Why did you choose to have a Destination Wedding rather than a traditional one?

[nolaroy724]

Like many of you, we always knew we wanted a DW.

Here are the reasons:

1. My family is in Colorado and his in Louisiana - make everyone travel!

2. We are paying for it ourselves - get a vacation, wedding, in honeymoon for what we would pay for flowers and a Dj at most traditional weddings!

3. Have an excuse to not invite the family and friends that are really just there for the beer

4. We went to a DW in Mexico of some friends and knew without a doubt we wanted the same thing. It was intimate, a blast, and so amazing. We are such good friends with that couple because of that trip.

5. We have been to upwards of 15-20 weddings in the six years years (its slowed since those couples are now having babies), and like a lot of you could not fathom doing another cookie cutter wedding.

[MoonPalacePookie]

My fiance and I got engaged at the Aventura Palace last summer. We always wanted to get married in Lake Tahoe like his parents. But as we started discussing wedding plans we realized that nothing we could do at home would compare to getting married on a beach in Mexico. Plus we've been trying to get our friends and family to Mexico for a group vacation, so what better way to do that. We are the second out of our group of friends and family to get married, so I guess we also wanted to set the bar high.

[LCBride2007]

Just because we wanted to get married on the beach! Surprisingly it had nothing to do with money or anything else - we just wanted the ocean and sand!

[vale]

We decided on a DW becuase,

1 - neither of us are religious and would'nt have wanted to get married in a church,

2 - didn't want a registry office wedding,

3 - we have 3 children and so would have to take them on honeymoon wherever we got married so what better than to get married whilst on honeymoon and

4 - the first time we visited the Dominican Republic nearly 8 years ago we always said if we ever got married, we would get married in the Domincan Republic (right up until last August, neither of us even wanted to get married, ever)

[coming together]

1) We love to travel

 

2) We live in CA, while the rest of our family lives all over the U.S. including:

New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Lousiana, Las Vegas, Arizona, Missouri, Texas..

 

need I say more.

[beachbride08]

1) I did not want to have a church wedding. I am Catholic, but never go to church so the thought of getting married in one did not really appeal to me.

2) I did not want a big wedding. I have a huge family and regardless of where we had the wedding people would still need to travel. We were able to limit the guest list by doing a DW, and we are not having an AHR.

3) We are paying for the wedding ourselves and even if we wanted to have a big wedding at home and kept it small it would still cost us more money than the DW. Plus, we get to spend a lot more time with our family and close friends at a DW than we would at home.

[Jenn79]

There were a number of reasons behind our decision, the biggest one being that it has been my dream since I was six years old to get married on the beach in Bermuda. I lived there twice while I was growing up (military brat), so it was a bit like going home for me.

 

The cost factored highly into our decision as well. We had looked at doing a wedding at home, but after factoring in family who would have to be invited to an at home wedding(my mom has 10 brothers and sisters, my dad has 6...plus spouses, and kids...and then my husband's family, another 10 aunts and uncles plus families...oy), the ridiculous price of EVERYTHING once the word wedding is tacked onto it, and just not being able to get excited about any location nearby, we came right back to the beach in Bermuda idea.

 

We also wanted a small wedding, and the destination factor definitely allowed us that (16 guests total, perfect). There was no obligation to invite all the extendeds, and while some people got their feathers ruffled, it really wasn't about them.

[Andi]

I have a lot of the same reasons as everyone else. Also as a side note I went to one of those bridal expos this past weekend with a friend of mine who is having the "traditional" wedding...I am SO GLAD I don't have to plan all of that! anyway, here are my reasons for a DW

 

1.) FI and I are not religious so getting in a church didn't matter to us

2.) We LOVE to travel (especially to warm places with a beach!)

3.) We didn't really want to have a TON of people at our wedding that we are not in all honesty close to

4.) MONEY...it is clear now that we will be saving a lot of money by having a DW and I still get to have everything i want!

5.) At the end of the day our wedding is about us and this is what we want to do!

[Denise40]

When we got married almost 25 years ago, we were young and went along with our parents. We had a church wedding/reception the whole works but I still didn't get everything that I wanted.

 

I figured by renewing our vows on our 25th anniversary I would get the beach ceremony I wanted but most importantly, it gave us a reason to take one last vacation together as a family with our children. My son already lives out of state going to college and the week before our vow renewal my daughter will be graduating from high school and then going off to college. I never had a professional photographer/videographer at our wedding and I am going to have it this time. I also had terrible fake flowers and real is what I wanted.

 

I know a lot of people think vow renewals are a big joke and make fun of the people that do this, but to me it is a recommittment to my husband. I am not trying to take away from the brides by no means

 

That is a whole nother time. Sorry to go on and on.

[amesharpe]

First and foremost we got engaged on the beach so it just seemed fitting to get married on the beach. Secondly, I have the attention span of a goldfish. There is no way I could have made all the decisions associated with a traditional wedding. I find it's much less stressful to pick a destination, resort, wedding package and then go from there. Thirdly, I've been a bridesmaid 8 times and every bride has said to me that they wished they had more time to just enjoy their weddings. They felt they spent too much time talking to invited guests they hardly knew. Our wedding will be large for a destination wedding (50-100) but I'll have a whole week to spend time with all of our guests. Lastly, everyone who makes the journey with us I will know is there because they want to be and not because they feel obligated to come because we invited them