Location

There’s pros and cons to both. Pro to local is more people could come ! Pro to a destination wedding means that you could have a little vacation too.

View Quoted Comment Sold me on the "vacation" . 😂

Totally your preference! My fiance and I are doing a semi-destination wedding in our state. Our location is 2-ish hours away from where we live, so it's not a local wedding (everyone attending our wedding will have to travel to be there), though it's close enough to where people can drive instead of fly. Like the previous comment mentioned, a destination wedding is a vacation! The downside is that doing the food tastings, touring the venues, etc. are more difficult when the location is far from where you are. Totally your choice, neither option is universally better than the other. Chose the option that you and your fiance like best, as opposed to what everyone else thinks you should do.

View Quoted Comment That Last sentence. Thank you for that!

It's personal preference and what works for you. Destination weddings tend to work better if you want someone else to plan the entire thing for you and you just show up with a very limited guest list. Local weddings appeal to other people because more guests can afford to attend and the couple is able to meet with local vendors to see their specific vision to fruition.

View Quoted Comment This is true , guess I have a lot to consider.

Destination weddings have the bonus of being in a location that you may continue to have your honeymoon at, and with backdrops that may not be available to you locally. Planning them however can be a little trickier.


From a guest’s point of view, I hate destination weddings because you incur SO many costs in attending them and it can be quite offputting - personally I don’t tend to attend them because of this.

View Quoted Comment Totally understandable considering costs. I will have to keep the guests in mind.

View Quoted Comment We’re doing the same kind of thing, our wedding is about 2-3 hours from 95% of our guests.

Last year we had two friends get married, one a DW in Mexico that only their family attended, and the other 45 minutes from us with all their closest friends and family in attendance. Neither was the right or wrong way to get married. Both were fitting for the couples involved. It really depends on what OSs most Important to you and your FH. I’d start with budget, and then make a list of the people you can’t imagine getting married without, them determine if it’s realistic that those people will be able to afford to attend a destination wedding.

View Quoted Comment Good Plot ! Maybe two doesn't sound too bad either. All a part of planning and conversations with the SO.

We had a micro DW (15 guests), and a local reception three months later (50 guests).


A DW can be an amazing experience for all for it’s very costly for guests. I would consider only if it’s a smaller wedding, you know your VIPs can afford it, and you cover more costs for guests (welcome dinner the night before, negotiate a fantastic hotel deal for guests, maybe cover airport/hotel transportation costs). I’ve been a guest at several, but declined several others due to cost.

It's all about preference and cost.

It probably cost us about the same to do local vs. destination, because we live by NYC, but we chose to stay local for a lot of reasons.

Firstly, we knew most of our guests couldn't travel. Secondly, *I* don't fly well. Thirdly, our jobs weren't that flexible. Etc, etc, etc.

That said, DWs tend to cost guests a LOT more, so know your crowd.

Destination weddings are so much fun and can be sentimentally beautiful and unique! I believe that your Fiancé and yourself should pick what is best for the both of. you as it will be a day you will look back to forever.

Pro's to local: time, distance, and more guest are likely to come. It will be in your comfort zone as well as the planning will be much more flexible. Con's: you both really just want a destination wedding and your settling for others and not for yourselves.

Pro's destination wedding: guest can travel (vacation) and enjoy your celebration a lot more because it might be a place they will be going to the first time. Everything you ever dreamed of.

Con's some guest might have restrictions to fly out to your destination wedding. I had a hard time picking a venue due to some family members being elderly and my father's heart condition. They can't travel long distances nor go up to certain altitudes so their health and safety come first for us. We picked a venue to accommodate them but at the same time it ended up being everything we dreamed of. God was good to us.

You will definitely need a wonderful team of coordinators to help you and your guest at the time of wedding for a destination one. best wishes, I am sure you both will make the right choice for yourselves

While destination weddings are cool, they are generally pretty expensive which means you will likely have a lot of guests not attend. My mother-in-law made the comment that destination weddings are selfish. I don't necessarily agree with her. I think if that's something the bride and groom want that's totally fine, but they do need to be considerate of their guests expenses. I know a destination wedding wouldn't of worked for us because 1. My parents have a lot of pets that they couldn't just up and leave to go on an extended vacation, 2. My mother-in-law as stated before feels they are selfish and she doesn't have a lot of money, and 3. I don't think my husband and I would have ever agreed on where to have it because he likes the cold and I don't. He also doesn't like the beach and I love the beach.

View Quoted Comment Ahhhhhh good stance. Its pretty expensive so I have checked

View Quoted Comment Makes sense. I was curious about the extended costs.

View Quoted Comment NYC is beautiful , good thinking though.

View Quoted Comment & this is what I want , a peaceful relaxed vacation wedding.

Totally a personal preference, but as several PPs have mentioned, you will definitely want to keep guests' financial consideration in mind when planning a destination wedding. Our very close friends had a destination wedding at an adults only all inclusive resort in Mexico and we had the time of our lives--it was so much fun to spend 3 nights in Mexico and it was certainly the epitome of a peaceful and relaxed vacation wedding. But it also cost us around $3000 to attend...I would just potentially be prepared for a significant number of declines depending on the kind of destination wedding you choose, if you end up going that route.