Destination wedding

carol1980

Got engaged 10 days ago and planning on getting married in puerto plata, dominican republic.  how far in advance do I send the save the dates?  We only want 20 guests, how do I go about inviting some but not all of our friends without hurting their feelings.  My fiance is a fireman and there are about 50 guys at the firehouse and he can't invite one and not the rest.  But we cant afford to have them all!

Is it okay not to have a cocktail hour and go from the ceremony to the reception or is that tacky? 

bethsmiles

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_just-engaged-proposals_destination-wedding?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:683Discussion:6ce71f32-f6dc-4941-ae8b-6f7448c4e9a4Post:02965798-4e9d-4aab-95a4-23c8ebc57ecc">Destination wedding</a>:
[QUOTE]Got engaged 10 days ago and planning on getting married in puerto plata, dominican republic.
<strong>Congrats on your new engagement!</strong>
 how far in advance do I send the save the dates? 
<strong>I've heard 8 - 6 months. Personally, I would say 8 for a destination wedding so people can plan.</strong>
We only want 20 guests, how do I go about inviting some but not all of our friends without hurting their feelings.  My fiance is a fireman and there are about 50 guys at the firehouse and he can't invite one and not the rest.  But we cant afford to have them all!
<strong>Just tell them you are having a small intimate wedding and unfortunatly you can't invite everyone that you care about. Also since your FI is a fireman and I assume he is close to the guys at the firehouse you consider having a get together sometime after the honeymoon not anything real formal just a change to celebrate with friends who weren't at the wedding.</strong>
Is it okay not to have a cocktail hour and go from the ceremony to the reception or is that tacky?
<strong>As long as you and your FI go from the cermony to the reception as well its not a problem. If you want to do pictures between the ceremony and reception you need to have something for your guests to do.</strong>
Posted by carol1980[/QUOTE]

mondovna

I've even heard of ladies sending out STD's a full year in advance. I say the more time you can give them, the better. 

I don't know if you've been to the Domincan Republic before. I haven't, but I have heard of people taking their honeymoon there. The one complaint I heard was that 4 star hotel isn't the same as it is here, so I'd definitely find people that can recommend a place to stay.

hoisthemain

Congratulations on your engagement!  I got engaged Friday night and my FI is also a Firefighter!  AND we are also going to have a destination wedding with about 40-50 ppl.  But we are going to have a party/reception when we get back that all our friends and all the other firefighters will be able to come to, so far no one has given us any grief about it.  Also, I have been to handful of fireman weddings and not everyone is always invited, they will understand, its a brotherhood!   I think sending out STD's as soon as you can is best, the more time ppl have to plan and save the better!  We are planning on September 2011 so we have over a year, we will prob send out our STD's about 10 months ahead.  Good Luck!!!