I am a wedding planner and have been organizing destination weddings for couples getting married in Central Park, New York City for some time and, more recently, weddings in Las Vegas. Sometimes couples who contact me are weighing up the pros and cons of a wedding at home versus a destination wedding. Sometimes they are considering a couple of different locations for destination wedding. There are many reasons why couples choose to have a destination wedding, here are my top ten.
simplifies the guest list – if you have a wedding at home this can often lead to feeling the obligation to invite everybody you know, and everybody your parents know! Many couples would prefer not to spend their entire wedding day doing the rounds, and chatting with distant relatives who they haven’t seen since childhood, isn’t it better to spend the most important day of your lives with the people most important to you? The more distant acquaintances are least likely to be able to make a destination wedding, so this keeps the guest list nice and short, and the couple is more easily forgiven for not inviting the bride’s sister’s hairdressers’ cousin.
memories – of course the couple and their immediate family will remember their wedding as a very special day, but often for he guests all those family weddings at home tend to merge into a memory of one big wedding. Make your special day unique for your guests, too and go somewhere different and do something unique to you! A different location allows for more creativity with the venue, food, activities and attire, and your photos will really stand out. You could even add some local wedding traditions of the destination!
costs – a destination wedding can turn out to be the economical option because it tends to keep the guest list smaller. If you just take your close family and friends with you, that can keep to budget down. In some cases the guests may pay for their own travel or hotel, which of course makes a huge difference to the budget. You could ask your guests to pay for their own travel expenses as their wedding gift to you instead of traditional gift, who needs more towels and toasters? Many hotels and travel agents offer packages for special event groups.
reduce needless anxiety – don’t waste time and effort visiting dozens of venues in your area, and worrying about who should sit with whom at the wedding breakfast or all the other details that the guests may not even notice! A destination wedding often involves fewer guests so should allow the couple to spend more time thinking about important things, like sharing their wedding day with their loved ones. In a lot of cases this means less worries about the weather being good, if you choose a location with sunnier or more predictable climes than your own.
combination – going away for a wedding can combine a family reunion, sightseeing, family bonding, romantic travel a fun vacation with all the most important people in your life and your big event all in one, and this makes it something special for everyone involved. Kill two birds with one stone, and find a location that would provide something interesting for the couple and the guests, that way you will still be talking about the fun you had together at your Ruby wedding anniversary!
it keeps the groom happy – it’s his day too, you know! And boys get excited about going to new places, and they can be involved in organizing the events the couples do with their guests, this is far more interesting for the guys than picking out flowers, colors or wedding favors.
gets a professional involved – a destination wedding often involves hiring someone to help out with the organization side of things. This takes a lot of stress off the couple, and allows them time to relax and enjoy the scenery. The couple don’t have to search through the venues themselves, or meet with dozens of photographers, if you can find a wedding planner that listens and communicates well, and is on your wavelength, then they can take a lot of weight off your shoulders. They can use the tried and tested team of people they have used regularly, and the couple can be assured that all will run smoothly on their special day. In many cases a professional wedding planner will have preferential rates from their team, due to passing them such a lot of business, so can offer very competitive prices.
minimize possibilities of feuds – the bride and groom are often from different towns, or even countries, and choosing one home town over another may cause difficulties within families. If the home town of one of the families is chosen over another, it could be seen as that family having the upper hand over the organization of the day. If the destination is somewhere different for both sides of the couple, this levels things, and will make that location a special place for the future.
provide a more easily accessible location – if the bride and groom are from different home towns, and perhaps live and work in a third town, the majority of guests will have to travel to attend the wedding anyway. Not all towns have great hotels and places for people to stay, and often guests find they have to travel to the reception, and then further travel to their hotel, if you choose to have a destination wedding, you instantly have more places to choose from, and you can choose somewhere with lots of appropriate available accommodation that is easy to get to and from the reception. In many cases it might be that it is easier to choose a destination that could serve as a midpoint, and reduce travelling for many of your guests.
everyone really gets to know each other – this is a great way for the bride and groom’s separate families to spend intimate time together and really bond and become part of each other’s families. In many weddings in this modern age, the couples’ parents don’t always know each other so well, and this could be a great opportunity for getting to know each other’s whole families. Because weddings away from home tend to take a few days rather than a few hours the whole party can spend a lot more time enjoying the event.
For more information on planning your Las Vegas wedding, email Claire or visit her website. For updates, “like” the Las Vegas Bridesmaid page on Facebook.
