Entries Tagged 'Destination Wedding' ↓

Looking for options for the second time around? Maybe just want to go away with your honey and not have to deal with all the planning, inviting all the guests, and just have something intimate?

Well, here’s an idea not to mention a great deal! We are affiliates of Sandals, so we get notified of all their deals. They are currently running a special through May 20th 2010 in which you receive 2 nights free if you book a minimum of 7 days. Plus, you get up to 65% off at all Sandals locations. Plus, you get a $250 Red Lane Spa Credit! I think you can also get some good deals on airfare through their site.

So, what about the wedding? The basic wedding package is included for free (except at Sandals Emerald Bay).

Not bad huh? If you want to find out more, click on our affiliate link below.

The Perfect Romantic Getaway begins at Sandals Resorts Learn More

I just had to see what the Disney Wedding Pavilion was all about. So during a quick overnight trip with my husband to Epcot for the food and wine festival, I had the perfect excuse to go. We hopped a tram early the next morning over to the Grand Floridian Hotel, which is within walking distance to the Disney Wedding Pavilion, to get an insider’s view.
First let me start by saying the Grand Floridian is true to its name. It certainly is grand. Another way to accurately describe it would be extremely child friendly; not surprising considering it is in Disney.

This is a picture of the lobby of the Grand Floridian. It is hard to tell from the picture but it was buzzing with activity. There were families everywhere and there were children gathered around the televisions in the lobby watching Disney cartoons.

To be honest at first I was skeptical. I kept thinking how can you have a wedding in the midst of all the crowds and chaos of the parks? But after a short walk to the Disney Wedding Pavilion it was a completely different atmosphere. It was surprisingly very peaceful. My husband and I were lucky enough to run into two friendly staff members who gave us permission to wander in and around the chapel.

Disney thought of everything when they designed the Wedding Pavilion. They lined up the aisle and the window behind the alter perfectly with Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom. They also lined up the photo location outside the pavilion with the castle. Inside they have a waiting area for the groom and grooms men and a waiting/dressing area for the bride and bridesmaids is right across from the chapel. They even built in remote control cameras at various locations around the chapel so the ceremony could be filmed from every angle. When it comes down to it, you can count on Disney to do things first-class.

I think this would be a lovely idea for a destination wedding especially if many of your guests have children.

Finally, if you haven’t seen it, Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World is lit up for the holidays.  I had to include a picture of it!

I love the idea of a Destination Wedding because it involves the guests in the planning process just as much as the bride and groom. And who doesn’t love planning a vacation! The anticipation alone is the most exciting part.  Celebrities have been doing it for years and it has definitely caught on with the rest of us.While searching around for ideas on Destination Weddings I came across Martha Stewart Weddings at Sandals Resorts.  Now who better than Martha Stewart to perfect this already splendid concept? Martha has managed to eliminate even more stress out of the planning process. Sandals has packaged exclusive Sandals Wedding Packages by Martha Stewart!  There are five wedding themes to choose from:

Vision in White
This is ideal for the bride who wants to keep it simple yet elegant (my personal favorite).

Seaside Serenade
A seaside theme accented by seashells. My second favorite because of the cupcakes topped with sugar seashells!

Island Paradise
More of a tropical theme accented with island fruits and tropical flowers.

Flutter of Romance
Accented with pink flowers and butterflies

Chic and Natural
Accented by white orchids and polished river stones.

Each includes a personal wedding consultant, a picturesque wedding location, and Hors d’oeuvres for bridal party and much more. Once you have chosen your theme you can customize even further with special add-ons.

They all look so lovely I am tempted to go and experience one personally and report back to all of you. But this weekend I will be in St Louis.  Okay, I know, not as exotic as Sandals but you never know what wedding ideas I will find.

Meanwhile, if you want to find out more about the Sandals Martha Stewart Wedding Packages. Click Here: Dream Honeymoons; Destination Weddings at Sandals Resorts!

Also, if you want some tropical island themed wedding invitations check out our big selection in our wedding invitation shop!

Stay tuned,
Rhonda

That is if you’re in Southern California. I wrote about the Queen Mary as a destination wedding location after my family and I had dinner there last Thanksgiving. The Queen Mary, built during the 1930’s, was the premier and most luxurious ocean liner of its time. Back in the day when crossing the Atlantic was done by the wealthy in first class elegance. The Queen Mary is now permanently docked in Long Beach, Ca and is preserved in its original beauty as a hotel and also houses several restaurants, ballrooms, and a wedding chapel. Well now I can tell you what it was like to actually stay there overnight and I took more pictures so you can get a better idea what a great wedding location this is.

First off, the staff treated us great! We had a few drinks in the beautiful art deco Observation Bar which was the original First Class Lounge on the ship. There you have a panoramic view of the city of Long Beach. We also had a great dinner in the beautiful Chelsea Restaurant. No that’s not us in the picture, I grabbed that picture from the Queen Mary website. We stayed in a King Suite on the ship, very roomy.

In the morning, we had coffee and pastries on the Sun Deck. Here are some pictures taken from where we were sitting.

For wedding location choices there’s the Sun Deck Gazebo on the stern of the ship.

Or, the indoor wedding chapel. There’s other locations too, just check with them if you are interested.

After the ceremony you can have your reception in one of the many grand ballrooms available. Then, your guests can stay right on the ship in one of the beautiful rooms. It truly was great imagining what it was must have been like on the ship crossing the Atlantic in the mid-1900’s and having the opportunity to relive a small part of history!

Your guests will love the experience and it will definitely stand out from the average wedding. For more info checkout the Queen Mary website.

Here’s a cute idea for place card holders if you are having a beach themed wedding. Your guests can keep these mini beach chair place card holder as a wedding favor and it can be used later as a picture frame.  The are 4″ tall and 4″ wide and handpainted.  If you want to get more information about it just click on the picture.  If you want to see a bunch of other beach wedding accessories just click this link: beach wedding accessories

Sorry for the lack of regular posting but we’ve been pretty busy setting up our new online Wedding Shop!

Our Wedding Plus just went live with our new Wedding Shop packed with pretty much every wedding accessory you can think of.  Including bridal jewlery, bridal veils, wedding bands, wedding cake toppers, unity candles, bridesmaid gifts, groomsman gifts and a whole lot more!  The selection is gigantic but we have a lot of easy links on the main page and there’s also a search feature to help you find what you want!

We plan on making the wedding shop landing page prettier in the near future but we wanted to get it online as soon as possible. 

As it turns out 8/8/08 has turned out to be quite the mystical date to get married. Evidently in some traditions around the world the number 8 has some symbolism much like last year’s 7/7/07 did. Not to mention the number 8 is the infinity symbol on its side symbolizing the lifelong commitment of marriage.

Sandals, recognizing the importance of the day, will be unveiling the Eight Steps of Love and the 8/8/08 Infinity Wedding Packages on August 8, 2008. I couldn’t find anything about them on their website but I did see it in their press release.

Here’s the details about the 8/8/08 Infinity Wedding Packages:

Beginning with a Preston Bailey Signature WeddingMoons(R) ceremony at sunset, the 8/8/08 Infinity Wedding package features all-new fresh floral decor designed by wedding planner to the stars Preston Bailey, an eight course gourmet dinner, and a two-tiered wedding cake designed by cake maestro Sylvia Weinstock. Priced at $4,888, this experience also includes the following, exquisite amenities:

– Personal Wedding Consultant
  — Spa Pedicure for the Bride
  — Half Hour Massage for the Groom
  — Solo Musician for Wedding Ceremony
  — The new Preston Bailey Caribbean Sunset Collection Decor for ceremony and reception, featuring fresh flowers including hot pink roses, gerbera daisies, gold lilies & birds of paradise draped in snapdragons and pale purple orchids, plus an organza overlay of bright oranges and warm pinks accented by fresh blossom napkin ties and jewel tone votives
  — Eight Course Reception for Bride, Groom and Six Guests
  — Chilled sparkling wine in Keepsake Beverly Clark Toasting Flutes
  — Two-tiered Wedding Cake by Sylvia Weinstock
  — Sandals Resorts’ Wedding Photography Package by Professionally Trained Photographer and Videographer Inclusive of:
  - Twelve - 5 x 7 Color Photographs in an Elegantly Appointed Album
  - Professional videography of Ceremony and Reception with Accompanying DVD
  — Rose Petal Turndown Service
  — Scented Bath for Two
  — Romantic Breakfast in Bed

And if you’re not quite ready to get married and just want to take part in the romance of 8/8/08, then here’s the details of the Eight Steps of Love.

The Eight Steps of Love package is priced at $888 per couple and includes the following divine amenities:

– Indulgent Breakfast in Bed with a Personalized Love Note for Your Special Someone
  — One Hour Morning Sail
  — Delicious Gourmet Picnic Basket Lunch
  — Romantic Couples Massage at the Exclusive Red Lane Spa(R)
  — Photo Session with One of Sandals Resorts’ Professional Photographers,  Plus A Memory Scrapbook Keepsake
  — Sparkling Wine and Chocolate Covered Fruit Delivered to the Guests’ Room or Suite
  — Candlelight Dinner on the Beach with a Private Waiter and Specialized Menus
  — Romantic Turn-Down Service with Eight Flickering Candles

Anybody getting married on 8/8/08? What are your plans and what does the day mean to you?

Here’s some additional information destination wedding information I received from the folks at Romance Travel Concierge  beyond what I wrote yesterday in my post “Not Your Average Destination Wedding.”  I wanted to include the text of an email I sent to them and their response just incase you had the same question and to give you an idea of the level of service provided whether you are a wedding planner or the bride & groom.

First here’s my question:

With your destination wedding packages, do you include/offer any advisory services or onsite assistance for the couple without a wedding planner? I believe when we talked you said you often work with the wedding planners rather than the couple.

Romance Travel Concierge’s response:

We work very closely with our partners (the hotels/resorts) who provide us with special wedding planning services, in advance + onsite. We also have our own inhouse wedding planners who will be on site if required/requested. For instance, you want a destination wedding in Africa - we can be there with you. We are 24/7, full service. Bar none.

Another example, one of our partners, a top tier hotel with a Swiss hotelier running the show as GM, personally buried an engagement ring in the ocean for a gal to find when snorkelling with her boyfriend, who was proposing that afternoon. We only work with professionals, inhouse + externally who provide an amazing level of service + detail.

So. onsite supervision, planning + coordination are certainly a large part of our product line-up! Having said all that, we are very much proactive in partnering with wedding planners. They have clients, we know how to put together all the travel aspects. A great partnership. We extend the same courtesies to wedding professionals as we do to our travel professional partners. Please know that we do business B2B (Wedding/Travel professionals) + B2C (brides/couples).

Hope this clarifies how we work with people + clients! Please do come back to me with any further questions! Many thanks, Rhonda!

Planning a destination wedding is hard! There are all the issues you would normally have in a local wedding plus the coordination of all the travel for you and your guests, event planning from a distance, plus you may have to deal with a different country’s laws and procedures all with no experience! Then there are all the things you didn’t even know to think about until it’s too late!

Wouldn’t it be great if you can just pay one price for the entire destination wedding package and have all the details covered? An amazing romantic experience, the food, the ceremony, the hotel, an amazing ceremony location already scoped out, plus pre-arranged pampering to top it off? I’m not talking about a Sandal’s pre-packaged wedding, this is something truly special!

Romance Travel Concierge is a service I found at A Soolip Wedding last weekend. They work with wedding planners or directly with couples to provide amazing prepackage destination wedding packages. Here’s some information they provided about their African Destination Wedding to Go package. It sounds amazing!

If you have a client or you’re a bride wishing to escape from a traditional wedding with a truly unique destination wedding, consider our Africa Destination Wedding To Go™. We include business class airfare from Los Angeles to Johannesburg for the bride + groom, platinum class domestic airfare within Africa, private round trip airport transfers for the bride + groom, 6 days/5nights in a luxury villa for the bride + groom, 6 days/5nights accommodations for eight (8) guests, daily breakfast, lunch + dinner for everyone, bottled waters and beverages in all rooms, plus spa treatments for the bride + groom.

And that’s just for starters. For the ceremony we provide a secluded beach for a barefoot, romantic wedding. The bride + groom each arrive on horseback with a guide horse as escort. The ceremony officiant + amazing local floral decor are included. Once the couple have said I do, it’s time for a Dhow cruise for the newlyweds + all of their guests around the bay with champagne toasts. After the cruise we gather the wedding party for a coconut tree planting ceremony in honor of the bride + groom, complete with a handcrafted commemorative plaque with the couple’s initials + wedding date. Then it’s onto the lavish BBQ seafood dinner reception on the beach, complete with wedding cake.

All of this is offered for one remarkable all inclusive price. Call us to learn more about our Africa Destination Wedding To Go™.

If you are interested in findingout more about Romance Travel Concierge checkout their website or contact them at (866) 459-6069.