Photo: Zev Fisher Photography
It was the proposal story of the century.
Although long overdue, your partner proposed in his typical fairytale and grandiose way, and in an instant, you landed the beau of your dreams, the rock of your dreams, and between smiles, tears and all the joy, your whole life had changed for the better.
Now that the dust has settled, the reality of it all has sunk in. Questions about your wedding day have arose and now it is time to plan the ultimate destination wedding weekend experience that you and your loved ones will never forget. Your friends have always acknowledged that you and your fiancé are the ultimate power couple. You are in a league all of your own, with a knack for hosting and a unique sense of style. So how exactly do you plan a wedding weekend experience that is an expression of all the things that you love with the people that you love the most?
Over-saturation of wedding inspiration can cause you to loose track of what you truly want for your destination wedding weekend and make you second guess your choices. If you are overwhelmed or you don't know where to start, we completely understand. With all the stellar Instagrammable and Pinterest worthy weddings, how exactly do you know what is right for you?
Photo: Fergie Medar Photography
How To Envision the Ultimate Destination Wedding Weekend
We are sharing the five steps to design the ultimate destination wedding weekend of your dreams. We believe in having your cake and eating it too (literally) . This guide will help you identify your priorities, non-negotiables, and to create a strategic direction for your wedding weekend so that you can focus on enjoying the process.
Season
Do you envision your ceremony surrounded by lush greenery in a floral garden amidst the stone walls of a coastal New England estate? Or perhaps you’ll be sipping fine wine and enjoying your loved ones under the stars at an award winning winery in Napa?
The season for which you envision your wedding weekend will dictate the experience. For example, in New England, if you imagine hosting a coastal tented wedding, it is advised to consider months between May-October, also known as “peak” wedding season. If you are dreaming of a wintery wonderland weekend in the mountains of Vermont, December -March is best advised. A winter wedding in New England has a very different vibe from a glamorous summer wedding in New England. Selecting the season of the wedding can alter the overall vibe of the wedding since different seasons lend themselves to different color palettes and food choices as well.
And if you are planning to get married in tropical places, such at the Caribbean, it is important to consider temperatures and hurricane season before saying, “I do", to the date.
Photographer: KT Merry
Size of the Wedding
During the wedding planning process, we encourage our clients to leverage the “ABC” method when curating their guest list. Group A involves immediate family members and close friends, Group B entails extended family members, and Group C might include distant family members or work colleagues.
If your “A-list” just happens to be 250 of your closest family members and friends that you just cannot live without, this will dictate the type of venue that you need to consider, in addition to the destination. If planning a destination wedding weekend in non-negotiable for your large crowd, we recommend locations that are within a close proximity to major airports for a more convenient travel experience.
If in the event that you imagine an intimate wedding with just your closest of loved ones, the possibilities are endless. Intimate weddings are ideal for those seeking to create a unique experience with splurge worthy details or maybe for introverted couples who want to be surrounded by only their closest friends. An intimate, personalized wedding might be a great fit for a destination wedding with a longer distance to travel to or if you imagine renting a small villa for a week-long experience.
Venue
Now that we have identified the season and size of the wedding, now it is time to consider the venues that will host your wedding weekend activities.
To select the most perfect venue or region for you, consider all the places that truly spark joy for you. Are you a city gal at heart and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else in the world than amidst a sea of yellow taxis and on top of the world on a rooftop partying with your friends in glam fashion in your hometown of Manhattan? Or maybe you have searched far and wide, but no venue could have met your expectations, so you decided to completely transform the coastal shores of your childhood vacation town with a tented wedding celebration?
In addition to considering the places that you feel most at home, the type of venue that you select or the space that you’ll chose to transform will dictate the style of wedding that you will evoke. Setting different vibes or themes for your weekend events is a great way to keep your guests in anticipation. There are multiple opportunities to create different vibes. For example, the welcome reception may be a low -key bonfire on the beach or a wine tasting at a vineyard as guests begin to gather for the weekend. And while the wedding will be the main event, the after party may take place at a local dive bar with all-you-can-eat greasy food to soak up the booze. And as guests wake up from their hangovers on day three , they may be inclined to enjoy a bit of history at a brunch hosted at a local museum (there’s nothing like bottomless bloody mary’s for a great cure).
Your Style
Look around your home and see how you have melded your two individual styles together or think about how you hope to in the future. Is your combined style minimalist chic? Or perhaps it is contemporary glam? Whatever your personal styles are, they are likely to influence your wedding vision as well. It is to determine early on what are the traits and characteristics that describe who you are as a couple and individually.
The Non-Negotiables
Did you always dream of having a painter at your wedding, flamingo yoga as a weekend activity, or perhaps one thousand orchids cascading in every direction that you turn? Has your fiancé requested that his favorite live band be flown in from LA to Tulum? Here is where we personalize your wedding to fit who you are as a couple with those stand-out moments that will be special to you and will leave your guests saying, “this is SO you”. While these details can be small yet significant, the goal is to steer your wedding vision to align with your non-negotiables.
