Destination wedding pros & cons

kjoughin · May 2011

Hello ladies!! Please help me! I have been engaged for 3 weeks amd am already feeling the stress of wedding planning! My FI's parents are divorced so with that comes all of the strsss of us having to accomodate them. Aside from that, we are paying for most of the wedding ourselves which is a burden on us as well. Needless to say, we are just about ready to say screw it and head to an island, just the 2 of us.

The reason I am posting is to get some insight into the world of DWs. Are you guys finding it easy? What are the finances like? Do you think it is easier or harder than planning a wedding locally? Any advice or suggestions would be helpful! Thank you!!

Kristin

Queen Jane · May 2011

We are doing a DW to New Orleans. I have found planning to be pretty alright. I've had a difficult itme finding a caterer and it is hard to keep going back and forth to do tastings. Almost 100% of our guestlist will be OOT, so we are expecting a higher than normal decline rate, which depending on your situation, can be a pro OR a con. For us it's a pro. FI's family is ginormous and many are invited out of obligation.

The reason we chose Nola though was because we both love it there. Make sure you are picking location because it is really what you both *want*, not just to run away and avoid the headaches. HTH.

tiffhiam · May 2011

Pros- Less money, less stress, honeymoon and wedding all in one, day of the wedding zero stress! Very personal and intimate

Cons- Not everyone can attend. This was my only con to doing a DW.

I seriously have no regrets about doing this and I previously always wanted a huge at home wedding.

We started planning a wedding in Cancun and it was gonna cost all together about 5k for 30 people. But ended up switching to Vegas for many reasons but spent about 4k and that is spending money, trip, our AHR and everything.

Good luck!

breaness · May 2011

For us, it's been all pros so far as well. It's what we've always wanted, nothing else was really an option. We honestly wanted to elope (it's what my parents did, and I thought it was beautiful so I never wanted a big wedding) but our parents said at the least they have to come! So we ended up with a DW with just them. That was the easiest part to plan. We picked a location (we weren't even engaged for 24 hours when we decided on Hawaii, a week later we had already decided on Maui), hired a WC, and that was about that in terms of wedding planning. We're having an AHR when we return, so we get to celebrate with everyone, but do it on our own terms. So we get the ability to celebrate with everyone and the intimacy of eloping all in one.

waterous.m · May 2011

For us there haven't been any cons:) We are getting married in Key West in July and we are doing a regular traditional wedding just far away. We invited 120 people, will prob have 80 coming. If our wedding had been here it would have been more like 300 people and we didn't want that. I love that we have 5 days of events to celebrate with guests, with pub crawls, a welcome party, rehearsal dinner, the wedding, the brunch, then also a snorkle trip for everyone! We are going all out and it will be perfect for us:)

akhunter1 · May 2011

The beauty of destination weddings is that they can be as cheap or expensive as you want. We had 35 people attend ours and it was great and much cheaper than a traditional wedding would have cost here in the states and that included our honeymoon.

For the most part ours was very smooth and no major problems, it does require that you be a little more organized depending on what you are taking with you and the number of people that you have coming.

Good Luck!!

Carly245 · May 2011

I agree with all the ladies. I was at first planning a traditional large wedding, but came to the conclusion that my mom would be paying for people to come party that we don't even talk to! So we all decided on a destination wedding.

It has been so much easier and a lot more fun knowing that we will be vacationing with family. The only con thus far is that everyone may not be able to go, but if you keep people adequate notice they can save and go!

Honestly, I've never heard anyone regret having a DW, but with a regular wedding people always have things that they regret.

saric83 · May 2011

Congrats on the engagement!! : )

I was a wedding planner for 5+ years in Minneapolis, and I think the planning for a destination wedding is MUCH easier simply because so many of the little details are usually out of your hands, so you can only focus (aka - obsess

) over things that are truly important to you that you're going out of your way to either bring with you or get an outside vendor. If we had a wedding here, I would have a very difficult time letting go of the little details and trusting someone else to handle it all for me.

The cost for our wedding is definitely cheaper than if we had something here mainly because it's so much easier to cut the list down the list, so we invited about 100, but a wedding here would have been 300 or so (bleh!) A wedding here would have been about 20K minimum, and we'll end up spending around $12K for fifty guests, but this includes our airfare and all-inclusive hotel. : )

The only cons I've seen, if you can even call them that, is that you have to have a bit more patience with dealing with hotels and vendors if you're going to go outside the country (particularly in the Caribbean where they run on their own time) since their response time can be pretty pokey, and you'll have to be comfortable with the fact that a lot of people won't be able or want to attend.

Besides that, it's fantastic, and I would highly recommend it! Good luck with your planning!

sld0618 · May 2011

Seriously, the only con is not everyone that you would want to come, can come. Everything else is just awesome! I love that we're celebrating so much more than just one day. You get the vacation, everyone is at ease, the honeymoon, and then you can always throw a reception deal back home which is what we're doing. So literally, I'm racking in the celebrations

If you get a WC, everything was done in the matter of a couple weeks. Easy!

beckerz03 · May 2011

For me, I always wanted to to get married by the beach. It was the only thing that I would not budge on. Seriously, anything else I was willing to compromise about or didn't care about.

I started looking around California and when FI and I started talking guest list it was just too overwhelming. Then I found this board and realized that I could have my beach wedding elsewhere. It was decided then that I wanted to go away.

The only con I have is that if I go to Jamaica, my mom won't go...which has me reconsidering where to go, because it's important to me that she's there. Other than that, I never wanted a big wedding, so to be able to have at the beach and small...it's a win/win for me.

kford0515 · May 2011

I agree with all the PP. I always imagined a small wedding. The thought of standing in front of 100's of people made me really uncomfortable and nervous. DW has been the best decision. There are a few that are not coming that will definitely be missed, but we plan on making hometown visits as soon as we get back. I highly recommend it!

shannon5176 · May 2011

I love this thread! I have JUST started planning in the last few weeks and seeing what everyone else (who is further in the planning) has said is really reassuring.

I love hearing how quickly some of you decided where to go. We aren't even engaged yet (ring on order, stone picked, down payment made....just waiting for the official proposal) but Matt is soooooooooo happy to see how into this I am and that i'm excited to plan things. We are pretty decided it will be Key West.

I have ALWAYS wanted to marry on the beach and we are planning about 20 people will be there. Very small, very intimate. So far my only frustration is waiting to hear back from places! LOL

Destination wedding pros & cons

Re: Destination wedding pros &amp; cons

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Destination wedding pros &amp; cons

Re: Destination wedding pros &amp;amp; cons

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Destination wedding pros & cons

Re: Destination wedding pros & cons