10 reasons to have a destination wedding
I don’t love hosting and I’m an introvert. Planning a wedding and throwing a big party seemed daunting and has never appealed to me… until we decided to have our wedding abroad. Just like that, I couldn’t wait to plan my wedding! We held our wedding at a small medieval village in Tuscany, Italy. And this year marks our 10th anniversary. We remember our wedding like it was yesterday. We get just as excited thinking and talking about it as we did when we were actually planning it. Having a destination wedding was one of the best decisions we made. It was a reflection of who we are, and the perfect start to our marriage.
Getting married? Here are our top 10 ten reasons why we feel you should consider a destination wedding.
1. You get to travel!
If you have found our website because you love to travel, you need to consider a destination wedding.
If you have a travel bucket list and you’re planning a wedding… well, it’s only efficiency.
Getting to marry (see what I did there :P) your wanderlust with your wedding is of course the top reason to have a destination wedding. Whether your travel style is more laid-back or luxurious, more beach or mountain, more cosmopolitan or wilderness, there is a destination and a venue for you.
2. Smaller, more intimate weddings
Having a destination wedding gives you the option to have smaller weddings, without feeling obligated to invite as many guests. It lets you focus on close family and friends, without offending those you didn’t invite. It will be those you know well who will choose to travel to celebrate you.
(With that being said, there are many destinations that are perfect for hosting large groups, if that is more your vibe.)
3. More time with your guests
Destination weddings usually last more than one day. Your guests might arrive a few days before the wedding or stay a few days afterward. This is a great time to arrange meals or group activities together in a more casual environment. For our wedding, we hosted a pizza party the evening before (made in a true pizza oven), and had an informal excursion the day after.
4. Unique memories for you and your guests
You will have cherished memories of your own wedding regardless of where you have it. Getting married abroad only adds to the unique location, views, food, and activities during your wedding day.
Your guests will not only remember the amazing party you hosted, but will have memories of the trip they took and the vacation they had when they traveled to celebrate you.
5. Chasing good weather!
Here in Canada, we only have 3-4 months where we can (mostly) guarantee a warm and sunny day for a wedding. These weekends book fast. There were years we attended a wedding every weekend or two during the summer months. We even had days where we booked it to multiple weddings on the same day.
Having a destination wedding gives you much more flexibility regarding when you have your wedding. You can have a beach wedding in the winter, or an Italian countryside wedding in the late fall.
6. Incorporate elements of local tradition (or shed conventional traditions)
Having a wedding abroad gives you more flexibility to pick and choose which weddings customs you want to incorporate into your own wedding day, with no obligation one way or the other. It is easier to modify things, as generally, you will have a smaller group of guests to manage, and more time (usually at least a full day if you need).
For example, for our Italian destination wedding, we had a small wedding (30 or so guests), and no wedding party. We had a 3 hour dinner with about 6 different courses. The morning of the wedding, we hosted a Chinese tea ceremony, which all guests could attend as it was at the hotel. We gave out chocolate almonds as wedding favours, as per Italian custom. It was a more laid-back approach and a wonderfully personal day.
7. Less focus on the details, more focus on the day
We’d pursued wedding conventions, made our own Pinterest wedding boards, but in the end, had to worry about very little of that. Flying to a destination, we could not bring a lot of DIY. Our wedding planner secured most of our vendors and organized the decor. We gave our input (colour scheme, the vibe we wanted for our table arrangements, yes to string lights), and simply had to watch it come to life. We didn’t have to worry about as much decor, as the unique backdrop of the location itself more than made up for it.
You can be detailed oriented, but having a destination wedding gives you an excuse not to be (and can’t be to the same degree as if you were local). This frees up some of your mental and physical energy to just focus on and enjoy the wedding itself.
Speaking from 10 years later, it’s not the details you remember. It’s the feeling, and the people.
8. A destination wedding can be cheaper
The main reason it’s cheaper is because the wedding group is typically way smaller. Depending on where you have your wedding, vendors and catering can be significantly cheaper compared to what we have in Canada. And as we just mentioned, you do not have to pay for all the details you might otherwise have to consider when planning a local wedding. (I vaguely remember obsessing over chairs and chair covers at the time – do I remember whether or not we had the chairs I wanted or had chair covers at all? Nope!)
However, this does need to be factored against the cost of *getting there*, and whether you are paying for your guests’ accommodations, meals, special excursions, etc.
9. Incredible photo backdrops
Part of why we travel anywhere is for the scenery. The other part is for the vibe.
When you have a destination wedding, you get to enjoy the scenery and the vibe. I will never forget wandering with our photographer through a small medieval Italian village, with the occasional local shouting “Bella!” from their window. Or enjoying the Tuscan countryside at sunset with vineyards on one side and cypress trees on the other. Sometimes, I can still hardly believe these memories are a part of our wedding day.
10. Enjoy your honeymoon!
Extend your destination wedding by 1-2 weeks and you’ve got yourselves a honeymoon. We were young professionals at the time, and didn’t have a whole lot of money or time off, so this worked out perfectly.
Wedding, honeymoon, and vacation all in one.
BONUS: you can revisit your destination wedding for your anniversaries!
I don’t necessarily mean returning to your destination (although we frequently dream about going back for ours!) But you can make your anniversaries extra special with a little beach getaway, or a special meal, or anything that reminds you of your destination wedding. Our anniversary tradition is always to have Italian, and we always make sure to hunt up a good slice of milliefolgie cream cake (our wedding cake was the most delicious thing we’d ever had!)
