Destination Weddings (guest experiences)

The most helpful thing that can be provided is transportation to/from the venue to primary hotel. Especially if it isn’t in a major city, this is super helpful to not worry about ubers. Other than that, I do think either a welcome dinner or goodbye brunch are very nice. I wouldn’t expect much more than that.

So I've been trying to think this through as well. I was going to do welcome bags for the guests (there will only be about 40), but my mom says that's unnecessary and just another things for the guests to remember to pack when they go home (she said to skip favors for the same reason).

For the wedding party I do plan on getting carry on bags and Turkish towels for them, but gifting them before the wedding trip. My bridesmaid proposal gifts were luggage tags.

I found some cute chocolate sea shells and chocolate beach stones, so I might get some of those to make into tiny welcome bags with a list of the weekend events and call it a day. Our hotel is right off the beach and has a pool, and is in walking distance to tons of restaurants and shops, so I don't plan on putting together any extra activities for the guests for Saturday morning.

Most will be getting in on Friday and we'll have a welcome dinner, then we'll have the wedding Saturday night, and a farewell brunch on Sunday. My goal is to provide as many meals as possible, especially for the wedding party!

As for the comment from the PP: I intentionally picked the hotel, beach, and reception restaurant locations because they're all walking distance from one another.

As a guest, I don't think there are any "extras" that are really required, but they can be very nice to experience of course. Like, I wouldn't expect to be invited to a rehearsal dinner if I weren't in the wedding party, but some sort of welcome dinner or event is a good addition to the weekend.

The biggest thing I look for in a destination wedding is to see that the marrying couple have done their best to mitigate expense and hassle for their guests (e.g., choosing a location that is near a major airport and has some sort of public or shuttle transportation so guests don’t have to rent cars on top of airfare and hotel expenses; not scheduling the wedding on an extra expensive and busy holiday weekend).

I also REALLY appreciate clear and useful information provided as early as possible (about schedule of events, travel information, any special requirements of the site), so that I can make the best decisions to suit my time and budget.

View Quoted Comment I totally agree. As a guest, transportation is always super appreciated by me. I know you said you wouldn’t expect anything else, but are there any items/experiences you can think of that you’d find fun/unique as a guest?

View Quoted Comment I think focusing attention and funds on providing meals is an excellent idea! Not only does it provide more time to spend with your guests, it also alleviates some of the financial burden on them.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the input! I had actually never heard anyone say they appreciated clear and useful info early on, but this totally makes sense! I will now definitely include all useful info I can think of for our guests right from the beginning.

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Oooooh I'm so glad to hear you say that about the information as early as possible. My mom thought I was insane for a) sending my save the dates out as early as I did, and b) making sure my website schedule was as complete as possible.

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That was our goal! The two most important things to us for our wedding (aside from, well, marrying each other) are good food and our favorite people, so it makes sense to us to make that a theme for the weekend. The welcome dinner (as opposed to a rehearsal dinner) will be in the restaurant attached to the hotel, my "fairy godmother" is taking me and my bridesmaids to brunch for my bridal luncheon, my dad is taking FH, the groomsmen, and my brothers to lunch the day of. We're doing our best!

View Quoted Comment I do enjoy when people put ideas of local places to go/things to do. I think your wedding is in NOLA? I’d love a list of recommendations, must-sees and things you, as a couple, actually enjoy. Not just what I would find looking online.
A blanket could be nice, especially for the flight home! I’m always freezing and want coziness (especially after a fun weekend) so that could be an option.
Upgrading to top shelf liquor, adding more food, more drinks can never hurt either.

In my honest opinion, as a guest attending a destination wedding, I couldn’t care less about being gifted trinkets or similar. What really stands out is when the couple are understanding of the effort it took to get there and try ease the burden such as by offering transport to/from the venue itself, or nice touches like offering breakfast for the day after the wedding so that there is one less meal to pay for.

View Quoted Comment I’m so glad you guys have shared your experiences! I have started our wedding website, but now I will make sure I have all details on there before sending out STDs with the website addy on it!

View Quoted Comment These are great suggestions! We do plan to include recommended things to do/see (along with discount coupons) in their welcome bags. I had never thought of cozy blankets for the plane ride, but I love that idea! I am huge on cozy comforts in the Fall. We are already doing top shelf liquor and an insane amount of food for the reception, but maybe we should add a local treat(s) in their welcome bags.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the input! These are definitely things we are going to focus on.

Ours was technically a destination wedding in that so many people had to travel to get there, but wasn't anywhere particularly special like Cancun or anything--we got married in Northern New York. Still, we wanted to recognize that people made a big commitment to be there and participate and we wanted to be as welcoming as possible.

We did have welcome bags at the hotel for check in. We live in a different state than where the wedding was, so we added some treats from our new state to bring a little taste of it to the party. We had some treats we just enjoyed and water, as well as a postcard from New York State, where we got married. We made a little brochure with an area map and a timeline of events so everyone knew where to be and when, and what to do in case they got lost or missed the transportation.

We held our wedding at a castle on an island. We chartered a boat to pick everyone up at the hotel where everyone was staying, so that they simply had to walk down to the boat dock. We held the reception at the same hotel, so once everyone came back, they were dropped off directly at the reception site.

Once everyone was ferried over to the island, we provided everyone with tickets to visit and tour the castle while we were having pictures taken. This gave everyone a couple of hours to enjoy themselves while we were busy, and yet we could still go back on the same boat as our guests and get to see everyone.

We had a cocktail hour when we got back to give my husband and I a few minutes on our own. We polled our guests about what kind of meal they wanted, and we provided an open bar. The next morning, we provided leftover wedding cake for breakfast.

Several people remarked that it was the most well organized and easiest to navigate wedding they'd been to. They seemed to appreciate the small touches we put into things and definitely loved the touring time and transportation. It cost us a little bit extra, but to hear how much our guests enjoyed themselves, I would definitely say it was worth it.

Ours isn’t really a destination wedding as it’s 30 minutes from where we live, but it is 2.5 hours for most guests. We booked a hotel as our venue so everyone can stay there and will give out hotel bags.

As a guest of a few DWs, here’s what I’ve seen done and appreciated:
* Negotiated or off-season hotel rates (one couple paid for our 1st night which helped so much!)
* Dinner the night before which also let us meet other guests before the wedding (two offered buffets, not super fancy but enough food for a meal)* Gift bags in room or given at the meet & greet dinner (no trinkets but helpful stuff: water, healthy snacks)* Airport/hotel transportation

Forgot one more: at one DW, the bride or groom’s parented hosted a catered breakfast in their hotel suite (for a few hours like 7-10 am). This was the day of the wedding. There was info on things to do in the area and guests who met other guests the night before decided to tour places together or go to lunch. The wedding was later that evening. What a fun day!

View Quoted Comment This is great advice on the welcome bags! I think it’s easy to get carried away with getting cute things to put in them. I will have to make sure I am only including useful items!

View Quoted Comment I’m so glad to hear you liked the catered breakfast! We plan on doing this in lieu of a welcome dinner because we didn’t want the reception dinner to just feel like a redo of the welcome dinner. Plus, everyone seems to be arriving on different dates/different times, so a welcome dinner was going to be hard to organize, and most of our guests already know eachother anyway. We do plan to organize a nighttime boozy walking tour for those who have arrived the night before and want to participate (we will be paying for their tickets). As a guest, would you be OK with an optional event like this the evening before the wedding, then a hosted brunch with bottomless bloody Mary’s and mimosas at a nice restaurant, instead of a welcome dinner?

View Quoted Comment Yes! Both optional events sound wonderful!!! Not sure if you should do bottomless mimosas the day OF your wedding though. 😆