Destination wedding

We're going to be doing a destination wedding. We don't have many details in stone just yet, but a company called Romantic Planet is a destination wedding travel expert company and they put on an expo to tell us all about what to plan for and different options. According to them, the average destination wedding is $7,000. Average wedding in Canada is $31,000. But the more people who come, the more expensive it will be. Big thing is that a lot of the set up and details are taken care of by the resort. You don't have to find chairs, linens, tables, decor (unless you have something specific in mind). A lot of destinations even have an officiant and a photographer if you need them. One thing is knowing how to plan for bad weather and knowing when the destination location's best and worst weather fall. For example in the Caribbean, prices are cheapest during hurricane season. The chance that you'll actually have a hurricane is minimal but that's why I like romantic planet. If there's bad weather, they'll move you and your guests to the other side of the island (or wherever the weather is good) for free. And a lot of resorts have indoor alternatives if it's raining. For the Caribbean, Spring Break and Christmas Break are the most expensive times of year (peak season), followed closely by January to April (people wanting to get away from the winter weather). Then there's "shoulder season" which is in the middle of peak and hurricane seasons. So that would be the middle option for price and weather. Shoulder season falls May-June and October-November.

View quoted message Wow that's awesome. I was hoping to get married in Croatia since I'm from there originally. Did you love everything that the wedding planner did?

Hi!


My fiancé and I decided to get married this summer in Dubrovnik, Croatia! Initially it was supposed to be an elopement but then we decided to invite our parents. I already knew pretty much what I wanted for the ceremony and I got in touch pretty quickly with a wedding planner from Dubrovnik. Thankfully my experience with her so far has been great. Everything just went smoothly. The whole ceremony including the venue, a celebrant and it's translator, the flowers, decoration, cello musician, photograph and wedding planner cost around 7000 Euro ( 10 000$ CAS).

Oh man i went to one and it was hard cuz the immediate family of the bride and groom both didnt have a ton of money so they ended up paying for themselves and both their immediate families. when we got there everyone scattered away and no one could find each other (i would suggest writing room numbers or sending a mass email so everyone can find everyone). also let people know where the reception is on the resort and the ceremony we ended up having people miss the ceremony cuz the resort was so big and they were walking around looking for the wedding. as long as your super organized its amazing and much cheaper!

We are doing a Destination wedding in Banff and not a resort so the planning process is fairly similar to a typical wedding. It is a bit more stressful because we've never been to the venues and there's no way for me to meet with my planner until days before the wedding. It's been exciting though and I'm really looking forward to how it turns out!

View quoted message Thank you for that. I will definitely check with our families.

View quoted message Thank you!!

View quoted message Wow thanks for all the information. We were thinking the same thing that it is better to have all our family and us on vacation rather than just doing it at home. Thanks for all your help. If I have any more questions I will definitely ask!! Thank you again.

View quoted message Thank you!!

I would say that as long as your family/friends can afford it- then it works out great. My cousin in-law tried to have a destination wedding and had to cancel it though because not enough people could go.

Destination weddings are great given the wedding coordinator taking care of everything at the resort or venue chosen. Keep in mind there are costs of alcohol and food to serve otherwise chosen to add on the bill. Getting your travel agent to have arrangement for guests to book their tickets with them given the cost provided with the hotel pick up and drop off service.

This is being done as an invitation was sent out with the information provided for the travel agent and resort to book the room.

We are doing a destination wedding in 3 months! The process has been a lot easier than a traditional wedding because the resort takes care of everything. We've also been using a travel agent and she's been helping all of our guests with travel arrangements which has taken a lot of pressure off of us. Our biggest reason for doing destination was because we couldn't fathom throwing away so much money on one night - having a whole week to vacation with those closest to us felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. It has costed us a bit more than anticipated (we had to made some upgrades last minute that we didn't plan to), but we are sitting at approximately 25k for everything - including our trips, the wedding, a welcome party, our outfits, wedding bands, the whole shebang... Feel free to DM me if you have other questions! I'm happy to help. 😊

We looked into eloping but not really much into destination weddings. The research I did do was with Sandals resorts.
We were worried that our friends and family would not be able to attend (cost, vacation time, health) so we decided to get married at home instead.
I do know that with Sandals the more people that come for your wedding and stay at the resort the more perks you get (upgraded decor, fancier meal options, honeymoon perks etc.) WeddingVibe.com has free honeymoon and destination wedding consultants for Sandals. It's worth checking out!