Destination Wedding Anyone?

[Lynnea]

I was curious to see if any of you have had or are familiar with destination weddings? I've heard they can (sometimes) save money and be much smaller than a traditional wedding. As I've mentioned before, I am divorced, and my previous marriage and wedding was planned mostly according to my ex's religious beliefs and his family's visions. So this time around, I'm looking forward to being able to plan something I've always wanted and dreamed of. I'm looking into a destination wedding, as I would love to have a smaller more intimate ceremony in a beautiful location where we wouldn't have to spend a ton of money on decorations, etc. Any thoughts or ideas? I'd love to hear your experiences and share them with each other. Also if you know of any good places to go or websites to look at! It's very early in the planning process (we aren't even engaged yet) but it's something I enjoy thinking about and takes my mind away for a little while from the current events! Thanks guys!

[MrsSz]

We got married in Jamaica and I still think it was the best decision we could have made for us. We couldn't afford to feed the 200+ family members. We had an open house after we got back that was so fun. We had 44 people go to Jamaica including our photographer. She took photos for the cost of the trip plus $500 maybe? If we had got married in town we never would have been able to afford her. And paying roughly 1500 to bring her also included food and such for her while she was there. The photographers at the resort were about 1500 but you didn't have the rights to the photos. I highly recommend an all inclusive - our wedding was free because we booked 20+ rooms but I paid for upgraded flowers.



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[SoonerTexan]

Note about photographers--make sure they know what they are doing as far as destination weddings go. Mexico & the Caribbean can be very iffy if they don't have the right documents and I have heard of photographers having their equipment confiscated or being sent right back more than once.

[Lynnea]

We got married in Jamaica and I still think it was the best decision we could have made for us. We couldn't afford to feed the 200+ family members. We had an open house after we got back that was so fun. We had 44 people go to Jamaica including our photographer. She took photos for the cost of the trip plus $500 maybe? If we had got married in town we never would have been able to afford her. And paying roughly 1500 to bring her also included food and such for her while she was there. The photographers at the resort were about 1500 but you didn't have the rights to the photos. I highly recommend an all inclusive - our wedding was free because we booked 20+ rooms but I paid for upgraded flowers.



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Your pictures are absolutely beautiful! Which resort did you stay at in Jamaica? Did you get married during medical school?
I love the idea of the destination wedding, intimate ceremony and celebration afterwards, and then a more laid back (and cheaper) celebration at home when the time is right!

[Lynnea]

Note about photographers--make sure they know what they are doing as far as destination weddings go. Mexico & the Caribbean can be very iffy if they don't have the right documents and I have heard of photographers having their equipment confiscated or being sent right back more than once.

Yikes, we wouldn't want that haha I'd definitely have to look into it more. I know a few close friends that are amateur photographers. I wonder if it's worth it to spend the money on a professional one or if it'd be fine to have friends take them so we have access to them all and can edit them as we please? I guess I'll have to look into it more! I know I would be terribly disappointed if I didn't have good pictures of that day! Thank you for your note!

[alotofyarn]

We got married on a cruise ship, so it was sort of a destination. We had family all over the country who were going to have to fly in no matter where we had it, and this seemed so much easier than planning it myself. I started planning a bigger wedding and decided I just didn't care about any of it. We got married on the ship before it set sail - 17 people came to the wedding and left before it sailed, and 5 stayed onboard for the full cruise. We could have had more, but in the end we decided to limit it to parents, siblings, grandparents, my two best friends, and family who lived within driving distance. We got in the night before and had a nice dinner with everybody, were able to spend time with them that morning, had the ceremony and a 2hr reception onboard, and then we were done. There were a couple of things I wish I had done differently, like get a better photographer or at least pay for additional time with the one we did have, because we missed half of the already short reception to take pictures, but overall, I have zero major regrets. It wasn't crazy expensive, the only thing I had to do myself was get a dress (they had a planner who did everything else, including helping us with the license), we had a lot of fun, and in the end I was married to my favorite person.

Pre-Wedding.jpg Preparation.jpg Misc.jpg

[alotofyarn]

Yikes, we wouldn't want that haha I'd definitely have to look into it more. I know a few close friends that are amateur photographers. I wonder if it's worth it to spend the money on a professional one or if it'd be fine to have friends take them so we have access to them all and can edit them as we please? I guess I'll have to look into it more! I know I would be terribly disappointed if I didn't have good pictures of that day! Thank you for your note!

Professional. 100%

[Lynnea]

Professional. 100%

Beautiful, a cruise is a great idea as well! And I do think I would want a professional photographer, they really do amazing work and know the moments to capture!

[SoonerTexan]

Yikes, we wouldn't want that haha I'd definitely have to look into it more. I know a few close friends that are amateur photographers. I wonder if it's worth it to spend the money on a professional one or if it'd be fine to have friends take them so we have access to them all and can edit them as we please? I guess I'll have to look into it more! I know I would be terribly disappointed if I didn't have good pictures of that day! Thank you for your note!

Yes, get a pro. It's a day you cannot do over, especially in a beautiful location like that!

[rufflesanddots]

I can tell you that the last thing I'd want to do after my wedding would be to edit photographs taken by friends. We paid for something like 100 edited images from the photographer as well as discs of all of the unretouched images. I still have yet to go through the discs. There are thousands of photos and it would truly be a huge undertaking to examine them all and then figure out how to edit them. Get the photographer.

[SoonerTexan]

Oh and you could look for photographers in your preferred location that don't work for the resort and see if they are an option you might want to consider.


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[niener]

We were married in Jamaica as well -- just the two of us, no friends or family present. We had an informal reception/party one Sunday afternoon after we returned for all the would-be guests. For us it was perfect, and FAR cheaper than if we'd done the whole deal at home. I recommend destination weddings to anyone who will listen 😊. We did not do an all-inclusive resort but I hired a wedding coordinator who was on the island to take care of all the paperwork and logistics and also hired a photographer on the island whose work I was very pleased with. We spent 10 days there, 5 in Negril, getting married on the 5th day, then "honeymooned" at an all-inclusive on the other side of the island in Ocho Rios for the other 5 days.

[poky]

We got married on a cruise ship, so it was sort of a destination. We had family all over the country who were going to have to fly in no matter where we had it, and this seemed so much easier than planning it myself. I started planning a bigger wedding and decided I just didn't care about any of it. We got married on the ship before it set sail - 17 people came to the wedding and left before it sailed, and 5 stayed onboard for the full cruise. We could have had more, but in the end we decided to limit it to parents, siblings, grandparents, my two best friends, and family who lived within driving distance. We got in the night before and had a nice dinner with everybody, were able to spend time with them that morning, had the ceremony and a 2hr reception onboard, and then we were done. There were a couple of things I wish I had done differently, like get a better photographer or at least pay for additional time with the one we did have, because we missed half of the already short reception to take pictures, but overall, I have zero major regrets. It wasn't crazy expensive, the only thing I had to do myself was get a dress (they had a planner who did everything else, including helping us with the license), we had a lot of fun, and in the end I was married to my favorite person.

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Nice!

That's about how ours went, except we went Vegas (Bellagio, just a few years after it opened). All we had to do was pay them, make a few decisions about food and such, invite the people, and bring our wedding clothes with us. They gave us a limo ride to the county courthouse for the license, and we had about 50 people there. It was pretty easy for everyone to get there, and entertain themselves while they were there. Highly recommended for low-stress planning, for sure.

[medpedspouse]

Not a destination wedding but destination vow renewal. I also hated the whole hoopla of wedding planning and do not remember the months before my wedding as pleasant...looking back, I should have been on Xanax. No lie, I broke out in hives at the flower shop. That is when I realized that DH and I prefer experiences over things.

Anyway, on our tenth we went to Placencia, Belize. We hired a local photographer which was pretty cool since she also included a day trip into the little town. Being a local, she took us to all her favorite spots and took candids of us along the way. Those are actually my favs.

Highly recommend destination weddings. All seem drama free.

[Sheherezade]

The all inclusive we visited in Mexico last year had an old chapel on site. It was set up for an evening wedding when we were there, lots of flowers and big racks of candles. Apparently, they do a lot of destination weddings. It was a beautiful place. (That's a stock image I found online, not from our trip.)

http://www.grandpalladiumrivieramaya.com




Angie