Your reasons for having a destination wedding?

[MsFaszion]

This is my second time around and I did the big wedding thing.  I want this experience to be more intimate and romantic.

[Canadagoose]

We're planning a destination wedding because I'm hoping that it will be the cheapest and easiest way of putting together our wedding.  My situation is a little complicated because I'm from Canada, my fiance is from Australia, but we are teaching and living in China.  Just the thought of trying to put together a DIY wedding in either country was enough to bring me to tears.  This way, everyone gets to travel and have a vacation, and our wedding can take place under the palm trees in a beautiful place.

[TinkerSofi]

I didn't care either way but the FI was firm on a destination wedding. Aside from that here are our reasons

 

1) Both of us just love the beach. We live an hour away from the Rockies but we're totally beach people. My fiance said he always dreamed of getting married on the beach, so I'm going along with it, I'm certainly not going to complain

2)It's cheaper. One of my friends got married locally and she ended up spending $30,000 for her wedding. It was a beautiful wedding but it did not have anything luxurious. I can get just as awesome of a wedding for half the price somewhere else

3) We live in Calgary Canada and the weather is too unpredictable here. At the very least I would like to get married outside, but it's not always a possibility when the weather changes drastically from day to day.

4) We're only inviting the people that are closest to us which is what makes the day special. Mind you, we wouldn't have that issue of what to do with the super-extended family (second cousins twice removed, etc) because we're both immigrants so all of our extended family is all somewhere else. 

 

On the other hand something I will regret is planning and making all the little details for the wedding. I can only fit so much in a suitcase so I'll have to keep it simple. However, sometimes the little details add up so I don't feel so bad when I think about all the money I'll be saving. I'll also be saving my sanity, because I know I'd go OCD with all the choices. I would end up so overwhelmed. 

Second downside, and this is shallow, are the gifts. My fiance and I don't live together and will be buying our first house at around the same time of the wedding. Our furniture will basically consist of a bed and a desk when we move in, so I'd take all the china and towels I can get! hahaha, but I don't expect people to travel so far to come to my wedding and give us a gift. 

[ucfjennifer]

We're planning a destination wedding because we wanted something different. I've always wanted to take a large group/family vacation, but it's been hard to get everyone together. A wedding is the perfect reason! Most of our guests live in Florida so cruising was the easiest option, plus it's our favorite kind of vacation! I was also hoping to keep the guest list small, but future hubby keeps adding to it!

[MrsTobeD]

Hi all, I agree with  most reasons for everyone:

 

-We did not want to spend $40K in just one day (New York)

-When FH and I were just dating I told him how much I would love a beach wedding and the answer was: NO, I want a traditional wedding! Things have changed a while after that; I was all resigned to the big traditional wedding but then shortly after the engagement he started asking about the cost and after all we have traveled he was the one that proposed the DW

-We just bought a house, so it was either getting a personal loan to be able to afford a wedding or a DW.

-We also love to travel and have been to Mexico (Rivera Maya) and just love it there. 

-I am originally from the D.R. and have tons of family in there so it seemed logical to do it there but no, we are going back to Mexico. 

 

We know that not everyone is going to be happy and not everyone is going to be able to make it but we are sure that whomever makes it is because we are really important to them. 

[BrideBabe]

Actually my FI brought up the idea of a destination wedding because we love to travel and could never get people to travel with us! I originally felt weird only because I didnt want to be a financial burden to anyone and deal with the stress of people being excluded based on $$$. Then I compared prices with a few of my traditional brides and it was a no brainer once I saw how much we would save and how easy the planning would be. Quite a few family and friends are going to make it and for those who cant, we will have great pics and video and a party when we return home!! 

 

Consider all of the pros and cons for each and do whats best for you!!!

[KJRAZZLE]

This is such a great question. I love reading everyone's reasons for having a DW FutureMrsNamysl I wish you and your FI the best in his recovery, you are a strong woman.

 

My FI and I decided to have a DW for a bunch of reasons.

 

- We knew we both wanted a DW so that we could create a memorable week or weekend with our closest families and friends, and had been looking into renting a large vacation home where we could just hold a wedding on the property. A friend of ours recommended having at an all inclsive resort instead and we were instantly sold. It allowed us to create all of the fun memories with everyone but without the stress of food, wedding planning, setup, etc.

 

- My FI met online. I am from Southern California and he is from Ottawa, Canada so our families are spread out all over the two countries. No matter where we hold our wedding people will have to travel to attend. We love to travel so we decided why not have everyone go someplace different, so it could be a vacation for us and all of our guests.

 

- As harsh as it sounds, we each have a lot of family members we have to invite out of obligation, but don't really want attending. We want to have a wedding with people we really love and care about, and who want to be there for us not for free food and booze, or because they feel obligated to attend.

 

- We also knew that we would be able to get more for our money. Since we are paying for our wedding for ourselves and don't want to put it all on credit that was key for us. We each have had a lot of cousins getting married recently who are spending 50K plus on weddings that are only for a few hours. Whereas we knew we could have a DW and spend 7 nights with our favorite people for half of the price.

[KJRAZZLE]

This is such a great question. I love reading everyone's reasons for having a DW FutureMrsNamysl I wish you and your FI the best in his recovery, you are a strong woman.

 

My FI and I decided to have a DW for a bunch of reasons.

 

- We knew we both wanted a DW so that we could create a memorable week or weekend with our closest families and friends, and had been looking into renting a large vacation home where we could just hold a wedding on the property. A friend of ours recommended having at an all inclsive resort instead and we were instantly sold. It allowed us to create all of the fun memories with everyone but without the stress of food, wedding planning, setup, etc.

 

- My FI met online. I am from Southern California and he is from Ottawa, Canada so our families are spread out all over the two countries. No matter where we hold our wedding people will have to travel to attend. We love to travel so we decided why not have everyone go someplace different, so it could be a vacation for us and all of our guests.

 

- As harsh as it sounds, we each have a lot of family members we have to invite out of obligation, but don't really want attending. We want to have a wedding with people we really love and care about, and who want to be there for us not for free food and booze, or because they feel obligated to attend.

 

- We also knew that we would be able to get more for our money. Since we are paying for our wedding for ourselves and don't want to put it all on credit that was key for us. We each have had a lot of cousins getting married recently who are spending 50K plus on weddings that are only for a few hours. Whereas we knew we could have a DW and spend 7 nights with our favorite people for half of the price.

[MrsTobeD]

Originally Posted by BrideBabe 

 

Actually my FI brought up the idea of a destination wedding because we love to travel and could never get people to travel with us! I originally felt weird only because I didnt want to be a financial burden to anyone and deal with the stress of people being excluded based on $$$. Then I compared prices with a few of my traditional brides and it was a no brainer once I saw how much we would save and how easy the planning would be. Quite a few family and friends are going to make it and for those who cant, we will have great pics and video and a party when we return home!! 

 

Consider all of the pros and cons for each and do whats best for you!!!

 

Your idea of a party sounds good, I thought about it but I just feel like for us, it will be another big expense, we are planning an engagement party right now, we talked about 3K, then the budget when up to 6K and at the end of the day, I know is going to end up at around 8K. I told FI that our engagement party is for people to get a feel of what it would be when in Mexico, get them all excited, and also, they can take it as our celebration if they cant make it to the wedding. 

[MrsTobeD]

Originally Posted by BrideBabe 

 

Actually my FI brought up the idea of a destination wedding because we love to travel and could never get people to travel with us! I originally felt weird only because I didnt want to be a financial burden to anyone and deal with the stress of people being excluded based on $$$. Then I compared prices with a few of my traditional brides and it was a no brainer once I saw how much we would save and how easy the planning would be. Quite a few family and friends are going to make it and for those who cant, we will have great pics and video and a party when we return home!! 

 

Consider all of the pros and cons for each and do whats best for you!!!

 

Your idea of a party sounds good, I thought about it but I just feel like for us, it will be another big expense, we are planning an engagement party right now, we talked about 3K, then the budget when up to 6K and at the end of the day, I know is going to end up at around 8K. I told FI that our engagement party is for people to get a feel of what it would be when in Mexico, get them all excited, and also, they can take it as our celebration if they cant make it to the wedding.