Destination wedding

I myself am not having a destination wedding but having been invited to a few, I will note some responses based on my experience as a guest.

1 – can’t answer

2 – Invitations should go out earlier than usual but the important thing here is that you give your guests save the dates early that they can save up to the wedding and schedule time off work. If the destination is. a few hours’ drive/flight away, I’d suggest sending save the dates a year in advance but if you are thinking a destination that is far away (international or across the country), I would consider sending save the dates much earlier as this will be much more costly for guests to attend hence the time will give them an opportunity to save money and be able to make it.

3 – What costs you cover depends entirely on you and what you can afford to cover. Every destination wedding I’ve been to I have had to pay my travel and accommodation costs and as a guest I find it very difficult to justify (financially) attending a destination wedding unless it is a very close friend/family or a location I really want to visit. If you cover some portion of your guests’ costs they will be greatly appreciative but again, this is entirely up to you.

4 – In my experience, people have invited just as many people to a destination wedding as they would have if they had the wedding locally. Generally not as many invitees will come (compared to a local wedding) but again, entirely up to you how many you invite destination wedding or otherwise.

5 – Unless you are paying for your guests’ accommodation, I would caution against inviting people before the wedding. Sure you can host some pre-wedding activities (i.e. dinner the night before) but your guests will choose how long they want to spend at the location. Keep in mind some people may not feel comfortable spending the money involved in coming X days early and others will still come the day before regardless of the activities you set.

I did not have a destination wedding, but I wish I had!! We are going to Sandals St. Lucia on our honeymoon and we could have had a free wedding with a 3 night stay. I know we would have only had about 5 guests if we had done this idea, but we went with the Outer Banks and only have 20 soooooo... I’ve never been to a destination wedding that was international, but have been to many in the states and I always paid for my own flights and accommodations. If you are able to help guests with flights, that would be 100% appreciated, but you are not obligated to. I agree with you that requiring people to be there 5 days before is a bit much, and many won’t be able to afford that, as many destinations are expensive. If you want to do an all inclusive Sandals or Beaches wedding, let me know because my travel agent is the BEST ever!!! I wish I had met her before planning our honeymoon so I could have gone with a destination wedding in the first place!

There is a company called Destify. They help plan your destination wedding and are amazing. Also they are free! Resorts hire then for help because they get so many inquiries so if your looking for a tropical destination they are great.

1) we are doing Antigua April 2022 + we used a travel agent to help us coordinate and work out the details with the resort. Once the date and rooms are blocked by the agent the onsite wedding coordinator will take over.

2) Save the dates were sent out 11 months in advance with the wedding website ready to go so guest knew what to expect with pricing and travel. Invites depend on how soon the venue needs a final headcount (ours is 60 days) so we are sending invites 3 months prior.

3) We are not paying for anything for our guests, besides getting them a nice gift for attending and do not expect wedding gifts, the travel and sacrifice of coming is enough for us. 4) We did not cover flights, but we did use points to help one family member.

5) 5 bridesmaids + 5 groomsmen; total invite 65 people ( we only expect 40ish but post COVID it seems everyone wants to travel)

6) Our hotel has a minimum 4 night stay, our wedding is on a Sunday so most guests are arriving Thursday or Friday and staying until Tuesday. We opted to go early on Tuesday so we could have a day to settle and a day and half to ourselves and really enjoy the time together. Once the guests arrive we have a welcome party and event planned for them. We are having a brunch afterwards for the guests but do not expect to see anyone afterwards. I would let people make up their minds about duration of stay because of different people's finances and home obligations. You could leave it open on the website to say we are going early you are more than welcome to join us and celebrate with us early.

1. Where did you go + who did you go through?

Saint Lucia - Sandals La Toc. I booked directly with Sandals and they give you a wedding POC to work with as well as a coordinator when you are at the resort (the coordinator is amazing, btw. Truly!)

2. Wedding is planned for 2023, when do I send out invites?

I sent out my invitations 6 months in advance. I wanted to give people adequate time to plan if they could attend.

3. What costs do we cover Vs our guests? 4. Did you cover flights? We are looking at covering the cost of the flights for our immediate family but not for extended. Did you do this?

Although our resort was all-inclusive, there was still charges for the actual wedding itself (decorations, flowers, food, alcohol/bartender, DJ, photographer, videographer. Basically everything that you would for a local wedding). We did not cover flights or hotel room (we were able to get a better deal at the time and basically got all of our guests "one night free." We also hosted a welcome dinner (also paid for the pp food and alcohol, it's very affordable since its already all-inclusive, I think the costs are just for setting up, etc). I would suggest taking your guests for an excursion if possible, it's a nice touch for those that came to your wedding. We unfortunately couldn't do it for the whole entire wedding party because of the schedule for when guests flew in & out.
5. How many people did you invite / bridemaides + groomsmen ?

We invited about 100 people in total, but only had a total of 18 at the wedding (we knew it would be small and preferred it that way, esp with how far we chose, adult only, etc).
6. How many days before the wedding did you invite the guests? EX: My fiancé wants to go 5 days before the wedding + wants the guest to get there pretty much at the same time as us, I said I would feel overwhelmed with all that going on but he would rather have people there with us + then leave after the wedding so we could have a peaceful few last days before we head out. Opinions?

We welcomed guests to come 3 days before the wedding and some did. Which was the same day we arrived, there were things we needed to take care of when we go there (finalizing some logistics and walkthrough with coordinator, also cake tasting). Five days seems a bit much! Our guests were fine with that, they did not expect us to be available the entire time. Guests also understand that its your wedding + honeymoon, but to be respectful to those that came with us, we would plan to have dinner together most of the days.

I truly recommend a destination wedding if possible. It's an absolute dream! On the day of my wedding, I went and got breakfast with a few friends, laid by the pool, then ate a small lunch and got ready for the wedding. I got to spend a lot of time with those I cared about most and enjoyed every moment of it! I know in some cases, people may feel like you're being selfish because you're asking people to travel a long way & spend a lot of money, but do what you can to help those you want at your wedding and just enjoy it! It's a vacation for your guests.

Hi there! We are in the middle of planning a destination wedding in Puerto Rico next February:


1. Puerto Rico2. Send out your invitations about 4 months in advance, and save the dates 10 months to a year before.3. We originally loved the idea of covering costs for guests, but the cost of the wedding ended up being very expensive and we couldn’t afford it. Courtesy is that guests cover their own travel and accommodations. I would budget for the wedding and honeymoon first including a contingency for unforeseen expenses. If as the wedding gets closer and you have any money left over, you could help pay for their stay or flight as a surprise gift. We are paying for my parents hotel stay as a thank you present for helping us pay for part of the wedding.5. About 100 people 6. We are getting to the destination a few days before our guests to run errands and prep for the wedding as well as have some relaxing alone time together before the craziness starts lol. Our wedding is on Saturday and we are having two optional events beforehand: a sunset sail on Thursday night, and a welcome party Friday night. I would definitely recommend one event for all guests the day before to get the party started, but I would not recommend 5 days of activities because it gets VERY expensive to host events or if you don’t pay for them, gets expensive for guests (it’s extra nights stay for them too). It’s also a lot of time anx work to plan all of those extra events.