Hellraiser97
500+ Posts
I know a couple other posters were doing destination weddings, so I thought I would share my thoughts since I just returned from mine:
First off, it's an AWESOME idea. We had 46 guests come and just about everyone of them told me multiple times how great an idea it was.
I'd definitely recommend it, but there are a few things to be wary of.
First, get everything in writing and bring it with you to the resort. We had some confusion on how many guests were included in the package, and we're still dealing with that confusion a bit right now. If there is a language barrier, this will make the confusion even worse. Our wedding planner was fairly fluent in English, but there were still some issues.
Talk to the wedding planner in person on the phone the week before the wedding and go over EVERYTHING one last time. My MIL did this and though there were still some issues, we were better off than some of the other couples at the resort.
Keep it as simple as possible. The more you change things, the messier it is going to get. Neither my wife nor I cared about a lot of stuff, but my MIL had certain things she had to have done certain ways and those ended up being the ones that got messed up.
When you get tot he resort, go over the total cost and what you have paid right away. Make sure you are both on the same page concerning what you have paid, what you still owe for and when you are going to pay the rest. We didn't do this.
I assumed (wrongly) that everything was paid for already or would be by the in-laws. When I checked out, I found out that the second deposite that was due in November of $1k was never paid (I though they paid it, they thought I paid it, and the resort never bothered either us about not paying it) and they gave me bills for things that my MIL apparantly had already paid. Thankfully, the wedding planner was pretty cool about it, I gave her my CC on the condition that they weren't charging anything until we sorted it out this week, and so far they haven't charged anything.
Finally, if you don't want to get charged an assload of money, 'encourage' all of your guests to stay at the resort at least the night of the wedding. We paid $20 a head for each person over 30 at the reception, but for anyone that wasn't in the resort, it was something like $95 a person. Thankfully, we only had one person stay outside the resort.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Even with the inor things that went wrong, the wedding and reception was great and everybody had a great time.
First off, it's an AWESOME idea. We had 46 guests come and just about everyone of them told me multiple times how great an idea it was.
I'd definitely recommend it, but there are a few things to be wary of.
First, get everything in writing and bring it with you to the resort. We had some confusion on how many guests were included in the package, and we're still dealing with that confusion a bit right now. If there is a language barrier, this will make the confusion even worse. Our wedding planner was fairly fluent in English, but there were still some issues.
Talk to the wedding planner in person on the phone the week before the wedding and go over EVERYTHING one last time. My MIL did this and though there were still some issues, we were better off than some of the other couples at the resort.
Keep it as simple as possible. The more you change things, the messier it is going to get. Neither my wife nor I cared about a lot of stuff, but my MIL had certain things she had to have done certain ways and those ended up being the ones that got messed up.
When you get tot he resort, go over the total cost and what you have paid right away. Make sure you are both on the same page concerning what you have paid, what you still owe for and when you are going to pay the rest. We didn't do this.
I assumed (wrongly) that everything was paid for already or would be by the in-laws. When I checked out, I found out that the second deposite that was due in November of $1k was never paid (I though they paid it, they thought I paid it, and the resort never bothered either us about not paying it) and they gave me bills for things that my MIL apparantly had already paid. Thankfully, the wedding planner was pretty cool about it, I gave her my CC on the condition that they weren't charging anything until we sorted it out this week, and so far they haven't charged anything.
Finally, if you don't want to get charged an assload of money, 'encourage' all of your guests to stay at the resort at least the night of the wedding. We paid $20 a head for each person over 30 at the reception, but for anyone that wasn't in the resort, it was something like $95 a person. Thankfully, we only had one person stay outside the resort.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Even with the inor things that went wrong, the wedding and reception was great and everybody had a great time.
