Why are you having a destination wedding?

As I get older, the weddings I attend seem to get bigger and bigger, the last being over 400!! 

When reflecting on their wedding days, several of my friends said that they spent so much time at their receptions having to talk to estranged relatives and friends, that they didn't have the time to really enjoy their moment!

Plus, I have a small family and never got to really have the "family vacation" experience growing up that my friends did.

I want my wedding to be intimate, really fun and memorable.  I want our union to be celebrated with our closest family and friends: the people that mean the most to us and impact our lives everyday.

My fiance's family lives in Taiwan and it is actually more practical for us to have a wedding in a closer location than in the Midwest.  Equal travel for everyone.

These are the reasons why we are having a destination wedding.  That is why we are choosing Maui.

Although my friends and family are thrilled about our wedding choice, I find that I have to defend our choice to people or acquaintances that don't know us well.  It has caused me to think alot about our decision and I am more sure now than ever that it is the right choice for us.

Why are you having a destination wedding?  

For many of the same reasons as you.  We have heard about and witnessed too many weddings where the bride and groom spend tens of thousands of dollars and don't even enjoy themselves or spend all night people pleasing and worrying over every detail. We wanted an intimate, stress free wedding where everyone knew the bride and groom personally and we could just enjoy every second of it, being ourselves, having fun and making memories.  I think we succeeded as our wedding in Mexico, just 3 weeks ago, was amazing for us and a huge hit with the 24 friends and family that spent the week with us! I highly recommend doing a DW!

No reason to defend your choice - its your day - not theirs.

We both found out we had the same thought of a destination/beach wedding and it only made sense from there. I have almost no family and he has a large family up north (we and my family are in FL). We both did not want a huge wedding (the ones we attend are 500+ sometimes). This is just so much easier. Of course we are having a reception up north when we get back but it is scaled down to ~125 people.

I can't even imagine doing an AHR!  Doesn't it make for the same amount of work and money spent as if you did the whole wedding at home anyways?  My parents wanted to throw us one, but we talked them into scaling it back to a small dinner at their home with the family that couldn't attend our DW. 

I have had to defend our choice....and now we're almost 5 weeks away from it, and I have to admit I wish we'd just ran off the two of us.

We're living in Halifax, but my family are all in BC and England, and FI family are all in SK. Having a destination wedding seemed like a great idea. We've had to defend our choice to family mainly for the past year and its gotten frustrating at times. We've had all of our friends bail on us, and FI family aren't coming at all. I've been lucky enough to have a lot of family coming, even from England, but it's been a bit of a let down for us honestly. I hope when we're there it still doesn't feel like that and we're able to forget about all the lead up to the wedding!

We got married in Punta Cana on December 6th. This was a second marriage for both of us. On my first go-round, I spent a year planning and had the whole Cinderella affair. I honestly don't remember alot about the day other than being rushed around, stressed out and not able to enjoy everything I'd spent so long planning! Doing a destination wedding the 2nd time around was the perfect choice. I didn't have any worries and it was nice to turn everything over to the resort WC. The day was perfect because it was about US, not anyone else. We were able to celebrate with our closest family & friends and enjoy every minute of it. I highly recommend it!

It's your day & you should be able to plan it just how you want to no matter what anyone else thinks!

Originally Posted by atrott 

 

We got married in Punta Cana on December 6th. This was a second marriage for both of us. On my first go-round, I spent a year planning and had the whole Cinderella affair. I honestly don't remember alot about the day other than being rushed around, stressed out and not able to enjoy everything I'd spent so long planning! Doing a destination wedding the 2nd time around was the perfect choice. I didn't have any worries and it was nice to turn everything over to the resort WC. The day was perfect because it was about US, not anyone else. We were able to celebrate with our closest family & friends and enjoy every minute of it. I highly recommend it!

 

It's your day & you should be able to plan it just how you want to no matter what anyone else thinks!

All I have to say is WELL SAID.  It's actually a second wedding for me (first for my FI) and I have to say last time it went by soooo fast, I didn't get to spend any time with my out of town friends and to top it off, the photographer never even got a picture of their table! I was the first of three daughters to get married and my mom went a little overboard (to her credit, she was planning it in the town I grew up in and I'm halfway across the country, she did what she thought was best) So this time, it is about myself and my FI. We want to spend significant time with our loved ones, not waste money on useless things (although the OOT bags do border that....) and we have a large group of friends that are more like acquaintances and if you invite one, you have to invite them all and we just didn't want that.  We have a few very close friends and hopefully all of them can come.

Here's my reason...

Our Calendar from Sept '10 - Aug '11

2010

Labor Day - Fiance's Uncle's wedding in New Hampshire

Dec - Fiance's buddy's wedding

2011

Feb - Fiance's Brother's wedding

May - Fiance's Cousin's wedding

June - OUR DESTINATION WEDDING

Mid July - Fiance's Best Friend's wedding

End July - Fiance's Best Girl Friend's wedding (upnorth)

Aug - My Friend's wedding

Way too many weddings in a 1 year time span.  Besides the fact that I love the Caribbean and always travel there... I needed my wedding to stand out!!  Jamaica here we come!!!

Originally Posted by BeachBridein11 

 

Here's my reason...

 

Our Calendar from Sept '10 - Aug '11

2010

Labor Day - Fiance's Uncle's wedding in New Hampshire

Dec - Fiance's buddy's wedding

2011

Feb - Fiance's Brother's wedding

May - Fiance's Cousin's wedding

June - OUR DESTINATION WEDDING

Mid July - Fiance's Best Friend's wedding

End July - Fiance's Best Girl Friend's wedding (upnorth)

Aug - My Friend's wedding

 

Way too many weddings in a 1 year time span.  Besides the fact that I love the Caribbean and always travel there... I needed my wedding to stand out!!  Jamaica here we come!!!

Wow!  You are going to have to take a vacation to recover!

OMG I know!!! Too crazy!!! LOL