Destinations Vs. Traditional wedding

We are having a destination wedding. Honestly, I was never the type of girl who wanted to get married, so I have not been dreaming about my wedding since I was little. So, when I got engaged, it was a huge surprise! I had zero vision for my wedding, but instantly knew I wanted it to be a destination wedding. I have always found them to be a lot more fun than traditional weddings! It allows everyone invited to have a little vacation, plus it also made it easier for me to make the wedding adults only. And I love the idea of celebrating with a smaller group for several days, rather than a huge group of people for one evening.

View Quoted Comment See that’s where I am I don’t have to have a huge wedding I’m all for a smaller wedding with not a lot of people. Like you said everyone gets a vacay as well and you can spend more time together than that one day. Have you decided where your going to have your wedding yet?

We had a DW (in the same state though) for 15 guests and a local reception for 50 guests three months later. I would totally do it again! Loved having two celebrations (and two dresses). I fell in love with Napa and knew I wanted to get married there even if we had eloped and still done the local reception. A DW is VERY expensive for guests which is why we still did a local reception. It wasn’t fair to make our friends spend so much.


I’ve loved the DWs I’ve attended, but I’ve declined about 1/2 due to cost. Unless a BFF or sibling, I’m not paying $1K+ to attend a wedding.

View Quoted Comment Yes the cost for the guest is totally understandable. We were thinking about doing that and just coming home having a reception for those who couldn’t make it to the DW.

Our wedding was a minimum of 1 hour and 15 minutes away from everyone (including us), and we also had out of state guests. So not really a "DW", but also not a quick drive for anyone. I knew I did not want to get married further than 2 hours from where we lived because I wanted to be within a fairly quick drive to our venue to meet with our planner. Also, a true DW severely cuts down on your guests, which we didn't want.

View Quoted Comment Very understandable

View Quoted Comment Would you elope or have a small DW? Either is a great choice! I think it depends on who you would invite. Happily my mom is still alive, but if she had passed, I would have eloped. We had 15 guests and it was a blast but I especially wanted my mom at my actual wedding.

View Quoted Comment Honestly I’m ok with either. Eloping or a small DW. I know both our parents and siblings as well as best friends would attend our DW for sure and they are all I really care about being around honestly. It’ll be nice having others but not a must.

View Quoted Comment We have! We were supposed to be getting married in New Orleans this November, but have had to postpone due to the pandemic. We are now getting married in New Orleans in November 2021

We opted for a destination wedding. As the majority of his family lives in 3 different states and mine is just my mom who lives in our state, we decided it was going to be a "destination" for at least 1/2 no matter what. We also had no desire to get married in our home state. Neither of us are natives and after much debate and discussion we opted to do our wedding in the Keys. It's a fairly small wedding 40-45. Because of it being a destination wedding we are not having a registry or asking for gifts / money.

We've let everyone know if they choose to attend, their gift is their attendance as we know it could be costly to the 15 that are not immediate family.

View Quoted Comment Then a small DW would be a lot of fun & yet intimate. Where are you thinking????

I am having a destination wedding renewal for a few reasons. 1. Always dreamed of a tropical beach ceremony. 2. No need to invite guests. I love my family and friends but I am an introvert who enjoy the empty places. Especially on my big day. 3. I and dh are travelers. We’ve been to 35 countries so far. Home is just to rest. 4. Honeymoon right after the wedding!

I had a very traditional wedding and i don't regret it. i am happy that so many people were able to come celebrate with us

We had a DW with 52 and would absolutely do it all over again. It was so much fun to have our friends and family around us for the weekend.

Our elopement and our future ceremony/reception is a semi DW. 8 hour drive for both families. My family lives across state 4 hours away. So rather than having one side of our families travel, we chose where everyone could get a vacation with free lodging (on us). We're not close with extended family, and we don't have a lot of friends, so a smaller intimate wedding is perfect for us. Pros: everyone gets a vacation, nobody has to fly, those who love and support us will be there, catering and alcohol for 20 to 30 people is rather affordable, we were able to add special elements to our wedding like a sunset cruise for our reception, and I get to live out my dream of having a beach wedding. Cons: its expensive for daily living like food (tourism area), everyone had to save a weeks worth of vacation time at their jobs, some have opinions that we should of got married here or there instead (like the keys), our elderly grandparents can't make it due to health and distance, IF we would get another covid wave or hurricane, the island can close off to visitors and non resident property owners leaving us to postpone again, our boat holds 100 people, so it may seem overly spacious for our small crowd, and we also hired a dj which I hope our guests still party it up even though there aren't many of us. With that being said our pros outweigh the cons, and as far as our grandparents, we hired a videographer so we can share the moments with them on a dvd, which they are very appreciative of. Also my husband's cousin will be live streaming on Facebook for their grand mom to watch. 100% happy with our decision to do a DW. An added bonus, we're having our daughter baptized down there on the beach since we'll have our families together. We already chose to elope there and it was amazing. Can't wait to do it again and celebrate with friends and family. Sorry for long post!

Our wedding falls somewhere between a DW and traditional local wedding. Most of our guests live in Florida but are very spread out with up to 10 hours driving distance between them, and none of our family lives in Orlando near us. We ended up looking at venues all over the state, but settled on St. Augustine which is only home to like 2 of our guests. So basically everyone will travel like a DW, but it will be driving distance for most. I'm happy with the decision because I don't think it will make attendance impossible for anyone, but it creates the feeling of a DW with everyone hopefully staying for the weekend and spending extra time together. We have 130 guests invited.

Is it a destination if it was in NYC... and we live 30 minutes from midtown, but in NJ?

We had "traditional" in that it was close to us/ILs, but far for my parents.

Most of our circle were able to take the subway/taxis to the wedding, which was important to us. We don't have a circle that can take a lot of vacation time, so we didn't want to ask anyone to go far away.

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I am actually looking around now trying to find the perfect place but I really like the Bahamas

View Quoted Comment Oooh! That would be beautiful & fun!

Hello!! We are having a destination wedding in Destin, Florida. We had wedding discussions all of the time and we already knew we wanted a beach wedding. I think traditional weddings are just as pretty but I’m all for team beach. It’s so scenic and romantic. It makes for a real moment to remember ❤️