Destination Wedding Itinerary?

Well, first thing's first: how many people are we talking about? You need to plan to take them out to dinner or have an actual reception in San Diego. A reception is to thank your guests for attending your ceremony, so it's extremely important you do that for these people traveling to see you get married, regardless of whether or not you have one at home later.

I'm planning a dinner the night before, then a ceremony and reception for the wedding. Then the groom and I will have activities planned (which will be posted on our wedding website) and our guests are welcome to join us

Thanks, ladies!

The night of the wedding we are throwing a bonfire on the beach as a small "reception"/farewell, with hot dogs, s'mores, etc!

We'll probably have 14-ish people there with us, and they are all also attending the reception back home (full dinner, open bar, etc!).

As long as you're treating them a reception in San Diego, you're good as far as etiquette goes. I think it's a good plan to have your activities posted so they can choose whether or not to join in. They may enjoy having a day to themselves.

So far I've planned the zoo (to appease the kiddos), a night on the town for the younger crowd, and snorkeling/kayaking!

I'm just wondering if I should include an itinerary with "where we will be if you want to join in" with dinner/lunch every day-or would this be over bearing? TIA

I think that's fine. If they want to join, they can. I don't think there's anything wrong with including the itinerary.

14 people are traveling to San Diego for your wedding and you're feeding them hot dogs for dinner? Really?

Maybe you could supply information about what is available near where they are staying. We are in North San Diego, (for example) and travel all over, but maybe not all your guests will have transportation or want to drive around too much. So letting them know what is close by is helpful and fun. With our weather and beautiful views, they may enjoy relaxing somewhere

Thank you everyone, this has been super helpful!

And Emily, thanks for the hateful response, but no, dinner will be several hours before the 9pm bonfire party.

I think I will make a list with nearby places so no one feels lost, and have a welcome or farewell dinner at the restaurant on the beach were getting married at (in addition to the full reception they're all attending back home). You guys have helped make this a bit easier!

I would advise against letting everyone know where you will be for all meals and activities. Remember to have some alone time with your FH! A welcome meal is always a good plan and a day after the wedding brunch or lunch. I always recommend a late lunch because who really wants to wake up early the day after their wedding and be ready to go to eat with all of their guests? You're going to want to sleep in and enjoy your first morning as a married couple. The list of things you've posted sounds like plenty, I would just plan an informal welcome dinner when everyone should have arrived.

We did a casual invite for pizza, alcohol and socializing in our hotel suite the night before the wedding. Our suite was overlooking the Vegas strip and had a huge terrace, so I think that made more people interested in stopping by. I'm not sure that if it was a regular hotel room with no views that anyone would've wanted to spend their evening there. We had a little over 1/3 of our guests come by for that.

The day before the wedding we planned a small activity to do with our parents, and a couple other guests joined in on that too. We went to see a Titanic artifact exhibit.

Kristen, I love that idea! Did you guys have a "reception" for the guests after the wedding while on the trip?

We are having cocktail hour and buffet reception after the ceremony. The day before we plan to have a welcome party on a catamaran. It will consist of drinks and appetizers. We wanted to have one thing non wedding related to do with the whole group. We didn't want to plan too many things and wanted everyone to be be free to enjoy the island and their vacation. Hope this helps. Happy planning.