Destination Wedding

We did! It was in the same state but 8 hours away. Due to the cost for us and guests, we decided to have a micro destination wedding (15 guests) and a local reception back home. Loved having both!


A DW is very expensive for guests so look up their fees before committing and put yourself in their shoes. Extra hosting is also generally expected. For example, at ours and other DWs I’ve attended, there was a welcome dinner hosted the night before. At a wedding I attended, the couple paid for the 1st night of the hotel we all stayed at.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for that advice . It really is expensive for them and I’m trying to make it as inexpensive as possible . We’re inviting 12 people max , were adding a welcome brunch to the dinner for reception . Do you think this is enough?

I agree with pp about thoroughly thinking about what a DW will cost your guests and mean in terms of the time they will need to commit. Before making a final decision, I'd talk with your VIP guests about how they feel about you plans -- and ask them to be completely honest. Once you have their input, you can make the decision that is right for you with a good understanding of the pros and cons. You can plan whatever wedding you want, but please be understanding that it might not work for guests. As long as you're good with that, then go for it! The one thing I hate to see on this forum is when people tell brides, "those who love you will be there!" I think that's potentially misleading and hurtful. People can love you to the moon and back, but be unable to make the wedding. Good luck!

View Quoted Comment Thank you for the advice! I’m doing the best we can to get the best price for them .

View Quoted Comment That’s a great size because hopefully it’ll be possible for your nearest and dearest to attend. Oh! We also checked with our guests ahead of time to make sure they could/would go to our location on the date we wanted before we booked. Not sure if that helps.


A welcome brunch the day before your dinner wedding/reception is great. It’ll be fun too for guests to meet & mingle.
Where are you thinking of getting married?

View Quoted Comment I think these are great points!


We are doing a DW in Hawaii, and doing all the airport shuttling, plus a welcome reception and brunch for the day after.
Ours will have 65 people out of an original estimate of 60-80 (we invited 130, but knew many people wouldn't come from the start).
We are also doing an "At-Home Reception" where my family is. So local to my family, but all of my friends, FH and I, and his family are all in different states. So depending on where your families are and where you live, DW may not be farther away.
We are a la carting nearly everything (booking all separate vendors) and doing EVERYTHING ourselves planning-wise. We have a day of coordinator to do day of, but now its just us, with occasionally asking the coordinator for advice/leads. It is exhausting and time consuming. We spent 5-10 hrs per week on wedding stuff the last 3 months, and this month at least 30-40 hrs per week. We will have a very personalized wedding with everything we wanted, but holy moley. Do not recommend doing this. Way more insanely complicated and stressful. Go with full coordination/a wedding package.
I absolutely don't recommend a DW with a ceremony and reception in different locations. We're doing it. Don't. Logistical nightmare.

My sister did a destination wedding in St Thomas they just sent the info out to family and friends and said anyone that can make it is welcome.

We also had a DW. Originally we had thought about Turks and Caicos, but after researching we decided the cost for everyone would be too high so we chose Clearwater Beach, FL. Easier and less expensive to get to and I wanted to be able to have 50 of our closest friends and a family there. We also had a welcome event and gift bags for everyone and most people spent the whole weekend and really enjoyed it. I think it’s important to know tour guests and make sure the people you want to come can afford it. We are going to Turks and Caicos for a late honeymoon so it all worked out for us. Good luck.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Michelle!

Great “extra” to offer the airport shuttle! Hawaii will be beautiful for a wedding. So jelly. 😍

Ugh. We also did everything ourselves and went crazy with DIY decor (we had 3 SUVs packed with decor we and our friends drove 8 hours to the venue. While no other way to have the pirate theme we wanted, most guests don’t notice decor details and we exhausted ourselves much more than we needed to!!! 😫 1) Would have skipped some, 2) Would have hired a DOC to help us set-up because it was a crazy stressful morning the day of our wedding. Lessons learned!

DW in 10 days!!! We are having it in Hawaii, and it’ll be a total of 10 of us. Since DW are expensive we decided to pay for everyone’s flights and accommodations. We also are paying for the dinner the night before and dinner the night of, and rented 2 vehicles.
It’s expensive paying for everyone, but we are almost done. My biggest stress is my dress at the moment, everything else is falling into place. I’m glad we didn’t go with 100+ guest wedding otherwise I’d be extremely stressed and angry!

I am having mine in Tulum, Mexico. I talked to both our families about it and mostly all agreed to the DW. I pitched it to both sides as a family vacation that we have been saying we need to get around to so this was the perfect reason to. So we will all be there for a week of fun and on one of the days we will be having our wedding. We will have a total of 40 (family and very close friends).