To travel agent or not to travel agent?

I have read what feels likes 1000s of messages and have learned something from every one. But one thing I still can't figure out... What is the role of the TA with the wedding planning? Why did you decide or not decide to use one? Do they coordinate with the on-site WC from afar? We they better able to negotiate room rates? Did your guests end up using your TA or not??

Thanks for any assistance... happy planning!

--Rachael

i am going to use a TA cause they take alot of stress of you and they are able to get better rates for you and able to get you all the different upgrades. all my friends that have done a DW say it is so less stressful cause your guest aren't contacting you all the time they are talking with the TA for everything they need about the trip. As for the wedding planning they can't really help as far as i know you have to comtact the wedding cordinaters at the resort but your TA with get you set up with all the contact info.

if i were you i would really consider a TA. good luck with your choice...

We didnt use a travel agent and so far so great! Everything is working out for us. I guess its just a preference. I have used travel agents before. They just don't seem as easy to come by as they used to be. Unless you are on here and there a quite a few on here so thats great also! Its sixes I guess and just your personal preference.

We won’t be using a travel agent…. One of the main reasons we decided not to use one was that we will be staying at a smaller resort with only 40 rooms…. Also, we will be paying for about 20-25 ppl to stay at the hotel are self and didn’t see the real need to have a TA… I live in FL and most of my friends/family already have passports (although I don’t..lol) so they wouldn’t need much help on that end. I debate with using one or not using one for a really long time and recently came to the conclusion not to use one. I think it has a lot to do with where you choose to stay and what you will actually need to utilize them for. A lot of pple choose to use them because it’s less stressful for them. I do see the benefit of having one but I just don’t think it would have been that beneficial in my situation.

We initially thought about just reserving a block of rooms with the hotel directly. We decided to go with a travel agent. I didn't want to be stressed out with all of my guests travel information. She negotiated a group contract for our hotel but wasn't able to do the same for the air tickets( everyone is leaving from different locations) But she can help them with everything. I have done all of the wedding planning, my agent only deals with the travel part. I contacted American Airlines for the Group Wedding Program. With this I gave my guests a special code and they book their air on their own but get a discount.

I would recommend that you get a travel agent, especially if you're having a big/ medium sized group. Some agents work directly with resorts and are actually destination travel agents( help with date, wedding info), others only deal with the hotel and booking. Look around and find someone you feel comfortable with.

The TA's on this site specialize in destination weddings. Maybe you can try one of them.

Great info! Didn't know about the Group Wedding program for AA. I think we are going to go with a TA for the reasons said... just one less thing to worry about/coordinate!

Happy planning :-)

I was looking for a TA that specialized in DW's for the reasons you were mentioning, Chirorach. Unfortunately, my experience has been that they seem to be the most helpful when you are still trying to narrow down a location and need some insight into how weddings are done in different places. I only approached TA's once I new the exact resort I wanted, but by then, they were really only able to help me with booking and not with the wedding packages/contracts (to clarify, I am going the AI route for my destination wedding so everything is done with the resort).

As many have said, it definately helps to have one to help with the stress of planning an away event with so many people.

We booked ours through a travel agent and I think it was a really good idea.

We had a couple different countries we were considering and a limited price range, so she was able to help us narrow things down to one country. Then we went through a lot of different resort options and she had really good info to give us that I'm not sure we would have received otherwise - like some of them were really small or she hadn't gotten good feedback from other clients this year, etc.

Also, obviously it's good because there's someone else for all your guests to contact about booking flights and stuff like that.

She was also able to put us in contact with the WC at the resort and found out a bunch of info from them that she passed on to us.

I've been using TA Jennifer from this forum. She's been amazing. She handles everything from booking travel to working with the resort WC. It's taken a ton of stress off of me. Any question I have about the resort, I ask Jennfer and she will get me the answer. I highly recommend getting a TA.