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Destination Wedding Travel Tips
by:
Ben Jamieson
Planning a destination wedding or beach wedding in the
Caribbean
and want as many people to come as possible? Then try making
your wedding plans as attractive and as economical as possible.
There are several ways to cut costs on travel arrangements for
you and your wedding party, we’ve uncovered a few known ways,
and a few unknown ways, but it seems that the key to finding
these deals lies in the terminology you use. By simply searching
out “Group Travel Rates” in search engines you can uncover a
world of discounts and tools that could shave thousands of
dollars off of your wedding expenses.
Here are just a few that we uncovered:
Flights
Most US carriers and some international carriers offer up to 10%
discount off normal fares for groups of 10 or more flying to the
same destination. For added convenience some airlines offer
insert tickets to add to your save-a-date envelopes to inform
guests of this saving.
Some of this information is hidden in layers on airline sites so
we've done the work for you - short cuts to the information you
need:
US Air:
www.usairways.com/travel/group/weddings/index.htm
American
www.aa.com/content/businessPrograms/groupsMeetings/weddingTravel.jhtml
Northwest Air:
www.nwa.com/grouprequest/group_travel.html
You can also save on flights by choosing to have your wedding in
off peak seasons, most airlines will tell you when these are.
Resorts
If your opting for a “weddingmoon”, then you're probably looking
at going to an all inclusive resort. Many all-inclusives offer
FREE weddings to folks staying at the resort ie. Couples booked
in to Sandals for five nights get a free wedding which includes:
the ceremony, flowers, a Caribbean wedding cake, champagne and
hors d’oeuvres reception for the couple and 4 guests plus a
wedding planner dedicated to help make your day perfect. The
down side of these deals is that you might not be the only
couple partaking and the resorts can sometimes feel like
conveyor belt weddings. For this reason all inclusives are now
offering alternative wedding packages that can create an
exclusive feel to your special day. Enquire with each resort.
Boutique or a la carte hotels are also onto the destination
wedding trend and many have created websites and services
specifically geared at the beach bride. Wyndham and Marriott
specifically offer wedding packages and group rates for a set
number of hotel rooms. A wedding planner is complimentary, as is
a wedding gift and The Marriott even offers free parking if you
start your honeymoon off with a nights stay at a Marriott nearby
your airport location.
Wyndam Hotels is offering huge incentives to brides in the form
of “event awards”, free honeymoons and low cost airfares. In
addition to this they offer seasonal rates and discounts for
weddings throughout the year. The Hilton offers a free nights
stay for your one year anniversary and free spa treatments for
the bride and groom on your special day.
It’s definitely worth scrolling through some of the major hotel
chain websites to see if offers are available for when you want
to get married.
Villas
Villa’s or apartments can offer your guests a cheaper
alternative to resort type accommodation and is well worth
adding to your itinerary sheet as a courteous option. Once
you've decided on the location for your beach wedding, head of
to a beach wedding website such as the Beach Wedding Guide at
http://www.islandbrides.com/ and search their
directory for a listing of villas and accommodation in your
chosen region. You'll be able to save your favorite finds, and
contact them all from the site to find out who will give you the
best rate.
You can help your guests even more by giving them all your other
guests contact details and email addresses. This way, they could
hook up to share villa’s with multiple rooms lowering the cost
even more.
So, with a bit of thought and 'insider knowledge' , its possible
to save hundreds, if not thousands on your beach wedding.
This article is one of many from the Beach Wedding Guide at
islandbrides.com.
Islandbrides.com provides the only complete guide to
planning your beach wedding or destination wedding in over 30
Caribbean locations.
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