Travel Planning for Your Wedding
by Beach Wedding Planning
With the stress of planning a wedding, the last thing you want to do is pile on more. If you are traveling to your beach wedding, how can you make arrangements and keep stress levels low? Here are some tips for planning a perfect beach wedding and keeping your sanity.
A very difficult part of planning your destination wedding will be coordinating the travel plans. Remember, you are not responsible for the travel plans for guests, just your party. Even if they are paying for their own tickets, it is good to make the reservations at once to make sure the stars of the show arrive all together and on time. Making reservations for airline tickets (or other travel tickets) is easier online. Booking hotel rooms online is also easy. Hotel websites have pictures to show you what they look like if you are not familiar with the location. Since you are having your wedding there, the hotel planner might e-mail you some picture too. When you’re ready to reserve rooms, try to do so early. Often, you can get better rates if you schedule far enough in advance.
Another way to save yourself some money is to have your destination wedding during the off season. During tourist seasons, prices are at their peak. If you can go during the less traveled times of the year, you will pay less. You can often find times of the year, though, that are less busy but just as beautiful as far as weather and accommodations. An added bonus is that there will be less congestion in the area and fewer people on the beaches.
You may think that buying a destination wedding package is far more expensive than taking care of every aspect yourself. Often, though, you can book an excellent package that includes travel, accommodations, and more for less than you would spend booking them separately. This is espically true for an All-Inclusive. And you also get the benefit of a wedding coordinator included in the package. Many resorts have a free wedding package that you can take advantage of.
Tour Operators that have All-Inclusive packages year around to most major hotels in the Caribbean and Mexico are FunJet and Apple Vacations. You can also find All-Inclusive packages with Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity. But they are less likely to have the same hotel packages year round. But they are good options for comparisons. Check out our links page for a complete list of travel & tour operator resources.
What about your guests? They are obligated to pay for their own air travel and accommodations. This may deter some people from attending, but you’ll be surprised at how many people will attend a gorgeous destination wedding. You can always offer to pay for someone’s travel, but it is not required, and is not a breach of etiquette if you do not. Instead, you can pay for and host a rehearsal dinner on the night before the wedding to thank your guests for coming.
Having a wedding on a beautiful beach is a dream for many people. With some early organization and planning, you can be saying your “I Do’s” with your feet in the sand and enjoy your wedding instead of stressing over it.
