Have you ever......?

[L&J]

I attended 3 destination weddings and the most important thing I learned was that I didn't want to get married at a hotel that was on a public beach.  I didn't like that random people on the beach stood around and watched the weddings, made noise and let their children run thru the ceremony set up!  

[mrsgreene2011]

Great post! Thanks to everyone who replied.

[CSandCK2]

great question!  appreciate the feedback from everyone that has posted!

[KRama]

I was the first of my friends/family to have a DW and now we're invited to TWO next year! I'm interested to see what they do differently and how many of my ideas they "steal".

 

I wish you had asked this question before I got married! haha

[MissSimone]

 

Originally Posted by L&J 

I attended 3 destination weddings and the most important thing I learned was that I didn't want to get married at a hotel that was on a public beach.  I didn't like that random people on the beach stood around and watched the weddings, made noise and let their children run thru the ceremony set up!  

I definitely knew I didn't want to get married on the beach after I saw picture of a ceremony and this fat guy in a blue speedo was there taking pics of the ceremony flashing everybody. EWWW
 

[hat0112]

I was at a DW with my FI last April in Mexico. My FI and I had already started planning our DW but it was nice to experience one. Some of the things that I got out of the experience:

 

1. Book a DJ and private reception for our guests (only 16 of them) – there were only 13 of us in Mexico and they had a private reception and a DJ and we had SOOO much fun! We were going back and forth with a private reception and DJ, but after the DW we were sold on both.
2. Let your guests do what they want but let them know where you will be. Some guests all hung out, and some liked to do things alone. But at night everyone got together and we had fun hanging out as a group.
3. Include everyone whenever possible. If you have 99% of your guests with you and your FI on the wedding day to hanging out, included the other 1%. They spent money and took vacation from work to be at your wedding and didn’t do it to be excluded from the festivities.
4. Make sure everyone knows where everything is. We didn’t know (we did ask the couple multiple times before the wedding day) where the ceremony was so we had to walk all over the resort and finally had to ask the front desk.

 

 

Oh and one thing my WC is doing for our wedding (I didn’t have to mention anything) is having the beach area were the ceremony will be cleared out so no people near us or in the pictures!

[niajs]

I have kind of been to two, but all I learnt was what NOT to do!

 

The first one was in Montego Bay, Jamaica last year and was a girl from work (FI and I work in the same office. FI also knew the groom through sport). They were going out just the two of them and she happened to mention that anyone was invited. FI and I took that as a great opportunity to go on a nice trip but turns out we were the only guests! They would have done exactly the same had we been there or not, so there were no planned activities or OOT bags or anything. But it really was a nice relaxing time. We stayed in a different resort, but met up with the couple a few times and also did our own things. The bride took off her wedding dress after the photos as she was too hot! As some have said on here, it wasn't too great having the ceremony in a public place (although this was a garden not a beach) as people kept coming up and being nosy!

 

The second one was in May this year in Italy as the bride's family is Italian. The invitation arrived in January and all it said was the date and the venue. We had to arrange our own accommodation (although our guests will have to do this, I will be including a long list of suggestions and information with our invitations). The invitation didn't contain the time of the wedding, so I got all excited thinking that there may be a welcome letter or OOT bag in the room. No such luck! We had to find out by word of mouth what time the ceremony was and we were given the wrong information, so we only just made the ceremony! The ceremony was lovely and the Italian food was great (in a normal restaurant) but they hadn't organised anything for after the meal, which finished around 7pm. The only thing to do, therefore, was drink! I would have liked to have seen some music or a disco or something.

[Sjnovot]

its worth it if you are close to the person and if it has meaning to you to be there

[shan0487]

Thanks for all the great info! I'm reconsidering wanting a beach wedding, or at least making sure it is in a private area!