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Whether you want to keep your destination wedding under budget or throw a decadent budget-free bash complete with fireworks and a tiara flown in from the Tower of London, even a wedding where the sky is the limit has a limit, and you’ll have to make decisions about how you want to spend your hard-earned money. One of the most frequently asked destination wedding questions that we hear is “how much does a destination wedding cost?” and unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question, and the ones that are floating around there on well-meaning blogs, forums, and web pages, are all over the board. With over a decade of Destination Wedding planning experience for couples all across America, and as a past destination wedding bride myself, I just want to give you an honest and fair expectation of what to look for – and expect – as you start considering your destination wedding budget. While country, time of year, and resort, can increase your destination wedding cost considerably, you’ll also need to have a basic-as-a-pumpkin-spice-latte understanding of how resort wedding packages work. Just like resorts themselves, not all wedding packages are created equal and some of them have fine print that is easy to miss, but could end up forcing you to pay more than what you initially expected. *The info below is based on all-inclusive resort weddings, and varies based on resort brand. This is to provide you a general idea only, and is subject to change as resorts revamp their packages each year.  Wedding Packages and How They are Structured: 1. Complimentary Package – Ceremony Only Most resort offer a complimentary no-frills wedding package that you can take advantage of. These free wedding packages are quite limited, but couples who are having a very small destination wedding may find that they can make this work. Complimentary Wedding Packages usually includes:
For these reasons, the most affordable destination wedding packages that couples select are usually a mid-range to luxury package that includes a few more people and a wedding reception.
2. Mid-Range Packages These tend to range from $3000-$4000 and are usually the best bang for your buck when it comes to intimate destination weddings where couples expect to entertain 20-30 guests. Mid-Range Wedding Packages Usually Include: (in addition to the services provided in the comp package)
3. Top-tier Packages The next, and honestly, my personal favorite, are the most inclusive packages that can be the best value if you don’t want to indulge with additional add-ons on the other packages, which can end up costing about the same or more later. These packages tend to start around $4000 - $8000, and traditionally include 20-30 guests. It is relevant to also mention that there are a couple resort brands where you can earn many of these wedding components for free (not including décor items), based on how many rooms you book under your group room block. This is not standard at most resort brands, so won't go into detail, but worth notating to discuss with your travel advisor for more details. Top-tier Inclusive Wedding Packages Usually Include: (in addition to the services provided in the above packages)
You may have noticed that most packages only include 10-25 people – but what if you’re planning on having 40-80 guests? Which seems to be a standard size of most destination wedding groups traveling overseas. Destination wedding popularity is on the rise and more guests than ever are accepting the invite – why not make a mini-vacay out of seeing their friend or family get married after all? With that in mind, this is where you need to be careful about who and how many people you invite, as there is an additional "per head" cost that you will pay over the guest count of 20-30 included in the package. I’ve worked with clients who invited 100-200 people to “be nice” but only anticipated and budgeted for about 30-50 guests that they thought would actually attend. When 70-90 guests signed up saying how happy and excited they were to attend the perfect wedding in paradise, my clients ended up paying an additional $10-13,000 that they were not anticipating. While they were all happy to be surrounded by so many who wanted to join them, my cautionary tale above is just to highlight how important it is that you are aware of the pricing and ways that you could end up paying unforeseen costs - in case you do have a strict wedding budget and want to avoid that destination wedding pitfall. Additional Costs You Might Expect to Pay:
Vacation Package Not Included
Lastly, don’t forget that you will still need to pay for your own air, accommodation and transportation, as well as, trip insurance. The travel cost is going to be determined by country, resort, time of travel, season, trip length, room category selected and so on. Many couples tend to spend an additional $4000-$6000 for a week stay in an Ocean Front room category just to give you a general idea. However, most group room blocks allow you to earn complimentary nights you can apply toward your room cost. I hope you found some valuable insight to help you understand how much a destination wedding costs. If you feel overwhelmed or would like assistance to narrow down the perfect destination or resort, we are here for you! We spend most of our vacation time touring resorts, meeting with the wedding coordinators and training for destination weddings, so we can make it very simple for you. We save you time by filtering out all the bad advice and countless options for you. Let us take the guesswork out and match-make you to the destination and resorts that fit your style, vision and budget the best. Together we will find your most perfect wedding resort and we take care of the logistics after that. All you have to do is the fun wedding planning and creating an unforgettable event your friend and family will remember for a lifetime! Schedule your free consultation to see how we can assist and learn more about our services! Experiences Await... #experiencesawait #destinationshd
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Unless you’re planning on eloping, one of the key points to think about when considering if a destination wedding is right for you, is of course, budget. Before you can start day-dreaming about if you want to get married on the beach or on a sky terrace, you’ll need to have some kind of understanding of the cost that will be involved for the people that you absolutely cannot get married without (excluding your one true love obviously!). While the cost of having a destination wedding may end up being cheaper for you to host rather than a traditional “at-home” wedding, the cost to attend your wedding is usually more for your guests – particularly if many of them live in the same location that you would have held a “traditional” wedding. I want to go over a few of the ins and outs of who pays for what when you choose a destination wedding so that you’re prepared and comfortable to start planning your perfect big day!  The Wedding Itself It’s more and more common for the wedding couple to pay for their own wedding, however this is personal to each couple and their family, but one wedding tradition holds true – typically the wedding couple and/or their parents pay for the wedding events, welcome dinner or cocktail party, ceremony and reception (more on why reception/dinners aren’t always included for weddings at an all-inclusive resort in a future article – stay tuned!). Travel, Transportation & Accommodation (you know... Plane, Shuttle & Hotel)
Tours or Excursions Off-Resort This is where you will find some difference of opinions relating to off-site tours or excursions. You may opt to arrange a group adventure, and you can go either way and not feel bad about who pays here. In my experience, it’s about an even divide of couples that may pay for a group tour. There are ways around the budget should you feel like you need to do something. You can pay for a portion of the cost for all guests that want to join – that way it’s not as expensive for you or the guests. Another alternative, instead of paying for the entire group of all your guests, you can do a special excursion just for your wedding party and/or parents as a thank-you in which you can take care of their cost. Additionally, you can still do the entire group but maybe only pay for your wedding party or special guests. If you don’t want to leave anyone out, there is nothing improper to leave it up to the guest to join. Throw out a tour you plan to do and invite everyone to join you if they wish with no obligation should they not want to pay for the extra experience. You will want to plan this one a little earlier so you can get a headcount of who wants to join you – then coordinate with the tour company to ensure you all can book together or possibility offer group discount based on headcount. I suggest organizing this way, because if you let everyone book into your tour on their own, there is a risk that the tour time you booked may no longer be available if it sells out or has an occupancy limit you may not have been aware of. These group events are best to arrange at the same time to ensure everyone will be together.
A simple rule of thumb to remember when trying to determine who should pay for what when it comes to your destination wedding is the following: If it’s wedding related, you should cover the cost, and if it’s travel related, it’s the guests’ responsibility.
I hope you found some valuable insight to get you started. If you feel overwhelmed or would like assistance to narrow down the perfect destination or resort, we are here for you! This is what we do every day! We spend most of our vacation time touring resorts, meeting with the wedding coordinators and training for destination weddings, so we can make it very simple for you. We save you time by filtering out all the bad advice and countless options for you. Let us take the guesswork out and match-make you to the destination and resorts that fit your style, vision and budget the best. Together we will find your most perfect wedding resort and we take care of the logistics after that. All you have to do is the fun wedding planning and creating an unforgettable event your friend and family will remember for a lifetime! Schedule your free consultation to see how we can assist and learn more about our services! “Why should I book a group room block for my destination wedding?” is in the top 5 destination wedding questions that I receive – and it’s a good one! Booking a group room block often requires contracts, deposits, and has terms, conditions and stipulations that can seem overwhelming and unnecessary, especially for smaller destination wedding groups. On top of that, there will always be a destination wedding guest (or two) that don’t like the resort that the wedding will be held at, have a friend who said that they can borrow their time-share, prefers a cheaper hotel stay off-site or simply found a “cheap travel deal” online or at a big box travel retailer store. I have a separate article that goes into detail about the benefits, advantages and disadvantages of group room blocks which you can find HERE. However, I want to focus this article about what happens in the event of a hotel shutdown, evacuation, sale, fire, weather event (like a hurricane!), government-imposed travel restrictions by your destination country or other unforeseen event. Before you start thinking, “well what are the odds of THAT though?!” or “I’ll be fine, because my wedding isn’t scheduled during a predominantly bad weather month”, I do want to gently point out that the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected everyone on a global scale and seemed to come from nowhere. In that same vein, so can hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, fires, blizzards and hotel acquisitions – and yes, I do mean that your hotel could be sold to another owner before your wedding and they may have plans to shut down and renovate! Yikes! I'm going to warn you now, that this is a relatively a long article. :) There is so much to know and understand which often go overlooked before it's too late. I have gone through many of the above scenarios with clients, and wanted to share one of the latest stories I've encountered with a wedding group just a couple weeks ago...  Throughout my 11 years of planning destination wedding travel, I've had at LEAST one event per year affect a wedding group of mine and sadly, sometimes 2-3 in a year! Considering that I usually only accept a maximum of 20 weddings per year, so I can dedicate the time and attention required to my couples and their guests, it's statistically high odds that you might be affected by an unforeseen event – which in turn means that your guests will also be affected. In addition to the coronavirus pandemic affecting all destination wedding couples in some way, one of my wedding groups had to do deal with two separate situations that wreaked havoc on their wedding vacation. While originally, they had done “all of the right things” and booked their wedding well out of hurricane season, when COVID hit, they (along with every other couple, group, and vacationer) had to reschedule due to travel restrictions and hotel closures. Due to the options offered in the early COVID chaos period – the availability was scarce, and they had to select an early October postponement. Unfortunately, a sizeable hurricane began to head toward the popular tourist region where their wedding was scheduled just a day before travel – while rare, nothing is impossible, and thankfully the hurricane weakened before it made landfall and people in the area had time to evacuate to remain safe. The resort the wedding group was scheduled to arrive at, sustained damage and had to cease operation for repairs. The guests who were already staying at the resort, and those who were scheduled to arrive in the next few days (such as my wedding group!) were all diverted to a sister resort that had not been impacted by the hurricane. What I really want to do, is give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what happens to a destination wedding group during an unforeseen emergency. Below will outline three ways your guests may make their room reservation to attend your wedding, and everything to think about BEFORE they do, just in case something like the above scenarios may happen to you, perish the thought! The group mentioned above was comprised of wedding guests who booked in the following three ways:
Booking Style #1 It probably goes without saying that if you book with the travel agent and within a group room block that you’re likely to fare better, but let me share the specific reasons why...
Booking Style #2 These guests are often wary of “contracts”, travel advisors, and are savvy personal vacation planners who may have simply found a promotional deal through a third-party travel retailer. While there is nothing wrong with that, should an unforeseen emergency arise, they are often left with the following problems:
Booking Style #3 The most risky, whether there is an unforeseen event or not, but especially in the case of a destination wedding group moving locations due to an emergency. Should something happen, these guests that decided to stay off-resort often have no recourse at all – whether prompt or otherwise.
Day Passes As regular readers and clients of mine will already know, I would never recommend counting on purchasing a resort day pass to attend a destination wedding – too much can go wrong here. You can read more about why here. However, in the event of a situation that requires guests to be moved to a different property, the reason is simple:
Refunds or Partial Refunds This is a hot topic and an important one when facing emergency situations that require a change in plans and accommodation. Unfortunately, force majeure events are not usually covered in any travel package terms and conditions – this is where travel insurance becomes a vital backup. While travel insurance policies have their own terms and conditions, oftentimes you’ll find that you are usually covered for reimbursement of some, if not all, expenses incurred in an emergency situation*. *For specific terms, conditions, and coverage policy details you will need to reach out to your preferred travel insurance provider to discuss. Most hotels and airlines are not required to reimburse you in anyway or to “make up” for the fact that an event impacted your trip, so if provider offers anything at all, is usually in the faith of good customer service, but not all companies will make exceptions. With that in mind, if you are booked with a group who has entered into a group room block contract and has a travel advisor on your side, you’ll tend to find that the travel agent will advocate on your behalf for possible partial refunds or additional comps, perks and amenities for the trip interruption that you faced. Online or big box travel retailers do not provide these services and the single traveler is unlikely to get far when asking for favors – the simple truth is that a good destination wedding travel agent already has a relationship with the right people in addition to being likely to promote and sell the resort in the future for groups and as such, will have more chance of using that leverage to your advantage. What to Expect If Disaster Strikes Understanding the behind-the-scenes details when disaster strikes (whether it be natural, managerial, or accidental), can help better appreciate why it can appear that resorts are slow to act. In the example of any disaster, the safety of the guests and staff comes first, and their comfort second. The order in which this works is also tied to guests already on property and then transitions to guests who are scheduled to arrive next and so on – but priority is always given to those guests who are currently at the hotel. During this time staff are overwhelmed with moving guests to safety, securing the grounds and retrieving guest belongings from the rooms to forward on to the new property - just to name a few. This flurry of activity often results in delayed check-in and room allocation at the new property as the staff works with accommodating the influx of new guests and belongings that they were not prepared for. This can take quite some time especially as the staff navigates displaced guests and groups and attempts to accommodate all the special requests that were included in the original booking, as they transfer essential details into their computer systems – all while continuing to manage the property and the guests currently in place and who were scheduled to arrive. The best thing that you can do is be patient, flexible, and enjoy the resort amenities while you let the resort staff tackle the monumental task at hand – remember, they want you to be safe, happy and to have a wonderful vacation, so they are doing all that they can to ensure that you leave with a positive experience!
I hope you found some valuable information to help you understand the importance of protecting your destination wedding and your guests with a group room block. If you feel overwhelmed or would like assistance to navigate contract negotiations, we are here for you! This is what we do every day!
We spend most of our vacation time touring resorts, meeting with the wedding coordinators and training for destination weddings, so we can make it very simple for you. We save you time by filtering out all the bad advice and countless options for you. Let us take the guesswork out and match-make you to the destination and resorts that fit your style, vision and budget the best. Together we will find your most perfect wedding resort and we take care of the logistics after that. All you have to do is the fun wedding planning and creating an unforgettable event your friend and family will remember for a lifetime! Schedule your free consultation to see how we can assist and learn more about our services! Now that you’ve chosen your destination there’s no stopping you from day-dreaming your way through the work week about the imminent wedding and honeymoon bliss that is to be yours in just a few short months. But take note, before you go packing three bathing suits because you can’t pick just one, now is the time to talk about the not-so-fun stuff that could ruin your entire vacation – or stop it from happening altogether. In this article, I'll walk you through some passport requirements for international travel that you may not be aware of... such as expiration dates, application times and criminal convictions. 
As an example, if your passport expires within six months of your return travel date, you won’t be able to enter St. Lucia, Italy, Canada, and so many others. Additionally, if your passport expires within three months of your departure back to the U.S. from France, you won’t be able to leave the country at all. While getting stuck in France indefinitely and taking up a new life as a French fashion icon might sound fun, it might not work out so perfectly in reality. Passport restrictions are different depending on the destination you’re visiting, which is why you definitely need to be educated before you go. So, what could really go wrong? You’re not a criminal and you have a certified passport, so whatever hiccup occurs could certainly be easily fixed. Not quite. Not adhering to a countries passport requirements could cost you quite a bit of money and in the worst-case scenario could result in you being detained in a foreign place, unable to return home until you can get a passport renewal expedited. It is your responsibility to know the regulations of the country you are traveling to. Otherwise, when you arrive you may learn some devastating news. Also be aware of the layovers you may have in countries other than your destination, because you can be held accountable for that countries passport laws too, even if you don’t leave the airport. If one place requires three months to consider your passport valid, but your connecting flight requires six you could get stuck in limbo. It's not just about the expiration date either, some countries have strict rules of how many blank passport pages you must still have to be considered valid. Do your research in advance to ensure you meet the requirements.
Unfortunately, when COVID-19 caused the passport office to close operations in March 2020, those typical turnaround times flew out the window. When the passport agencies started re-opening and processing applications again, they are operating in phases with limited offices and staff. Each location is under different phases of their re-opening plan, and the situation is being monitored closely as the fluidity of the situation continues to develop. Expedited services are still temporarily suspended (at time of writing), except for cases involving life-or-death emergencies. Therefore, it’s a very important time to plan ahead – especially if you typically procrastinate these things. Go check your passport expiration now to see if you should begin your application or renewal process sooner than later. Get a jump on your application to avoid disappointment in case your passport doesn’t arrive in time, making you miss out on your trip. Lastly, as if the ins and outs of passport laws and customs weren’t overwhelming enough, you also need to have an understanding about the actual laws of the country you are visiting. For example, several countries place restrictions on entry towards people with a criminal conviction – no matter how far in the past it might have been. Passengers without proper documentation, or that fail to meet destination requirements, can be denied boarding or entry at the international destination and you won’t be entitled to a refund or future credit. Do not pass “go”, do not collect $200. On top of how stressful that would be, you’d also still have to coordinate your flight home – and bear in mind, most of us tend to buy tickets that can only be used on the dates we purchased them for, so that new ticket home would have at your own expense. It would be terrible to ruin the destination wedding or honeymoon you daydreamed about the past year by getting stuck in an outside country and having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new passport or unexpected travel costs, so take the measures not to make sure that doesn’t happen. You can find out everything you need to know about the destination you’re visiting and its passport laws via The Department of State’s Passport Services website and by talking to your travel professional. You can also follow the updates of the passport offices and expedited services at the U.S. Passports Travel State Government site.
I hope you found some valuable insight about the expectations of the different passport laws to look out for before you travel. If you feel overwhelmed or would like assistance about the entry requirements or help to narrow down the perfect destination or resort, we are here for you!
I will walk you though any questions and ensure you are prepared with the correct documentation for your trip. I also spend most my vacation time touring resorts, meeting with the wedding coordinators and training for destination weddings, so I can make it very simple for you. I'll save you time by filtering out all the bad advice and countless options for you. Let me take the guesswork out and match-make you to the destination and resorts that fit your style, vision and budget the best. Together, we'll find your most perfect wedding resort and I'll take care of the logistics after that. All you have to do is the fun wedding planning and creating an unforgettable event that your friend's and family will remember for a lifetime! Schedule your free consultation to learn more about our services! Experiences Await... #experiencesawait #destinationshd Before you get too far into dreaming of the perfect beach wedding dress and walking down the aisle in a tropical paradise to say “I do”, you first need to choose the date before you start planning your destination wedding. If you have a special date in mind that means a lot to you and your partner, you’ll need to consider a few things before you want to settle on the location that you’ll married at. Even for those of you that have more date flexibility, there are still some important factors that will play a role in deciding when is the best time of year for a destination wedding. In addition to all the below influences in figuring out your perfect wedding date, keep in mind that Friday and Saturday evening weddings are the most popular and are the first to go. Quickly followed by the day before and after, so if you are considering a Thursday to Sunday wedding date to create a long weekend for guests, I highly recommend you start planning around 12-16 months prior. On the latter side if you’re hoping for that unique memorable date such as 11/11/21, 2/2/2022 or 4/22/22 – you can bet there are hundreds of others trying to get the same date, so you have to be first! Below will highlight our tips for how to pick the best wedding date and what to consider before you start planning your destination beach wedding...  Guest Commitments While you won’t need to take a poll and find out all of your guests schedules for the next two years when you pick your wedding date, you will want to think about those closest to you, and who you absolutely do not want to get married without being in attendance – and for these guests, you may want to reach out for tentative information about their availability. One of the biggest guest commitments to take into consideration is actually related to their children – if they have kids and if those children are school age or not. Many parents may not want to – and in some cases be unable to – remove their children from school to attend an international wedding, and particularly if their kids are in sports, extra-curriculars and/or in junior or senior year of high school. On the other hand, this might be ideal if you are hoping for an adults-only wedding! Selecting a date that you know won’t be ideal for a child’s schedule, may make it easier for you to request no kids, but also the parents may not feel as bad for leaving the kids knowing they have activities keeping them busy with their care-givers. Additionally, you may want to check if those closest to you have any “blackout” dates at their workplace – these are dates in which employees are heavily encouraged not to request to use time off because the business is just too busy – such as accountants in tax season. While this may not be a deal-breaker, it’s nice to consider your guests when you start planning your dream wedding! Weather Weather can wreak havoc on the most well-laid plans and unfortunately Mother Nature will do as she pleases, regardless of how long you’ve been planning your destination wedding! The easiest way to circumvent her and set yourself up for wedding success though, is to have a thorough understanding of the seasonal destination wedding weather of the location(s) that you are considering. You’ll find that many tropical destinations have a high humidity rating and relentless heat during the US summer months, which can be so oppressive that it’s nearly impossible to enjoy yourself outside of the pool – or even keep makeup and hair in place. This can be especially uncomfortable for those who prefer a more formal men’s attire, because dress pants, dress shirts and closed toe shoes in formidable temperatures is not a good combination. Another often over-looked piece of the equation is ocean and pool temperature. Due to the balmy weather found year-round in destination wedding paradises, some resorts don’t offer heated options for plunge pools, swimout suites, and even the main pools – and of course there is no way to regulate ocean temperature (not without a specific superhero power at least). This means that if any swimmable water, such as swimout or plunge pools are located in an area that blocks the sunlight for part of the day, you’ll be paying for a fancy feature that will be too cold to use in the “winter” season! Similar can be said of the ocean – while shade isn’t the problem, the significant drop in temperature in the evenings of these cooler months tend to mean that the ocean can be quite chilly in this season. This varies depending on where you travel to, but just know that not all Caribbean water is warm in the winter months. On top of the above, hurricanes, rainy seasons and seaweed can significantly effect quite a few tropical destination wedding locations at varying times of the year, so you may need to consider date flexibility, and if that’s not an option, destination flexibility.
Ecological Events Briefly touched on in my Savvy Soulmates Guide to Planning a Destination Resort Wedding, ecological events can be found across Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean – such as turtle nesting season, sargassum seaweed, and red tides. During turtle nesting season for instance, areas of the beach where the turtles need to nest are off limits and as such, cannot be used – so if your heart is set on a sunset beach wedding or reception, you’ll need to find another location, resort or date that won’t be affected by this. On the other end of the spectrum, ecological events such as Whale Migrations are also seasonal events that many people love to plan their unique wedding concepts around. In the same vein as the above, you’ll need to select a date that falls within this spectrum for the chance to have such a momentous event take place during your proceedings. Holidays – Local and International Many couples think that planning their destination wedding to fall over a holiday weekend is the best of both worlds – kids are out of school, most people are off of work an extra day, so why not jet off to paradise for a beautiful wedding and some fun and sun?! The only caveat is that – everyone else is off of work and school. This means that holiday periods have limited availability AND resorts and airfare are often priced significantly higher than non-holiday periods. This can occasionally be circumvented by being the proverbial early bird and getting your contract and air locked in early, so if you have always dreamed of a Valentines Day wedding or are thinking of using Spring Break as a way to ensure travel easier for your guests, you should jump on the train well over a year in advance! Christmas Couples – many resorts do not allow weddings on major holidays such as Christmas or New Years, because they usually have resort wide events that ALL resort guests are invited to partake in. If your absolute dream is to have a destination wedding on a major holiday, I recommend reaching out to a destination wedding travel agent to discuss your options. The other holiday factor to take into account are the local holidays of the country that you’re visiting. If you don’t do your due diligence with researching your destination wedding locations local holidays, you may find that a weeklong national holiday event is taking place the week of your wedding. If this happens to you and your partner, you could suffer from limited vendors availability, limited staff on the resort, resort wide events to celebrate, limited accommodation availability as local nationals are off work and vacationing too, increased pricing due to requesting services on national holidays, or simply have nothing to do in the place you chose for its breadth of nightlight and local activities because the locals are off enjoying their holiday and you find many closed businesses and shops. Budget While no-one wants to spend more than they need to, some couples prefer to stick to a tighter budget for their destination wedding. With that in mind, you’ll want to get to know the peak and off-peak seasons of the destinations that you are considering and begin looking at wedding dates that fall into those off-peak parameters. Just be aware – off-peak is often priced lower for a reason, so you’ll need to be very careful that your “great deal” doesn’t coincide with a weather, ecological or holiday event in the country where you’re getting married that may affect your experience! I hope you found some valuable insight on what to consider before deciding on your date for your dream destination wedding. If you feel overwhelmed or would like assistance to narrow down the perfect destination or resort, we are here for you!
We spend most of our vacation time touring resorts, meeting with the wedding coordinators and training for destination weddings, so we can make it very simple for you. We save you time by filtering out all the bad advice and countless options for you. Let us take the guesswork out and match-make you to the destination and resorts that fit your style, vision and budget the best. Together we will find your most perfect wedding resort and we take care of the logistics after that. All you have to do is the fun wedding planning and creating an unforgettable event your friend and family will remember for a lifetime! Schedule your free consultation to see how we can assist and learn more about our services! At some stage during your destination wedding planning process, you’re likely to be exposed to the idea that some of your guests might want to stay in a different hotel than where you are hosting the other guests and your dream wedding. Closely tied to this, are going to be guests who question why they should book through your destination wedding website or destination wedding travel agent if they find a cheaper travel deal somewhere else. This article is going to help you understand how to navigate those questions and give you insider knowledge about the disadvantages that could give you extra unwanted headaches if your guests decide to go rogue! While your guests are free to do what works best for themselves and their families, there are factors that should be considered when advising your guests and answering questions about attending your destination wedding...  Most often, destination wedding guests will stay on-site for a few days so that they can take part in all of the wedding activities and the big day itself. Some may decide to either stay a few more days or head to a different nearby hotel to have their own mini vacation, so this works out perfectly for everyone! Woot, who doesn’t love perfect outcomes and easy guests?! All-inclusive resorts don’t operate the same as traditional local hotels, so if you have guests who want to stay at a different resort the entire time, you (and they) need to understand that they will NOT be allowed to attend your wedding without buying a wedding day pass* to get on to the property – and passes range from $70-150 per person with strict limitations about how long they can stay on-site, as the resorts have restricted hours for when off-site guests can arrive and must depart the premises on the wedding day ONLY. *Important note to consider is that day passes are NOT guaranteed. Due to safety and fire codes, if the resort is at capacity, they will not be allowed to provide day passes to anyone, regardless of how much someone is willing to pay or if they are supposed to be a part of your wedding. You will also have to break the news that they won’t be able to hang out with you at your resort any other days, besides the wedding day with that pass. Therefore, you would have to make off-site arrangements to spend time with them – which is going to mean outlaying more money for transport to meet somewhere, and having to pay out of pocket for whatever it is that you go do. Additionally, you’ll have to leave the rest of your guests enjoying the property that you oh-so-carefully selected for your dream destination wedding, just so you can catch up with those who chose to stay elsewhere. It’s not ideal. Furthermore, the best destination wedding resorts have a limit on the number of guests that can stay off-site and still attend the wedding. The policies found within the fine print of your wedding package contract will state that you have to have a certain percentage of your guests staying on the property in order to qualify for your wedding package. For your own sanity and to ensure your guests can definitely celebrate with you - it's highly recommended to have everyone stay on property for at least 3-4 nights, which is the usual minimum stay for group room blocks. This way, they can enjoy time with you and attend all the events before they switch hotels to stay elsewhere on their own, or depart after your wedding with the memories and fun that you all created together! What if My Guests Find a Cheaper Deal? If your guests shop around for the best deals on resort vacations, there is a good chance that a few of them will come across a cheap travel deal. There is always something out there that may pop up or a new limited promotion through a certain date – it is inevitable in this digital world. However, it is highly unlikely that the deal that one guest found, will be available for all, so often times your group room rates will be the best deal, not to mention the amenities you can earn on top of that. Online sites tend to offer a few rooms at a cheap promotional rate and then raise the rates once those are sold OR it could be the last of their contracted inventory they are dumping at a cheap rate to ensure it’s off their books. There is also a concern that it might be a “too good to be true” travel deal. The flight might have a 16-hour layover or arrive the next day, which can be an easy detail to miss when booking on your own. The cheaper resort rate could also be due to room inventory being sold are the rooms above the kitchen, parking lots, or nightclubs. Cheap vacation booking sites often contract the most undesirable room locations in order to be able to offer these so-called deals. You may also find that the fine print states that your guest has an additional fee upon arrival, and most importantly, are subject to being moved to another resort if they overbook. Last but not least, those deals are nearly always non-refundable and must be paid in full at time of booking. Many learned the hard way from the recent pandemic that monies paid to a third-party travel website aren’t the concern of the hotel or airline being booked, so those suppliers can’t assist you and redirect you to the company you purchased from. Unfortunately, you are left to fight with the online travel site directly – so if they shut their doors and walk away, like many travelers sadly endured as some operators closed soon after travel became restricted. A company’s finances and sustainability are the last thing someone thinks about before booking a trip, but will now need to start considering for future travel planning. Keep in mind, you will also need to personally track each guest who books outside your room block, and ensure they provide you with their travel details, so that you can pass along the information to your wedding coordinator for headcount and room location. You will also need to make sure that your guests on their own, have transportation arranged too - as they won't be included with the others under your group room block. They will be on their own should any issues arise and will not be included to receive any of the travel instructions, advice, event info etc.. that your destination wedding travel advisor may pass along to those who are booked under your group. If for some reason there is a significant difference in price that continues, let your travel advisor know ASAP! They can go back to renegotiate pricing as there may have been a change to the resort or restructuring that occurred after your contracted rates were supplied. It shouldn't be an issue to get those changed for everyone already booked and for the other rooms holding in your block. Don’t forget you will also most likely earn additional amenities such as free nights, room upgrades and/or wedding benefits based on the number of rooms booked under your group block. Any reservations booked outside the group will not be included in the count to earn those extras, so it could be important to direct your guests to book through your room block. Urging your guests to trust you, the process, and your travel advisor is the best way to ensure that everything goes according to plan with minimal opportunity for problems before your wedding, so that you can then get on with the entire point – marrying your best friend in a paradise and having fun! You will give your guests and yourself peace-of-mind knowing someone will be on your side until returning home.
I hope you found some valuable insight to help you confidently answer your guests questions! If you feel overwhelmed or would like assistance to field guest questions, narrow down the perfect destination or resort, we are here for you! This is what we do every day!
We spend most of our vacation time touring resorts, meeting with the wedding coordinators and training for destination weddings, so we can make it very simple for you. We save you time by filtering out all the bad advice and countless options for you. Let us take the guesswork out and match-make you to the destination and resorts that fit your style, vision and budget the best. Together we will find your most perfect wedding resort and we take care of the logistics after that. All you have to do is the fun wedding planning and creating an unforgettable event your friend and family will remember for a lifetime! Schedule your free consultation to see how we can assist and learn more about our services! |
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