Over the weekend, Shawn and I received an email from our friends who are getting married in Mexico next spring. The email contained all the info we needed to know to book our trip as well as a link to the resort’s website. While the email came as a surprise, the details in it were not as our smart friends have been prepping us for awhile on their destination wedding.
While I can understand that many couples want a “surprise” element when it comes to their wedding, the fewer surprises the better when it comes to destination weddings. As soon as you know that’s the route you’re taking, make sure to let your friends and family know. And don’t shy away from outlining your potential guest list. Because destination weddings tend to be much smaller than at-home weddings, many people will be unsure about whether or not they’ll be invited and it’s better to let them in on the answer as soon as possible so that those who are invited can start saving up.
Keep your guests in the loop on how your planning is going so that they can do their own planning. With at-home weddings, it’s fine not to reveal any details until everything is set in stone but because of the cost and complexities of destination weddings (for your guests anyway), it’s much better to let the details trickle out. These details will also help you to refine your guest list since they’ll result in you finding out that your choice of a February wedding in Cuba knocks out your Aunt Bettie because she’s travelling Europe then and your cousin Amy’s husband won't be able to attend because he’s American.
When revealing these details, make sure to watch your wording and don’t assume that anyone’s a given guest. Destination weddings can be beautiful and a lot of fun but they can also be a big, costly pain to your guests. Because of that, be prepared for a lot of “Oh, we’ll have to see if we can afford it” and “Oh, we’ll have to see if I can get the time off”-types of answers. Yeah, that probably isn’t the type of response you were looking for but then again, booking a $1000+ plus, week-long trip is a much bigger commitment than planning a single Saturday night out.
Also be prepared to be completely honest about the price of the trip. Don’t give vague answers or say that you’re sure you’ll be able to get everyone a deal. Instead, list off the resort’s selling features, explain why you and your fiancé picked tha place and then take a deep breath and let people know how much it’s going to cost them.
The resort our friends picked isn’t cheap but because they’d already explained why they loved it and why they thought we’d love it, we were able to understand and deal with the price.The resort they picked, in case you’re curious, is the El Dorado SeaSide Suites. I’ll be sure to post a review about it once we get back in April.
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