What's a "destination" wedding?

I personally classify a destination wedding at one which requires an overnight stay or more (i.e. more than 90 minutes drive, if it is finishing later than 8-9pm) for the majority of guests.

I would say yours is a destination wedding – it’s close-ish for you but your guests will have some distance to travel.

We considered ours a destination wedding since my side of the family/friends had to travel 2 hours each way while my husband’s side had to travel from across the country.


Yours would be considered a destination wedding (I just call it “stateside destination wedding” lol) since it requires most of your guests to stay overnight.

Destination weddings started as a wedding not near either the area of bride's family, or grooms, or where the couple live and work now. Sometimes the destination is the main reason for going. So everyone travels much farther than to one of the home areas. Other times it is a not expensive area partway between areas, a middle ground to minimize travel for most.

If the majority of guest have to find lodging because the wedding is far from them, I'd consider it a destination wedding. Maybe not an exotic destination, but a destination nonetheless.

View Quoted Comment Agree with this. If over 50% of your guests are driving 2+ hours to your wedding, it’s a destination wedding. A location doesn’t have to include a beach to be a destination.

It’s a label and sometimes there are grey areas with labels, you know?
I was in the military and so weddings would have been considered destination is travel was the only requirement even if it was in the bride or groom’s hometown.
I live in Northern Virginia and while our venue is less than 15 miles from us, it will be an hour for most people and a couple hours for many - and these are people we see regularly. It’s just an area of the country where people commuting two hours each way for work is normal. Some people do three!But where I grew up, traveling two hours for a wedding, people would want a hotel room LOL

We live in northern AZ & our venue is in the Phoenix area where the majority of our family lives. I consider it a destination for us & our friends who live up here since we have to drive 2.5 hours away (182 miles).

A destination is anything where the entire group has to travel over a few hours to the main venue

Considering all of your guests are driving multiple hours, or having to fly, your wedding is definitely considered a destination wedding.

A destination wedding is when the venue is not local to the hosts. If you have lots of guests traveling to your wedding, but it's where you live, it's not a destination wedding. If you'll need to drive 2+ hours or fly to your venue and stay overnight, it's a destination wedding. My wedding is destination because it's in a neighboring state, and we plus all of our guests will have to travel and book a hotel.

If the location us more than 100 miles away from guests and the nuptials then it's a dw

View Quoted Comment

Nicole is correct. A destination wedding is when the event occurs in a location that is not local to the hosts. Even though slightly over 50% of our guests will have to take a flight in order to travel to our wedding here in Atlanta (most will be coming from California and New York), we are hosting our wedding in our own city where we currently live. Our venue is only 2 miles away from our home! A destination wedding is when both the bride and groom AND the guests have to travel significantly.