Destination wedding in Florida on a budget?

"A lot of the crap I've received or seen given to other posters about what should or should not be done on this site isn't even close to the response I've received from my family and friends. Btw, my decline rate was less than 10% for a DW so many people on here say you have to give 10000% more of an experience to your guests because it's a DW, I respectfully disagree"

Family and friends rarely give you harsh criticism. Those of us on this site who have attended poorly hosted destination weddings will be honest with you. We're not invested in your wedding so it's easy for us to give you our honest opinions. To dismiss them just because you think we're full of crap is your choice, but we aren't going to sugarcoat to spare your feelings.

Also, your decline rate has very little to do with whether or not you're hosting well since people won't grasp your lack of hosting until they experience it. I've been to poorly hosted weddings where the bride and groom had nearly a 100% acceptance rate and I've been to amazingly hosted weddings where most on the guest list couldn't make it for one reason or another. The two do not correlate.

@Amber as others have said, please no on the cash bar. Please no on using friendors. Please no on a cheap caterer. You should be properly hosting your guests(esp. for a DW!!) with free booze and good food. Also, if something goes wrong with cake or ceremony you will regret it, that's why people use professionals.

I didn't see the approximate wedding date until a PP pointed it out, but definitely don't do a beach wedding in July in FL. You and your guests will be miserable in the heat, most beaches are packed with people who will be in the background of your pics, and it's miserable in the heat. Worth mentioning twice. Push it back to mid-late October or November for better weather. Then you can save a little more too.

Ideal iDos is who I am going with and RJ is great. You will be well within that budget and they service mostly South Florida. I selected South Florida because it's cheaper for people to fly into MIA and FLL (and Orlando which has no beach) than any other beach wedding destination in Florida from anywhere else in the country. Also, the value in the packages I found was much better. They also do receptions as well.

Ideal Idos, as far as I know don't do receptions. They do include cake, punch packages, you can add appetizers for a small fee per person. I looked at them as well.

Cake, champagne cocktails, and beach bites with custom music, photography, and videography. It's a beach reception so it won't be formal. You could ask RJ about hotels she partners with. Do your wedding with her and walk back in the hotel for your reception. My hotel has the formal reception for $1000 for the room rental and starts at $42 pp for buffet options. That should still be within the $5000 budget with 50 people.

Ohhhh please tell me what caterer you used. Also if your guests ended up liking the food lol

I HIGHLY recommend Island Sands Beach weddings. They did EVERYTHING for us! From decorations for the ceremony and receptions, flowers, appetizers, entrees, cake...I mean everything. For 32 people we spent about $7500 it was so freaking pretty and we chose the most expensive package as well. I can't say enough good things