Destination Weddings....Where to go?

[NakedFinger]

Ok I was trying to find old threads on this (and there have been ones done, but from 2004 which isn''t necessarily current information).

Call it an occupational hazard, but being a wedding planner, I will most likely result to a DW to avoid planning a $100,000 wedding. So those who have done DW or are going to be having a DW, what do you suggest? what locations, hotels, etc. Any places to STAY AWAY FROM??? Or time of year to avoid?

I know there are some wacky requirements with some locations (Mexico needs blood test, I think it was st. lucia that said you need to be in the country for a month before the wedding, etc). So just trying to see what experiences you all may have had.

 

[Still_Waiting]

We''d settled on having a DW long before we became engaged (which was just last Thursday

). As soon as we started talking about it a over year ago, we just knew it''d be perfect for us. I stumbled across this forum website and have spent as much time on it as I have on PS (maybe more). We''re pretty set on Mexico because it seems to be the most affordable. If we can swing it financially, we found The Royal in Playa del Carmen would be ideal.

If money was less tight, I''d consider the Caribbean Islands or Fiji even...although travel to Fiji might be a lot to ask of guests.

A note about Mexico...I''ve learned from the site I linked that many people go to their local courthouse and make everything legal right before they go so that they don''t have to worry about all the requirements. They also don''t have to pay the legal fees for the ceremony either in Mexico either. Usually, the guests are none-the-wiser and if relieves a little of the stress for the couple. I''m not sure if we''ll go this route, but it''s definitely an option.

Hope this helps at least a little.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 8/10/2009 6:19:34 PM
Author: Still_Waiting
We'd settled on having a DW long before we became engaged (which was just last Thursday

). As soon as we started talking about it a over year ago, we just knew it'd be perfect for us. I stumbled across this forum website and have spent as much time on it as I have on PS (maybe more). We're pretty set on Mexico because it seems to be the most affordable. If we can swing it financially, we found [/b]The Royal in Playa del Carmen [/b] would be ideal.

If money was less tight, I'd consider the Caribbean Islands or Fiji even...although travel to Fiji might be a lot to ask of guests.

A note about Mexico...I've learned from the site I linked that many people go to their local courthouse and make everything legal right before they go so that they don't have to worry about all the requirements. They also don't have to pay the legal fees for the ceremony either in Mexico either. Usually, the guests are none-the-wiser and if relieves a little of the stress for the couple. I'm not sure if we'll go this route, but it's definitely an option.

Hope this helps at least a little.

We had our DW at The Royal Playa del Carmen! It was perfect for our group.

Another location I loved was the El Dorado Maroma. Such a beautiful resort

 

[wannaBMrsH]

We are having our wedding this Friday at the Iberostar Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

We found it to be very affordable and they have no blood test (I would never voluntarily submit to blood tests in ANY foreign country) and no residency requirements.

The other plus was that while many people have been to Mexico, not everyone had been to the DR. We had a much higher number of people than we expected due to this. Of our 42 guests, about half specifically cited the fact that they had never been and this was a great excuse for them to go visit.

Good Luck with your search and the forum linked above has been an absolute life saver! I highly recommend it!

 

[Dannielle]

If I lived in the US I would of loved to do a DW at Grand Cayman in the Caribbean- It has always been a dream destination of mine but the costs of travelling from Australia would of been astronomical (not only for us, but for guests)

The Ritz-Carlton

 

[Still_Waiting]

Date: 8/10/2009 9:20:56 PM
Author: CDNinNYC


We had our DW at The Royal Playa del Carmen! It was perfect for our group.

Another location I loved was the El Dorado Maroma. Such a beautiful resort

Ooh...I''d LOVE to see pictures and to hear all about your experience! Did you do a thread on it? I''ll have to come back and do a search when I have a few more minutes!!!

 

[Still_Waiting]

Date: 8/11/2009 1:04:30 AM
Author: wannaBMrsH
We are having our wedding this Friday at the Iberostar Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

We found it to be very affordable and they have no blood test (I would never voluntarily submit to blood tests in ANY foreign country) and no residency requirements.

The other plus was that while many people have been to Mexico, not everyone had been to the DR. We had a much higher number of people than we expected due to this. Of our 42 guests, about half specifically cited the fact that they had never been and this was a great excuse for them to go visit.

Good Luck with your search and the forum linked above has been an absolute life saver! I highly recommend it!

WOW! That''s quite a DW!!! I''m thinking we might hit 20 max. I''ll have to look into that option too...hmm...so much to think about!

 

[minx714]

Thanks for starting this thread! I did the same thing and searched for all the destination threads and came up with stuff from 2004 too . Anyway, not sure what you are gonna do destination wise, either beach or other. I''m going to have mine in Tuscany Italy in May 2010. We''ll probably have about 32 people including me and FI. It''s not as cheap as I would like it to be, but we hired a wedding planner for all the paperwork, so that could be why. Without the cost of the planner its only going to be about 9k - 10k USD. It''s really an awesome venue. We''re renting out an old villa for all the guests that has a spa and a chapel onsite, with a pool.

 

[andex23]

I started out looking at the ENTIRE WORLD and trying to find a place to get married. I created an excel spreadsheet listing locations (as in Countries or major cities), how much it would cost to fly there, residency requirements to get married there, what the exchange rate was, if you needed a visa, etc. (I''m from Houston, he''s from Atlanta, we live in SoCal, his family''s from Wisconsin, my family is all around the US...need I go on to figure out how hard it would have been to pick a place for a wedding in the continental US?)

Then, lovely FI said the 4 words that put it all in the trash can. "Hire A Travel Agent." And that''s what I did. We knew that we wanted to go diving. We wanted a vacation where we could dive and get married. I posted the question on ScubaBoard (the online Scuba Forum) and got lots of recommendations for different places that people have been to as well as diving travel agents. I called three separate agents (one South Pacific specialist, and two "world" specialists and oddly they all pointed me to the same place (the exact same resort) and gave me great reasons to why we should get married there. Did I mention that I didn''t have a specific month/time frame of when or where we were going to get married?

I picked the agent that answered my questions the best, listened to me the best, and gave me the best service on that first phone call (it happens to be the South Pacific Specialist and the first place that I called) and went from there.

We''ve ended up planning a wedding in April 2010 in Fiji. I originally crossed off Fiji from my original Excel spreadsheet because I thought that 800-1200 per person for plane tickets was too expensive. Turns out, there''s a great airfare sale right now that has reduced the price to $800 per person including all taxes ($530 without taxes--from LAX). And whereas I thought that the Caribbean was where we were going to end up (I was leaning to Turks and Caicos or USVI) the travel agents all explained that sure, airfare may be cheaper but you are paying a heck of a lot more for accommodation. In Fiji, we''ll pay 800 to get there, but we''ll only pay approximately $150/night in accommodation...including all taxes, including all food, including activities, etc.

I believe that there is a magazine "Destination Wedding Magazine" or something like that, that has all the info on residency restrictions (Tahiti needs 30 days) and details like that. Also, all the travel agents that I spoke to had "done" a wedding in numerous countries and they could tell you what other requirements are.

So, to make this long explanation short...call a Travel Agent. Make them do the work for you. There are way too many places in the world for you to look at them all.

 

[mrscushion]

I''m getting married in Italy (or so I hope -- still haven''t signed a contract). What you have going for you there is amazing venues full of natural and historic beauty, so your decor can be minimal. On the other hand, Italians spend a boat load of money on wedding food, so menu prices can be high (though if Manhattan prices are your benchmark, anything is going to be well-priced). Legal marriage requirements are doable, but a bit of a pain in terms of document collection, so I''d advise getting a coordinator in the destination to take care of them for you.

 

[Still_Waiting]

Date: 8/11/2009 3:09:07 PM
Author: andex23
I started out looking at the ENTIRE WORLD and trying to find a place to get married. I created an excel spreadsheet listing locations (as in Countries or major cities), how much it would cost to fly there, residency requirements to get married there, what the exchange rate was, if you needed a visa, etc. (I''m from Houston, he''s from Atlanta, we live in SoCal, his family''s from Wisconsin, my family is all around the US...need I go on to figure out how hard it would have been to pick a place for a wedding in the continental US?)

Then, lovely FI said the 4 words that put it all in the trash can. ''Hire A Travel Agent.'' And that''s what I did. We knew that we wanted to go diving. We wanted a vacation where we could dive and get married. I posted the question on ScubaBoard (the online Scuba Forum) and got lots of recommendations for different places that people have been to as well as diving travel agents. I called three separate agents (one South Pacific specialist, and two ''world'' specialists and oddly they all pointed me to the same place (the exact same resort) and gave me great reasons to why we should get married there. Did I mention that I didn''t have a specific month/time frame of when or where we were going to get married?

I picked the agent that answered my questions the best, listened to me the best, and gave me the best service on that first phone call (it happens to be the South Pacific Specialist and the first place that I called) and went from there.

We''ve ended up planning a wedding in April 2010 in Fiji. I originally crossed off Fiji from my original Excel spreadsheet because I thought that 800-1200 per person for plane tickets was too expensive. Turns out, there''s a great airfare sale right now that has reduced the price to $800 per person including all taxes ($530 without taxes--from LAX). And whereas I thought that the Caribbean was where we were going to end up (I was leaning to Turks and Caicos or USVI) the travel agents all explained that sure, airfare may be cheaper but you are paying a heck of a lot more for accommodation. In Fiji, we''ll pay 800 to get there, but we''ll only pay approximately $150/night in accommodation...including all taxes, including all food, including activities, etc.

I believe that there is a magazine ''Destination Wedding Magazine'' or something like that, that has all the info on residency restrictions (Tahiti needs 30 days) and details like that. Also, all the travel agents that I spoke to had ''done'' a wedding in numerous countries and they could tell you what other requirements are.

So, to make this long explanation short...call a Travel Agent. Make them do the work for you. There are way too many places in the world for you to look at them all.

Would you be willing to share the name of the resort? I totally understand if you haven''t finished booking everything and all...I can only promise that I won''t steal away any rooms from you since it''ll be awhile before we get married...but I can''t promise anything as far as lurkers go. I''m so completely intrigued though because I would LOVE to do it in Fiji!

 

[andex23]

Still Waiting... No problem, we haven''t been yet, so I can''t vouch for anything except we''ve had a wonderful time working with our travel agent.

We''re getting married (4/27/10) at Wananavu Resort which is on the northern coast of Viti Levu. The claim to fame of the area is that it is in/near Rakiraki (I think that''s how you spell it) (and I''m not sure if Rakiraki is the "state" or what) which is where they "produce" (or is it just bottle) Fiji water. It is also a GREAT place for diving. It is not near the other resorts of the area (most of the "resorts" are in the southern part of Viti Levu).

Our plan is SUPER casual. We''re talking semi-circle on the beach. There''s no flowers to plan, no meals to plan, no real reception either because it''s all-inclusive for everyone, etc. www.Wananavu.com

Our travel agent is Cindy Swartz at South Seas Advenutres in Colorado (and we live in SoCal). http://www.south-seas-adventures.com/ Telephone: 800-576-7327 Their website is a little hokey and hard to navigate, but upon talking to Cindy, she was excellent with the customer service and whatnot. Give her a call and see if she can help!

 

[emeraldlover1]

Our friends got married in Napa this year. Amazing destination wedding! However, that will still run you a ton.

On another note, I stayed at the Ritz in Grand Cayman for a week....it is the best Ritz I have ever been to. And I have been to a lot of them. However I saw a few weddings when I was there. It wasn''t all that private. They do a great job though.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 8/11/2009 10:18:48 AM
Author: Still_Waiting

Ooh...I''d LOVE to see pictures and to hear all about your experience! Did you do a thread on it? I''ll have to come back and do a search when I have a few more minutes!!!

Hey Still_Waiting, I do have a thread with some photos. I''d be happy to answer any questions you have about the Royal. We had a great time there.

Linky

 

[Still_Waiting]

andex-Ooh...it''s absolutely stunning! You really have me rethinking Mexico. Although...

CDN-WOW! Your wedding was absolutely perfect, wasn''t it?! I just love everything I''ve seen and heard about The Royal...and Playa del Carmen, too.

Tough decisions! Thanks for the help, gals!

 

[katamari]

I think all of these options are great. I personally love the Caymans the best of any Atlantic island I have been to, but tend to prefer the Pacific islands overall. The only advice I would add is to think about what "beauty" means to you and your FI. At first, we were thinking about tropical/beachy for ours, but FI and I are much more likely to be in the mountains or wilderness than on a beach, and this really influenced our decision to get married in the mountains. DW doesn''t have to mean beach. Oh, and I think it is also worthwhile to think about privacy. A lot of resorts are huge and filled with people. Even though they won''t be a part of your wedding, they will be a part of the vacation associated. This might be a real benefit, but for me and my FI, we much preferred a secluded and very small location with almost complete privacy.