Destination Wedding

We’re planning a destination wedding in Maui this Sept! Definitely consider finding a local month of coordinator who can give you the scoop on all the vendors

We are having a destination wedding in Mexico at a resort. They provide a coordinator and everything, but they only offer certain vendors that you have to use

We are having one in Sedona, Arizona. Are venue has an all inclusive wedding package which is so nice. It needs out the need to make all those ridiculously small decisions. They also provide an extensive list of ideas and vendors. If you do a destination wedding, I'd see if you can go with something like this! It will still be your day without a huge headache.

Yup. We had one in our same state but 8 hours away. Loved it but ended up changing our vision due to costs for us and our guests. We ended up only inviting 15 to our DW and 50 to a local reception.


1) Consider costs for your guests. Hotel, flight, travel. Hopefully you can find cheaper options for them before you book your wedding there.
2) Although we had 3 SUVs for our DIY decor, I don’t recommend it. Very stressful and a lot of work. Rent or choose a venue that doesn’t need much decor.
3) For a DW, extra hosting is usually good etiquette. Host a welcome dinner the first night. One DW I attended the couple paid for the first night of our hotel. Guests are coming to your wedding but this is not a true vacation for them. Help them out with extra hosting.
4) To have a “kid free” wedding or not allow single guests to travel with a companion would be extremely rude for a DW. Consider a local wedding (or elope and have a local reception) if you want either.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the insight!

View Quoted Comment Thanks! I’ve been trying to only look at places that have all inclusive packages because I agree it would cause too much of a headache otherwise.

View Quoted Comment I also have been looking at resorts in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta to be exact. Mostly have been looking at packages that are all inclusive, but they seem to be priced for small parties. So many options and decisions. I would love to hear more of your planning and insight.

View Quoted Comment Thank you! 🌺

View Quoted Comment You’re welcome! Where are you thinking?

View Quoted Comment We are having ours at the new hard rock in Cabo. We plan on having like 50 people or so and what is nice is every 10 nights that are booked we get 1 free. Also with each night booked it can go towards an event, so we won’t have to pay the fee for our reception, just all the decor and such.
The vendors are a bit pricey compared to here in Dallas though. They include 32 people in the package so it is like $5 per person after that. There are so many options and decisions, but once you pick a resort they usually have a set vendor list so it makes it a little easier, but on the other hand you can’t really negotiate price.
Also depending on the size of your party they will make you do a buffet, which I liked cause you just pick 1 option and you are done with that part!
I will mention 1 last thing though! The 1 thing i don’t like is that they will give you a coordinator, but they will be slow to email you back until the wedding is like 4-3 months away. Sometimes it takes ours like a month or 2 to email back cause they have weddings before yours

We're doing a destination wedding in South Coast Jamaica with Sandals Resorts. We're staying 7 days so we qualified for the free wedding. At first I thought it was completely out of our league financially but I was wrong and the best thing is that they allowed payments to be made. The perks were too good to pass up. Check out their website.

Hi Pamela, Congratulations on your recent engagement!

Following this post, we are just now starting the planning process for our destination wedding (so many options I don't even know where to start). We are planning on Riveria Maya or Tulum. I've seen a lot of posts about wedding coordinators slow to respond. Has anyone hired a wedding planner on their own? We are looking at hiring a planner to help us with our vision and then have them coordinate with the wedding coordinator at whatever resort we choose. Is this overkill?

Also curious about the travel advisors vs planners vs coordinator. Has anyone had experience with this?