Biggest Destination Wedding Stress factor - what's yours?

One of my friends just told me that I inspired her to have a DW which is great because I was inspired by one of my cousins who had one and I learned a ton from her! My friend was asking me for advice and asked what the biggest stress factor has been in planning my DW.

I told her my #1 tip was to join this forum:) This place has really been a life saver and made it a much smoother process than it would have otherwise been.

So, I told her the biggest stress for me has been the wedding party. A DW is much smaller and intimate so 7 BM & 7 GM could really be overkill in a wedding where there's only 50 ppl. That means 14 out of the 50 guests would be in the bridal party. A smaller bridal party also means excluding a lot of ppl and potentially creating resentment and hurt feelings.

I overcame it by just breaking a lot of traditions - i.e. No maid of honor, more GM than BM's...and with all the great advice on this forum.

So, what has been YOUR BIGGEST stressor in planning a DW and if someone else was going through the same thing as you, what would be your advice to them?

At first it was trying to figure out how to plan things, and coordinate with my resort. but this forum is AWESOME!! and helped me so much, and the WC at the iberostar is fantastic. I would say to make sure you start planning early, and that you have to be willing to be flexible when having events at a resort. I'm just going to have to be okay with minimal centerpiece items, because I can't haul everything down there, and they don't have much for me to use.

Right now my stressor is getting in shape! The dress I ordered is 2 sizes smaller than the sample, & I'm not exactly crazy about how it makes my arms and back look. :/ ugh.

This is going to sound totally lame but honestly, I think I stressed more about how I was going to do my hair for the big day than anything else haha. I made a last minute decision on my hair when I was at the resort spa, so all that stress over my hair before I even left for the wedding was stupid on my part.

My biggest stressor is getting people to book, I mean to actually secure their room and flight.

Getting people to RSVP has been fine, it's booking that is so complicated. My TA is always going one million miles an hour and he drives me crazy.

I would PAY someone to get everyone to book, it literally keeps me up at night.

This forum has totally been my saving grace and would absolutely be my one piece of advice for a destination wedding, you girls are the BEST!

My biggest stress factor has been my mom! Love her to death, but she has no filter and always dreamed my wedding would be her way of flaunting around my small home town. I think the DW has lessened her negative impact, but it is driving her nutso that I am not doing traditional type stuff.

The best advice is plan early and join this forum! Wow ~ there are so many amzing people on here!!!

So far ours has been just GETTING the tour operator dates to all be close to the same from all our departure locations. Having a DW with guests coming from all over the country is a HUGE PITA. I've already vented about it on another thread

I have to agree with KittenHeart... My guests not booking has been by biggest source of stress. Telling me that you will be there doesn't mean squat to me until you have a reservation and flight booked!!! Not knowing exactly how many people will actually be there hasn't allowed me to plan ahead and begin purchasing things in advance or OOT bags, etc...

At first, my biggest stress factor was the wedding party too. I also chose to go against tradition. I was trying so hard to think about how I would not hurt people's feelings. We ended up renaming the whole wedding party! We have four "Senoritas" and four "Senors"! They were all really excited when they heard the idea and there were no hard feelings.

Now, my stress factor is trying to get past the FMIL's opinions. She always envisioned us getting married back in Texas doing a big traditional wedding, especially since Ryan and I both live in California now. Hopefully she will come around and get excited about it.

My next stress factor will probably be getting people to book, but I'm going to try and keep this as stress-free as possible!!! : )

My biggest stress factor is basically putting the wedding in my coordinator's hands. I'm anal & like to do everything myself, & emailing someone all the time & waiting & waiting & waiting for responses really stresses me out. I wish I could just walk over to the resort to set everything up.

I have to agree with you Michelle leaving everything in the hands of the WC is VERY stressful. Another big stress for me is that I have over 70 people coming which is AWESOME but I just want to make sure everybody has a good time...I know I'm just causing myself stress....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michelle613 My biggest stress factor is basically putting the wedding in my coordinator's hands. I'm anal & like to do everything myself, & emailing someone all the time & waiting & waiting & waiting for responses really stresses me out. I wish I could just walk over to the resort to set everything up.