Help Choosing a Destination Wedding Location

[wannaBMrsH]

Hello-

FI and were engaged last month and we had previously talked ALOT about having a destination wedding. As soon as we got engaged I contacted a travel agent that we have worked with before and she assured us that she could assist us. I sent her a follow up e-mail and was extremely disappointed with her "research". It looked to me like she just visited a couple of websites and copied and pasted information! Which we already had!!!! UGGHHH!

Since, FI and I definitely want to get married next year, we are running out of time and I thought I could post my "wants" here and see if any of you guys can help us. Here is what we want (I know we are impossible):

1) Caribbean Beach Destination Wedding
2) We WANT AUG-OCT time frame as that is when the rates are the lowest due to it being hurricane season. (We have a big group that travels together each year and someone joked that it wouldn''t be a real vacation without a hurricane chasing us home!)

3) FI and I are paying for approximately 12 people other than ourselves (parents, siblings, kids) so we prefer to have an All-Inclusive Resort so that no one worries about meals, drinks, etc. and we expect an additional 30-40 people to join us as well
4) We would prefer direct flights from DFW or HOU as it''s miserable trying to connect with luggage and children in tow and we would prefer to avoid that for our guests as well.
5) Preferred Date is Sat, Sept 5 to take advantage of the Labor Day Holiday, and we think 4 nights is a good amount of time (so Thur-Mon, or Fri-Tues)
6) Locations that are definitely out for us are: Mexico and Jamaica (we have all been there already and so have most of our guests)
7) Locations that we would love to get more information on: The Dominican Republic, Grand Cayman, Curacao, Turks and Caicos, Costa Rica, Belize

Thank you so much in advance for any assistance you can give us. We have targeted this weekend to pick a place and hopefully a date, so that we can go over the Christmas/New Year break and scope it out and put down the deposits.

Thanks again!

 

[dcgator]

Hi there,

I highly recommend the Beaches in Turks and Caicos. Not only is it beautiful in the Turks, but the resort will definitely please the kids/teens and the adults alike. The all you can drink alcohol is a big plus for the "big kids" and the whole new kid and teen play area with seperate pools, restaurants, and other kid-friendly stuff keeps them busy all day. I went a couple years ago with a couple of girlfriends and wasn''t pestered by kids. But, the kids we did see in their area looked like they were having a great time.

In June, my fiance and I went to the Sandals in Jamaica and saw them doing weddings. They seem like they know what they are doing and you won''t have to worry about anything. I remember the Beaches in Turks did a couple of weddings too, so I''m sure it doable there too.

I have been to both Cayman and DR years ago, and I think that if you want a beautiful location, your best bet is the Turks!

If you have any specific questions, just ask

 

[wannaBMrsH]

Thank you, dcgator!

Turks and Caicos was our initial choice, but there were no direct flights from the DFW area...someone else suggested that we buy the round trip fares from MIA and either fly in the day before and have a nice dinner somewhere before connecting or doing a party bus.

I will definitely keep that in mind...now I am back to wanting Turks and Caicos as my number one choice.

 

[indypitty]

We had a destination wedding in Mexico and I highly recommend http://bestdestinationwedding.com. I found tons of information there. Good luck!

 

[mimzy]

how fun! I always thought it would be such a blast to have/plan a destination wedding

stefan and i are going to Belize for our honeymoon and we can''t wait - there is the beach but there''s also a ton of adventure stuff for people to do also (not to mention the option of escaping to a jungle spa for a few days

). i didn''t look extensively into wedding packages in my research, but the place that we are staying at has been amazing to work with, and their location is pretty good: it''s on ambergris caye, which is the most popular tourist destination, but it''s north enough of town that there are no other developments in the immediate area, so you''d have the beach to yourselves (as opposed to being sandwiched in by other resorts). However, most of the resorts in belize are really small (i think i read the biggest one had 60 rooms), but it might not be hard to get a whole resort to yourself during hurricane season.

anyways, here''s the link to where we''re staying belize legacy