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Tips for Planning a Destination Wedding
Written by
Karen Zaruba
Here are some of the ways you could go about
starting the planning process for your destination
wedding:
Option A: Hire a professional to help
One option is to hire a wedding consultant who is
familiar with the location where you wish to get
married. This might be a consultant is located in
the place where you're getting married, or a travel
agent or other person who has experience in planning
destination weddings. Don't assume that just any
consultant can automatically meet your needs. A
consultant who is wonderful for local couples may
not be as adept in helping you long-distance. But in
some locales, there are wedding consultants whose
primary business is working with couples from
out-of-town. They are good about faxing, mailing
photos, and taking other special steps to help you.
There are also consultants who aren't limited to any
particular wedding location, but regularly handle
destination weddings.
All told, these may be the most-hassle free way to
plan a wedding, but it will add to your cost. For
example, they may charge a flat fee, or a surcharge
on the cost of all services which they contract for
you. It goes without saying: get references for
anyone you work with.
Option B: Use a hotel, inn, or B&B
The second option is to find a hotel or inn or bed &
breakfast that offers wedding planning services for
guests who stay there. They may have a concierge who
helps with the wedding planning, often for a
ceremony and reception right on site. It's possible
that a hotel offers this service but doesn't
advertise it widely. It's worth asking about.
Option C: Go the Wedding Chapel Route
Another option is to find a wedding chapel at the
location you're interested in. These tend to have
complete packages with photographs, flowers, music,
officiant, even license built right in. Your job is
usually limited to showing up. This is easiest, and
may even be the least expensive. However, you don't
have a lot of control over some of the details, and
you might be put off by the in-and-out nature of the
ceremony.
Option D: Be your own dog.
The fourth option is to do it yourself. You find the
florist, the officiant, the ceremony site, the
baker, the music, the photographer AND SO ON by
yourself. This is probably the toughest way to do
it, but you get to make all the decisions. If you're
a control freak about details it might be the one
you opt for. If you go this route, I'd try hard to
find some sort of local contact--someone who knows
some of the local businesses but who won't profit
personally from any referrals. Here's where setting
up your lodging first can be a help--the hotel staff
or innkeeper may be a great source. Ask at the
newsgroups. Check with your college's alumni
office--see if a fellow graduate lives there. Ask
friends and relatives. I'd bet my left arm that
someone you know knows someone who can make a few
recommendations.
Speaking of local contacts...
Even if you don't do it yourself, you might still
appreciate having a local contact to double-check
some of the plans with and serve as a knowledgeable
second opinion. Find someone!
As for me....
I went with a combination of several methods. I
wanted to "do it myself" for my Charleston wedding,
and had an excellent start on that. I had a few
local contacts, lots of web resources, and
furthermore, I didn't really like the literature I
had seen from the wedding coordinators I contacted.
However, it was too daunting to try to figure out a
ceremony site and officiant. So when two different
Bed & Breakfasts gave me an unsolicited
recommendation of one of the planners, I began to
work with her. She seemed to know what she was
doing, so my stress level plummeted. I took care of
some details myself, leaned on some helpful locals
for other things, and left just a few things to her.
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