How do you actually plan a destination wedding?
HA! Photography has had the opportunity to photograph some really amazing destination weddings. One of those weddings took place last year in wine country, ca.
Rachel and Matt were married last March in Sonoma Valley, CA. Happy Anniversary you two! Rachel and Matt were married at the beautiful Madrona Manor in Healdsburg, California. Rachel grew up all over the place, but one of the places she calls home is Orlando, where we went to high school together. Planning a destination wedding was a logical choice for her, as she has many different places that she calls ‘home’.
Rachel shares some of her advice on planning a destination wedding:
Why did you choose to have a destination wedding?
Destination weddings are good if you want something intimate and, surprisingly, if you want to have a nice wedding yet keep costs down. The reason for this is that only the most important people will make the effort to attend, and the easiest way to cut down on costs is to decrease the number of people you invite. For me, most of the important people were spread across the country anyway, so no matter where I had the wedding it would have been a “destination,” but not having it in my home town gave an easy excuse for the next-door neighbors and colleagues that I’ve just met to not have to come.
What is special about the location you chose to get married at?
Identifying a location to get married was easier than I thought. I had identified that I wanted to have an outside wedding, so for that time of year, I looked for locations that would be warm enough. After I narrowed that down, I simply had to decide what was more my style: beach wedding in the keys, or garden wedding in wine country. If I had wanted to get married inside, I might have identified the kind of architecture that would go with my style (perhaps a stone church in New England or a French style in New Orleans), and then find the part of the country that has that.
What was the hardest part about planning your destination wedding?
Like a home-town wedding, you’re still going to check things out online–prices, packages, etc.–but it might be harder to choose a venue if you don’t already know the area, or if you can’t visit. For me, I was already out visiting my parents in San Francisco so we took the day to go and check out venues and found something I loved. So I would have to say the hardest part was finding a hair-stylist. Most didn’t want to do my hair on the wedding day unless I had seen them before, but after emailing around a bit, I found someone who would work with me. It helped that I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, and that it wasn’t overly complicated.
What advice do you have for other brides planning a destination wedding?
Choose a turn-key venue, it will make all the difference. What I mean by that is this: find a place that will do the food, the cake-cutting, provide the wine and alcohol, chairs…all of it. If you’re not from the area, you don’t have the time to coordinate with the rental companies about what brands of wine you want to use, or the if you want the mahogany or oak dance floor. Having a location that does it all for you simplifies things immensely, and honestly, not having the options for off-white or eggshell colored napkins just makes things so much less stressful for you. Other than that, just relax! Weddings aren’t as complicated as magazines want you to think.
What special touches did you add to your wedding to make it truly unique?
I absolutely love glass bottles, and had seen in a magazine that an easy decorating tip was to get lots of little vials and put different flowers in them. I thought, such a brilliant idea! I could get bottles and flowers for each person, and then not only would I have a unique decoration, but favors as well. And with a little twine and brown paper with the guests names beautifully written by my matron of honor, they acted as name-plates as well. The glass bottles took some finding on ebay, but the florist really liked the idea, and we decided use the same flowers I had in my bouquet to put in the bottles, and the whole ordeal cost around $2/guest, if that.
What websites were a big help to you as you were planning?
Google! Google and I became really good friends while I planned my wedding. Oh, and theknot.com helped me keep track of my guests. It wasn’t particularly amazing, but I could update information there and email all the guests if I had something I needed to say.
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