A destination wedding can be any size, but there are many unique things to consider and plan for when you're going to be travelling for your wedding day.
If you and your partner come from different locations, met while travelling, want to get married where you'll be honeymooning, or just want a holiday wedding, then a destination wedding is the perfect option for you.
Going away for your wedding is an appealing thought - after all, your wedding day is supposed to be magical, and what's more magical than a holiday? However, there are a lot of things you have to consider before locking in your dream destination wedding.
Technically, any of the other wedding types I've already discussed can be a destination wedding - you can elope abroad, have an intimate, small wedding in a different state, or throw a grand, large wedding at a resort. But there are a whole swathe of logistics that have to be taken into account when it comes to destination weddings that make them unique, no matter what size they are, so they get their own article.
First up, you need to choose your destination. When you say 'destination wedding', most people will think of getting married overseas, but you don't have to go quite that far your day to count. Getting married anywhere that isn't your home town is going to require a lot of the same unique planning that an overseas wedding does, and definitely still earns the title of destination wedding.
When choosing your location, you have to consider the local climate, any special events that are held in that area, availability of accommodation, ease of travel, politics of the area, language barriers, and any legal requirements for getting married there.
Things like the climate, accommodation, travel requirements and politics are going to impact who you can include on your guest list - elderly grandparents probably won't be up for a trip that includes a 20 hour flight followed by an hour on a bus and then a walk to the resort, or some members of the LGBTQ+ community may not feel safe travelling to certain countries, for example - and the language, legalities and logistics are going to impact your ability to effectively plan and host the day.
With all of that in mind, trying to organise a destination wedding can easily become overwhelming! To save your sanity and your time, having a professional help navigate the planning will ensure that nothing is missed and that your event is organised to be both spectacular and safe.
It's strongly recommended that you hire a wedding planner who is local to the destination where you want to get married, as they'll have a much better understanding of local requirements and customs, and will be able to use their established connections with local vendors to organise deals and check in on things throughout the planning process.
At a minimum, you'll absolutely need a day-of coordinator to ensure that things run smoothly on the actual wedding day - most resorts will include a coordinator in their wedding packages. If you're not 100% sure what the difference is between a planner and a coordinator, you can read all about that here.
If you would like to get legally married overseas, you'll have to check the requirements - some places just won't allow non-residents to get married there, while others will require a lot of extra paperwork and checks, asking for things such as medical certificates, letters of intent, proof of residency and things to prove that you're not planning to get married and then stay in that country illegally.
A lot of people who have destination weddings have legal ceremonies at home beforehand, to avoid the extensive paperwork required to hold a legal marriage elsewhere. As I discussed in the articles on eloping and micro weddings, State Marriage Registries are a great option for Aussie couples looking to get legally married without any of the extras that usually come with a wedding ceremony.
The possibilities for ceremonies and the particulars for these will vary state by state, so make sure to check your local registries office website, but often they'll offer a 'legal only' package that is a fuss free, cheaper option. In Victoria, for example, you can have a 15 minute long, legal only wedding ceremony with a provided celebrant, the couple, two witnesses and a professional photographer (and an interpreter, if required).
Even if you do have a legal ceremony beforehand and the destination wedding is purely celebratory, you still need to ensure that you've got the correct travel documents - a valid licence for interstate travel, and a valid passport and the correct visas for overseas travel. You need to double check the expiry date of your passport, too, as some countries require there to be a minimum amount of time left before expiry to let you travel there, so even if it's still valid for another two months after your wedding date, you may not be allowed in.
Certain locations may also require proof of vaccination histories, or extra documentation for particular prescription medications that are more tightly controlled over there than your home country.
This is all important stuff that you as a couple are going to need to organise, and then communicate clearly to all of your guests to ensure that they can get it sorted before it's too late to get tickets, too. Because of this, destination weddings take longer to plan than usual, and you'll need to give your guests much more notice, too - send out the save the dates a full year before the wedding, at a minimum, and ensure that they have all pertinent information everyone will need to book their travel and accommodation.
Once all of the legalities are organised, you've then got all of the usual wedding planning to do, but there are still a few unique things you have to consider, like the venue options and transporting everything to site.
For the venue, all-inclusive resorts or hotels can be fantastic options for destination weddings. They can drastically cut down the logistics of planning, as they often include an in-house planner or coordinator, discounts on accommodation, food and beverage packages, and other vendors, and have spaces already dedicated to hosting wedding ceremonies and receptions that you can book. While you'll have to read the contracts closely to check exactly what's included for what price, what the minimum guest numbers are to be eligible for certain discounts, and whether or not you're allowed to bring in outside vendors that you've specifically hired, these packages can be a great way to save stress for both you and your guests, who can also benefit from accommodation discounts and the ease of having all of the wedding events in one easy to access location.
If you opt to go for something more bespoke, and hand-pick your different venues and vendors, it's polite to provide your guests with a range of recommendations for potential accommodation near the wedding site, ideally at a range of price points, as well as details for travelling to and from the ceremony and reception sites.
You also have to consider how to transport your wedding attire. You'll have to take climate and weather into account when picking your dress (a heavy mikado silk is beautiful for a mild day at a country château but a lightweight, breathable lace would be much better for a wedding in the humid tropics) as well as how the fabric holds onto creases.
Although it's always recommended to steam your dress the night before the wedding, certain fabrics crease easier than others, and it'll be harder to press the creases from being folded and transported out of some dresses than others once you've arrived at your destination. You can try to minimise creases by not packing your wedding gown in your checked baggage and carrying it on instead, folded in half in its protective garment bag, although this does also add another layer of stress as you have to carry your wedding dress around an airport and have to double check your airline's carry-on size restrictions beforehand.
Once all of the logistics have been taken care of, though, a destination wedding can be a truly magical experience. Due to how far everyone travels to be there, they're often multi-day affairs, with dinners beforehand, brunches or lunches the day after, and casual parties or sight-seeing trips organised around the wedding day. Depending on the dynamics of your group, these can be organised by you as a couple, with everyone invited, or you can encourage your guests to organise these extras among themselves.
These added celebrations, and the joy of being somewhere new, away from all of life's daily responsibilities, add a real sense of revelry and fun to destination weddings that's hard to reproduce.
added magic
Choosing to get married somewhere away from home can add a sense of gravitas to the day. The extra travel and the uniqueness of the destination can make it truly special, and imbue everything with a little extra magic. Even the little things that you'd usually not pay much attention to at home stand out more and feel more important and nicer when you're away on holiday, and that can be doubled when you include a wedding in the trip.
The party atmosphere can continue over multiple days/events if you'd like it to, as your guests have travelled to be there, specifically for your wedding, and will be open to your schedule. Having a destination wedding, especially if you include other peripheral events, can really strengthen bonds with your guests, as you experience these unique events together and create memorable moments for them throughout their time away.
You also don't need to stress as much about making your wedding stand out when you've got such a stunning location keeping your guests captivated and providing the perfect backdrop for your big day.
all-inclusive packages
All-inclusive resort and hotel packages can be life savers for planning destination weddings. They drastically cut down on the amount of work you need to put into planning, as many of the logistics and details are taken care of by professionals who are knowledgable of what's required and what's available to ensure you have the best day possible. They can provide also provide discounts, and other helpful local knowledge, such as what attractions are worth making time to see while you're visiting the area.
Of course, read your contracts carefully before signing, but an all-inclusive package is definitely worth looking into to cut down on your wedding planning stress.
potential for smaller guest lists
A destination wedding is one way to 'organically' cut down your guest list, if that's something you're looking to do. Travel requirements often mean that certain people won't be able to attend, and they may be more likely to understand not being there for your big day if it's due to travel logistics rather than you flat-out not inviting them.
This can be a risky strategy (that distant relative you don't want to come may have gotten over their fear of flying!) and it might lead to people that you actually do want coming not being able to, but if you'd like a more intimate wedding, with less guests to manage, a destination wedding can be one way to end up with a smaller guest list.
early start to the honeymoon
If you choose to get married in the same location you'll be honeymooning, the celebrations can roll straight on from the reception, and the relaxing get away can begin immediately after your wedding. There's no need for extra travel, or flying anywhere while you're exhausted from hosting and dancing for hours, not to mention all of the emotions of the day.
Your guests are likely to be staying in the same area, or even the same hotel, for a few days after the wedding, too, so you can expect to run into some of them - if you'd like more privacy, you might have to make it clear when you're out of hosting mode and into honeymoon mode at a brunch or lunch after the wedding, where you can make a short thank you speech that mentions that you're on your honeymoon proper now. Most guests will get the hint, but there'll be plenty of opportunities for you and your partner to have time alone if you organise a separate itinerary, and it means that you can continue bonding and celebrating with your friends and family if you'd like to.
legal complexities
There are already a lot of legalities to consider when getting married domestically or locally, and that list grows exponentially longer with a destination wedding. There are a lot of requirements to get married abroad, with some places requiring a lot of extra paperwork and checks, asking for things such as medical certificates, letters of intent, proof of residency and things to prove that you're not planning to get married and then stay in that country illegally. Others just flat out won't allow non-residents to get married there.
And once the actual wedding legalities are sorted, you still need to organise your travel documents - a valid licence for interstate travel, and a valid passport and the correct visas for overseas travel. You need to ensure your passport's expiry date is within the allowed time-frame, and certain locations may also require proof of vaccination histories, or extra documentation for medications that are more tightly controlled over there. It's a lot of paperwork to keep track of, and can easily become overwhelming.
higher costs
Understandably, adding travel to a wedding is likely to increase the costs. There's transport - be that public transport tickets, fuel for driving, or flights - and accommodation to organise, as well as budgeting for food and events outside of the actual wedding once at the location, not to mention taking the time off work.
Although all-inclusive packages can definitely save the couple money compared to hosting a wedding locally, exchange rates do need to be considered, and it being a cheaper option isn't guaranteed.
There's also the added cost of potential extra trips to your venue before the wedding, as actually being able to stand in your venue and see the whole space for yourself is an important part of deciding to book it. If you can get the time off work to make the trip, that's another expense that destination weddings have that local ones don't.
Additionally, a destination wedding is always going to be more expensive for your guests to attend, so you may want to stipulate no gifts when you send out the invitations.
having to plan remotely
Planning a wedding in any location is a complicated task, and can be a drawn-out process as you try to keep track of appointments, payments and the hundreds of decisions you need to make. Now try organising all of that remotely, with the potential for language barriers, cultural differences and time-zone disparities, and it can become nearly impossible.
You can - and should - hire a wedding planner local to the area you're going to hold the wedding, as they'll have expertise on what's available, what's customary, and can connections with other local vendors to help you get the best deals possible.
But it's still going to lead to you making a lot of decisions without being able to physically be in the space, or actually interact with things. Video calls make remote planning a lot easier than it used to be, but seeing something through a screen is a completely different experience than seeing it in person, which might lead to some surprises when you see the final results on your wedding day.
potentially limited guest list
As mentioned earlier, hosting a destination wedding can be a good way to 'organically' limit your guest list, but it might lead to people that you actually do want coming not being able to attend. Your invited guests may face issues with cost, the physical demands of travel, specifics of the location you've picked, family circumstances, getting time off work, etc., and so you have to be prepared for the fact that not everyone will be able to make it to your big day when you decide to have a destination wedding.
Of course this isn't an issue if you're eloping, but it can dampen the celebrations if you were hoping for a larger group of loved ones to be there with you for this milestone.
A destination wedding is an extra exciting take on what's already an amazing day.
They can be full of revelry or relaxation, but either way, they have all of the warmth that comes from celebrating such a momentous occasion in a location that's truly special. You'll definitely need to put in extra work planning around the legalities and logistics, and will have to build a strong team of vendors that you trust absolutely to ensure that your day is safe and goes to plan, but, in the end, your destination wedding will be an amazing, unique experience.
Whether you're eloping or sharing the day with loved ones, combining a holiday and a wedding is always recipe for joyous memories.
If you'd like some more detailed information about the legal requirements for Australians getting married overseas, check out this article here.
