Is a destination wedding the right fit
for you?
Call it a Weddingmoon, call it a destination
wedding, call it whatever you like. These days many brides and
grooms are deciding to ditch the hometown reception and jet off to
say "I Do" someplace different. Sound appealing to you?
Here's how to plan your faraway dream wedding.
Well, we're tempted to say, "why not?"
Planning a wedding away from home is attractive to different couples
for different reasons. Here are just a few:
You've always imagined your nuptials in a
certain vacation spot:
Maybe you spend an idyllic vacation earlier in
your relationship at a gorgeous Caribbean resort or a laid-back Key
West Hotel. Or maybe one of you spent summer holidays at a
quaint New England inn or a rustic Montana ranch. If it is
easy to graft a picture of yourselves in wedding duds onto those
wonderful holiday memories, a destination wedding may be just the
ticket for you.
Your families and friends are from here,
there and everywhere:
Many a couple with far-flung families have thrown
up their hands in despair trying to find a spot that suits everyone.
Soon it occurs to them: If everyone's going to have to travel
anyway... Viola... destination wedding.
You're not into traditional
hotel/reception hall weddings:
You've been there, done that (you know who you
are - you've attended a wedding approximately 40 out of the last 52
weekends). All of these kinds of options are leaving you cold.
But someplace warm? Ah, now that's a different story.
You want to make the planning easier
(yes, easier):
It's true that any wedding - whether it's at home
or far away - can morph into a logistical nightmare. But
because many resorts and hotels have on-site wedding coordinators
that do all of the legwork for you, a destination wedding can be
less stressful to plan.
You want to streamline costs (or even, on
some cases, save money):
No one can definitively say that a destination
wedding costs less than an at-home reception. But no one can say it
costs more, either. However, it often turns out to be easier
to keep costs in check in a faraway location. Two
reasons: One, you are likely to have a smaller guest list (the
biggest way to save money on your wedding is to keep the list lean);
and two, your choices are less copious than they might be at home.
When you are planning from afar, it all seems exotic and wonderful,
so you're more likely to be happy with the simple clutch of local
flowers the hotel provides, whereas at home you'd be visiting a
half-dozen florists and being tempted by a more lavish (and
expensive) bouquet and center pieces.
See our pictures
from our most popular places for
Destination Weddings