9 Things Nobody Tells You About Planning a Destination Wedding

Once you’ve started planning your destination wedding you’ll quickly realize how different it is from a traditional wedding. Unfortunately, this can make a lot of brides feel alone or with little resources, making the planning process a stressful one. Don’t stress! Breezy Brides is packed with resources to make your destination wedding a breeze. Here are the top 9 things nobody tells you about planning a destination wedding to help you better prepare.

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1. How to Travel with Your Wedding Dress

Although you start looking at, and being fitted for, dresses very early on, most brides don’t think about how to travel with their dress right away. You may want to keep this in mind when shopping for your dress. The goal is to find the one that you feel the most confident and beautiful in. Certain materials are definitely easier to travel with than others and may prevent a headache later on when trying to fit it in your luggage, so just try to keep that in mind.

Most of the time, fitting it in your carry on is the safest option. If your dress would absolutely not fit in a carry on don’t fret. There are other options like a garment bag, but keep in mind there may be an added cost. Whatever you do, don’t check your wedding dress. You don’t want to run any risk of it not showing up at your final destination.

Want more tips on how to travel with your dress? Check out our post, “How To: Travel with Your Destination Wedding Dress.”

2. Guests Will Want a General Schedule

Your guests are coming to the resort for your wedding, but they’re coming for a vacation for themselves as well. Providing a general itinerary for all your guests will help them.

Check out the sample itinerary below:

Your wedding party and family members will know when and where they need to be certain places so that they can plan the rest of their trip to accommodate any excursions or activities for themselves.

Also, if you plan on having a group activity like a welcome cocktail hour or excursion you’ll obviously want everyone invited to know about it. Typically, the front desk can give your guests their itinerary as they’re checking into the resort. You can also hand them out if you know when everyone is arriving. These can be made on sites like Minted or Etsy.

3. Consider the Timing of Your Spa Treatments

You may think getting all of your spa treatments done before you leave for your trip might be the way to go, but it may be too early. For example, if you’re leaving on Tuesday but your wedding isn’t until Saturday, consider waiting on getting your manicure and pedicure until you’re at the resort (as long as they provide those services.)

Your wedding package may also include credits towards spa treatments so you may want to use that on things you know you’ll need done.

Also, consider waxing treatment if you’ve never gotten it done or don’t know the general rule of thumb. Most waxing services want you to have 2-3 treatments before your goal end date. With that being said, you may need to schedule waxing weeks or a couple months before your wedding to be done by the time you leave. Make sure to call to find out how early they’d want you in so you stay ahead of the game.

4. You May Not Have as Much Control as You’d Like

This one may scare a few brides, but realizing this ahead of time will only help you down the road. When planning a destination wedding you will be doing everything from a distance. If you don’t visit the resort beforehand then you can’t visually see every décor detail, taste every food option, or see flowers in person. Trusting your gut and making sure you’ve hired the right people to help you is key.

Destination weddings tend to be a little more relaxed and easy going as well. With that being said, your on-site wedding coordinator might take a little longer to get back to you then you’d like. As long as you have a great travel agent, they can assure you that everything is taken care of even if it takes a little longer than you anticipated.

5. Your Wedding Package May Not be as Inclusive as it Looks

When reviewing your package options a lot of brides end up choosing the most deluxe one because it seems to include everything they’d need. Unfortunately, that may not be the case. Small details like chair covers, a DJ or sound system, or flowers for your bridesmaids may not be included. If not, these charges can add up quickly. Make sure you have room in your budget for add on charges and check out our post “Your Destination Wedding Budget – 16 Must Have Budget Items” to make sure you have enough set aside when planning and saving.

Another point to consider is how many guests your wedding package “covers.” For example, ours covered up to 25 guests, but we ended up having 50 people attend our wedding. That ended up being an extra $95.00 per person over the 25 guests. A very surprising and not planned out cost that we didn’t consider. Don’t let that happen to you!

6. Be Considerate of your Guest’s Costs When Choosing your Resort

You and your fiancé may want to go with the 5 star luxury resort, but if you want a good amount of family and friends to attend you may need to reconsider. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to put enough money aside to pay for a luxury resort or don’t think it’s worth the cost. Consider your guests when choosing a resort to make sure it’s well within a reasonable range financially.

If the point of having a destination wedding is to avoid having a lot of people then by all means plan that luxury resort wedding! Ultimately, your wedding should be all about you and your future husband.

7. Be Okay with Certain Guests Not Attending

Along with the above mentioned point, no matter how affordable your resort is there still may be guests that choose not to come. If your grandparents or close friends is a deal breaker for you, then you may want to consider a different option.

Personally, we knew our grandparents wouldn’t be willing or able to travel to Mexico for our destination wedding but we still went ahead with it.  With that being said, we also had a stateside reception where they attended and were able to watch our entire wedding ceremony.

8. You May Not Necessarily Save Money

Make sure you have a budget in mind when you’re early in the wedding planning stage. A destination wedding is as beautiful as they say, but sometimes the costs can add up more than you originally anticipated.

Comparing your destination wedding costs to a traditional wedding may surprise you when the planning has begun. This is usually due to the fact that a destination wedding is still relatively new and most people just assume it’s a much cheaper option. Don’t get me wrong, you can still plan a destination wedding for much less than a traditional wedding, but this can sometimes heavily depend on the number of guests, time of year, and resort you want to get married at.

Make sure you’ve got that budget number in mind when discussing with your travel agent so they know the most amount of money you’re willing to spend on the big ticket items like accommodations and flights.

9. Communication May Be a Challenge – Patience is Key

Remember, you’re planning a wedding in a different country. English may not be your on-site coordinator’s first language. Be respectful, patient, and lean on your travel agent for assistance if you need to. Don’t hesitate to ask additional questions if you don’t fully understand something.

It’s easy to get frustrated, but remember you’re planning a wedding in a different country. Everyone involved is ultimately there to help you.

There you have it. I hope these 9 things nobody tells you about planning a destination wedding hasn’t come as too much of a surprise to you. Was there anything else I was missing that surprised you when planning your destination wedding? Comment below or contact me here! I’d love to hear and add to the list to help future destination wedding brides.