How do you plan a destination wedding?

I had my wedding in the city my parents live at in Florida while I live in South Carolina. We drove in for our wedding which helped a bit. We toured venues when we were in town for the holidays and for our engagement photos. Otherwise we did everything else virtually. The main thing that helped was having my parents house to send a lot of items to in advance and getting there a week before to get things organized. My parents also helped if something needed to be done in person. I'm super lucky with that situation so not sure that would work for you! If you do not know anyone in the town you're getting married in reach out to your vendors or venue about shipping things there in advance.

We’re not as far as that but we live 3 hours away from the venue. We live in northern AZ but wanted to get married in the Phoenix area since the majority of our family lives there. I poured over venues on the computer & narrowed it down to 5. We wanted a venue that has an all inclusive package since we’re not just right around the corner to go take care of things. We scheduled all 5 on a weekend we could get away. The 5th one we looked at, we fell in love with it! It has everything! Photographer, DJ, flowers, cake, caterer, centerpieces, choices of linens- even invitations! They have various venders that we can choose from.
I recommend finding a venue that has an inclusive package- it makes things 10 times easier.

I recommend finding a venue that is all inclusive or as much as possible. If they have a DOC that is also a huge help. We had a DW in Florida and the venue coordinator was such a huge help. They also gave me a list of vendors they worked with for my cake and florist. Make sure to ask about whether you can ship packages there for them to inventory and hold for your big day. Good luck.

We live in Connecticut and got married in Florida. A few things that made it easier:

1. We didn't have an all-inclusive venue, but we did get married at a resort hotel. We purposefully chose one that was stunning without decor so we didn't have to worry about contracting someone to decorate or packing a bunch of stuff ourselves. We simply had centerpieces on the reception tables and that was it.

2. We flew down two separate times—once to look at our final two venues and pick one. (We signed a contract on the spot at the second.) The second time, we flew down for one night and packed a ton of wedding-related activities within 24 hours: I had my hair and makeup trial, we did our tasting and we had an engagement shoot so we could meet our photographer in person and go over our vibe for the day. Both of these days were an expense that I consider highly highly worth it.

Get a wedding planner. Arrive a week earlier see if they can accommodate menu tasting and your hair and makeup trial.