A destination wedding is simply an affair that is away from your home base. More and more people these days are opting for really exotic destination wedding locations and they are saving a bit (sometimes a big bit) of money in the process. Whether it’s a beach wedding in Fiji Bali or a castle in Europe (pricey end of spectrum), destination weddings are becoming more popular every year. This also usually takes care of the honeymoon because most people continue their stay.
As with beach weddings, destination weddings tend to be much smaller affairs since people do need to travel sometimes long distances to attend. Please see the posts about beach weddings to get more information about this.
Following are some very important points about destination weddings:
If you are planning a destination wedding out of the country, it is so important to have a wedding planner/consultant from there - every country has different laws and customs, and businesses operate differently. A local wedding planner will know all of the ropes and hopefully be able to save you substantial money in the process.
A scouting trip before the wedding is also pretty mandatory. Its fine to do your research online but just remember pictures can be very deceiving. Because of language barriers and lifestyles/customs, oftentimes what you say you want does not translate in a foreign country. We Americans tend to be fairly sophisticated, picky people in terms of the world!
When you are meeting and interviewing vendors and locations on your scouting trip, make sure that you inspect every element of what is negotiated; do not just take anyone’s word (that perception thing again). See everything that will be used for the ceremony and reception (just to make sure you’re not getting paper plates!) and make sure everything that is promised is in good working condition (you might see the hot tub, but does it work?)
With hotels, it is imperative to go through the contract with a fine toothed comb. Make sure you know exactly everything you will be held responsible for, like rooms if people don’t show, any and all surcharges that will apply, and especially taxes that will be charged (this is sometimes a big surprise!).
In a lot of places in the world, a handshake is the normal operating mode so getting written contracts is often impossible. If this is the case, always write a letter that includes everything that was agreed upon and have both parties sign it. If there are any problems with the products or services you will have this to back you up. Whenever paying, try to use a credit card so that you will have a vehicle for disputed charges, etc.
When it comes to travel, please use a travel agent who is familiar with groups and knows all of the ins and outs of group travel. It is not the same as just making your own reservations. Please check out www.destinationweddings.com (they are a travel agency) who do a fairly substantial wedding business in a lot of places in the world. They can more than likely assist with your travel needs.
These are the fairly dry aspects of destination weddings and it’s important that they be addressed otherwise you run the risk of having one of the horror stories that you hear about every day. Just remember that regardless of where you might want to be married in the world that it is a different culture and everything that you want is not always understood.
I have been in Bali for the past two weeks and while I was there I attended a fabulous traditional wedding. It was held in the village of Negara
I will be doing more posts on destination weddings in the future because there is so much more to cover. I’m also looking at a couple of books to see if there is anything out there I can recommend to help you make sure everything gets covered.
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