Destination weddings

bbarnhart4

I am not having one but my sister,friend & I were just discussing these type of weddings and were curios . . . . 

what is the "proper" way to go about these type of weddings. Do you pay airfare for the guest you invite, find room and board, &pay for it as well . . . ? 

TIA

squirrly

If you can, that would be lovely.  But it's just the same as inviting someone who lives in California to a wedding in New York - the hosts of the wedding pay for the costs of the wedding itself, and the guests pay to get themselves to and from the wedding. 

Queen Jane

We are having one. It is not a huge destination like the Islands or anything, just New Orleans, but everyone will have to travel (6 hours drive, 1 hour flight). Everything I have found has said no, you do not have to pay people's way, but you do need to provide them with available flight and hotel information. Also, booking a block of rooms at one or two hotels is a good way to go, and can get your guests a discount in most cases.

We are hoping to provide accomodations for the BP though, which I have heard is not necessary, but a very nice gesture.

I'm sure the ladies here will have more to add, or correct, if my research was wrong.

golden1215

I was a MOH in a destination wedding and it was expectated that everyone figure out their own loding once the  B&G provided place/time/date etc.  Anything you can afford is nice but aside from the reception and ceremony you dont need to pay for anything,

wiwicaty

Guests pay to get to the wedding, unless you're stinking rich and can pay for everyone. Bride and groom usually put together welcome bags with necessary items and reserve room blocks for the guests' convenience. We're not reserving rooms since Vegas offers a wide variety of lodging solutions for every budget, so I simply loaded the wedding website with tips on how to get the best deals, keep track of flight fares, entertainment, promo codes etc... I'm just going to pay the suite for my best friend who will be our witness.

lyndausvi

We have a ton DW weddings here (4 a week).   Most of the guests pay for their own flights and hotels.  Occasionally the hotel, flight or both are picked up for certain people like parents, siblings or the WP.  It's rare, but not unheard of the hosts picking up the whole tab.

At least here the couples are pretty generous to their guests otherwise.  *Most* of the weddings include welcome receptions for all the guests, activities (boat trips, golf, etc), local transportation,  next day brunch, vouchers for drinks, breakfast or even lunch at the resort, etc.  

 Some couples will do all of the above, while most tend to only do one or two of the above things.  It's RARE they only host the reception. 95% of them will have at least a welcome reception for all of the guests instead of a transitional RD with only the WP. 

At our DW (not in the islands, but 3-4 hour drive for most guests) we hosted a welcome  dinner the night before

Some people do not agree with me, but IMO if you are having a DW where most of your guests need airfare and hotels rooms for a few nights you really should host one other event other than the reception. 

zitiqueen

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_destination-weddings?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:8a11c540-baf5-4b91-bd1d-e831bac7cec2Post:d2273a83-c05f-49d8-918f-fab5378478aa">Re: Destination weddings</a>:
[QUOTE]Some people do not agree with me, but IMO if you are having a DW where most of your guests need airfare and hotels rooms for a few nights you really should host one other event other than the reception. 
Posted by lyndausvi[/QUOTE]

I might agree with this if the desitnation isn't a "common" destination -- for instance, the wedding is in a small city that isn't a vacation hotspot, and the guests are coming from all over the country.

But a location like Las Vegas (where we got married) or the Bahamas or Hawaii or Cancun or the like? Nope. I figured since people were already flying from all over the country to go to our DW in Las Vegas, I wasn't going to monopolize any more of their vacation than absolutely necessary. Plus people can definitely find ways to entertain themselves in these locations.

In fact, that's one big reason we had a DW in Las Vegas. Neither of our hometowns are "fun" places to visit and I didn't want to be responsible for keeping OOT guests entertained for three days.