we also knew which locations we didn't want, mostly ones that we had been to before. i would have google maps open to the "Caribbean" and pick an island and go to Kayak for the dates we wanted. if flight was over x dollars for those days, i crossed it off. if it was under x dollars, i looked at 3-4 websites for wedding packages and decided if i thought those were reasonably priced. i also read reviews of the hotels with wedding packages to decide if i would want to stay there. lists are definitely the way to go!

we chose Aruba because we've only been there on a cruise and it was so beautiful. we wanted to go back and there are options priced within our budget. we were able to find a wedding planner that has been super helpful so far.

ToBeMrs.O2011

Picking the destination is the hardest part -- it took us 9 months and we finally decided on Key West because we didn't want to travel out of the country. 

I wouldn't suggest Turks & Caicos if budget is a major concern.  We vacationed there in November and found that it was very expensive (compared to other islands) in almost all aspects of the vacation.  If you do look into it, I wish you luck because it is gorgeous and would be amazing for a wedding!!

FutureMrs.McC

Everyone else gave great advice.  I just wanted to add, she needs to move quickly.  If they don't have passports, they should apply ASAP and get out of the way.  Most destinations operate on "island" time and she doesn't have much to spare.  Good luck to them.  I would be incredibly stressed planning with only 2 months.

dew3162

The good thing about St. Thomas, no passports needed