Destination Weddings: The Pros & Cons

If you're reading this you may be thinking of the idea of having a destination wedding but want to know what all goes into it, the pros & cons, and if it's right for you. Well, you've come to the right place! I had my destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico October 2021 (so if you're reading this in the future even through COVID we had a BLAST). Let’s just go ahead and list some things out that you'll want to know. To preface I will be writing from the stance of having a destination wedding at a resort or all-inclusive hotel.

Pros:

• You can save on costs

The average wedding from a simple google search can be upwards to 30k! To me that's just completely outrageous considering the ceremony isn't what will cost you the most money, but the reception. People will demand a lot from you. Let’s say you're inviting 100 people and 75 of those people keep asking if it will be open bar it's not hard to be swayed to drop that 3k price tag to make your guest happy! Having a wedding at an all-inclusive save on the costs of liquor, food and because they do many weddings a year, decorations.

• It can double as a vacation for you and your guests

Most resorts require a minimum stay amount. Until your wedding you can use that time to bond with your guests or just chill with your future spouse. There are tons of things to do and you'll never be bored. You can also take the time out to plan group activities for your guest to have some form of bonding you that wouldn’t get with a traditional wedding with everyone. My and my then future husband carved out time for ourself to get messages together, dine at

• Less stress in planning

Like stated before, these resorts plan sometimes three weddings per day. It's nothing they are not used to. In fact, I came with the barest minimum idea with not too much thought on how we wanted it to look and they turned it to something AMAZING. You can execute the most basic or the most extravagant wedding and these resorts will get it done with no problem. Leading up the the wedding day I had no worries as my wedding coordinator took care of everything. From having my dress steamed, my guest seated, and extra food for guests with special allergies everything was taken care of. I had a stress-free experience and couldn’t imagine trying to pack a day full of partying into 8 hours.

• Experience Different Culture

If you opt to stay on the resort location more power to you! There is something special about making memories in a different country with those who are closest to you. Take this opportunity to experience the culture of where you are visiting, speaking with the locals or take a cooking class. You are creating new memories for people that they can’t replicate (I mean how many people do you know gets married out the county?!)

With everything that is great there are still some cons though they didn’t weight to heavy in my book here they are.

Cons:

• Limited people will attend

The cost will deter a lot of people from showing up. The general rule is that less that 50% of those invited will show up. Depending on what kind of person you are this could be a pro or con! If family is a big deal for you and they are majority older keep in mind that they may not be able to travel far distances due to health or fixed income reasons. But for some people it's a great way to still send out invites as a thought to those you know may not come but to still let them know you thought of them.

• You will still need to coordinate travel

This is less of a con if you go through a travel agent like I did. I directed all questions to go through our travel agent. I used Destination Weddings - HIGHLY recommended! They were quick to answer any questions and was able to through in incentives for booking a certain number of rooms. Airport pickup and drop off was also handled through them and Lomas Travel.

• Weather can be unpredictable

I went during Cancun’s "down" season which to me had no impact it was still hot sunny and ran only lasted 10 minutes TOP. However, the day of our reception was HOT we were sweating bullets and our guests were also sweating a ton that they ended up using umbrellas to shade them from the immense heat.

• Don't plan too much fun

Enjoy the resort some! There are tons of activities to do there and you don't want to be exhausted by time the wedding come. While everything we did led to great memories and fun after the wedding over the whole wedding party was practically dead getting back home!

Overall, I think that our destination honeymoon was a GREAT idea and I don’t regret having one at all. The people who wanted to show their love came and those who couldn’t wrote words of encouragement or sent gifts which was just as nice.