Planning and carrying out a successful destination wedding isn’t always easy. You must finagle vendors across far distances and facilitate all of your guests in a locale you may know next to nothing about. Perhaps more so than your standard wedding, destination weddings leave the window wide open for mistakes to occur. Don’t make these five mistakes when plotting and carrying out your destination wedding.
Failing to give your guests enough notice
Destination weddings require more notice than standard weddings. While proper etiquette usually dictates invitations should be mailed three months before the wedding, for a destination wedding, you might want to mail those invites at least four months in advance.
Trying to entertain everybody
For some brides and grooms, they feel obligated to entertain all of their guests throughout the wedding weekend. For destination weddings, this can be particularly true, as you have whisked your guests off to a foreign location. Couples shouldn’t try to entertain everybody during their destination-wedding weekend. You will end up spreading yourself too thin, creating stress in the process.
Placing your wedding attire in checked luggage
Whether you are the bride, the groom or the flower girl for a destination wedding, you will want to carry on your wedding attire, rather than checking it on the flight. Couples should advise everyone in their wedding party to do the same so as to avoid that lost bridesmaid dress at baggage claim.
Avoid locations that are too remote
While you might want to get married on the most deserted island, your guests might be angry about the cost and time involved to get there. Destination wedding couples should have realistic expectations on their location. Extremely remote locations could produce a very small crowd in attendance.
Never visiting your destination wedding location before the wedding
Some couples leave all the planning of their destination wedding up to vendors on the ground at their location. However, you don’t want to arrive to your destination wedding and be completely in the dark. Couples should arrange at least one visit before their wedding to make sure their vision and vendors are on the same page.
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