Destination Weddings Discussions

New here

Hi everyone!  I'm new around here..not Tk but this board.  I just got engaged on Saturday and we have started looking more seriously into planning a destination wedding.  We always knew that's what we wanted but you know...family and all that...  I did some due diligence and checked out a couple local places online.  Yeah.  We just don't have $20K minimum to drop on the wedding.  So back to destination it is! YAY! 

I've taken the advice , while lurking over here, and contacted beach bum vacations to get some help with all the planning.  We have no idea yet where we want to go but it will defintely be all inclusive and on tourquoise water!  Any advice for a newbee?  At this point I think I'm most scared about being able to find a great photographer at a decent rate.


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Re: New here

  • Congrats and welcome!!

    My only suggestion is to sit down with your FI and make a "must have" list. This would include the folks you absolutely HAVE to have at the wedding, the aspects of the wedding that are important to you (beach? specific location? all inclusive?) and timeframe of when you want to get married.

    Then check with your must-have people to make sure that they can make your general timeframe and that will definitely help to direct you on the rest of your decisions!!

    Doing this actually ended up making FI and I switch from Puerto Rico to California. Not what we originally envisioned, but time of the year and our must-have guest lists were the most important things to us so it all worked out for the best!
  • Thanks Wino!  We are working on that part now..figuring out who we want to go, if they can go and when the best time would be.  I see you are doing CA wine country!  Where abouts if you don't mind me asking? 


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  • Welcome. I don't have much advice ... We were ok if noone went. We are doing a cruise. Good luck. Personally-Jamaica and Cozumel are my favs !!!
  • Welcome and congratulations!! How exciting! I definitely agree with Sara a must have list is a great way to start and then deciding if you are doing a civil wedding (legally married on the island) or symbolic (married legally here and the the wedding there). Definitely start thinking about what you want your budget/guests budget to be as that will play a big roll on where you go!
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  • The ladies have great suggestions so far! And i love my beach bum rep Melissa!!! She is absolutely AMAZING and I'd be lost without her! I'm getting married in Jamaica in 9 days!!! If you have any questions about there, I'd be more than happy tp help... WELCOME!!!!!!!!
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  • Welcome and congrats on your engagement! I agree with PPs, definitely have lists of must-haves, wants, would-be-nice, etc., and prioritize accordingly. And figure out your max budget/guests as soon as you can. :)
  • We actually started with a  travel budget for guests in mind, ie.- we wanted guests to be able to come to the wedding for 3 nights plus air for a certain amount. We wanted to keep it as affordable as possible for the most people. Once we figured out what a reasonable amount was for our friends to spend that was realistic, we talked to Nanda at Beach Bum. She helped us work out room blocks, and communicate with the resort.

    We already had a resort in mind, as we'd been there before for a friends wedding, but she gave us several other suggestions, so that we had options. If you don't have a specific place in mind, it would definitely have helped. 

    Welcome and congrats on the engagement! 
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  • Congrats!  I agree with what everyone else said.  Our biggest mistakes were making a guest list and stated planning without consulting our guests.  What we thought was a reasonable price for accomidations was not in line with what some of our guests thought.  We ended up with a much smaller guest list and it changed the whole planning process.  Don't be upset if some people you really thought would go can't make it, we're planning a small reception at home for our friends and family who couldn't go or that we weren't able to invite.  
    I got recommendations from my officiant for our photographer and some other vendors.  Part of the "package" we got included him helping us find vendors, so we booked him first and he's been beyond great in our planning process.  I was very concerned about a photographer, but we found one at a rate better than what we expected.   
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  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-theme-boards_destination-weddings_new-here-11?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Theme BoardsForum:54Discussion:11cbceed-b417-41c3-b066-60272fb4aa5bPost:c13576c8-ee1d-493c-8e88-1a5fc7418b4c">Re: New here</a>:
    [QUOTE]The ladies have great suggestions so far! And i love my beach bum rep Melissa!!! She is absolutely AMAZING and I'd be lost without her! I'm getting married in Jamaica in 9 days!!! If you have any questions about there, I'd be more than happy tp help... WELCOME!!!!!!!!
    Posted by Jules1112[/QUOTE]

    Jules!!  Melissa is my rep too!  So far I really like her, she has been super fast to reply and seems to know the resorts that we have visited in the past well, which means she might have great recommendations for ones we haven't been too.  Congrats and I LOVE Jamaica.  We've been twice to the Couples resort in Negril.  I'm bummed because a group of friends JUST booked a trip there for April and we were like oh hey lets go then since everyone will be ther..they are sold out already! 


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