Entries Tagged 'Destination Wedding' ↓

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.

If you’re planning a destination wedding in the Caribbean there’s a new resource available for you. Conde Nast Brides, Modern Bride, Brides.com and Caribbean Tourism Development Company have come together to provide a site called “Passport to the Caribbean,” a one-stop-shop for information on having a destination wedding in the Caribbean. On the site you can find out passport information, contact information to find out marriage requirements, and there’s information and links to help plan your trip.

This site, hosted by Brides.com, is also running a couple of contests. The first one going on now is the “Capital Wedding” contest. You can win a wedding in Washington DC and a honeymoon in the Caribbean. This summer they will be running the “Sparkle in the Sand Engagement Contest” where you can win a trip to the Caribbean to get engaged on the beach.

Here’s some destination wedding statistics from Conde Nast’s “American Wedding” Study 2006 that you might find interesting:

  — 16% of couples have a destination wedding which is a 400% increase in the last 10 years
  — average number of guests for destination wedding is 47 vs. avg # of 165 for a non-destination wedding
  — 25% of destination wedding couples honeymoon in the same location they were married

Are you having a destination wedding in the Caribbean or anywhere else? What is the most difficult part of planning your destination wedding?

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I’m not sure about all the rules in this area, but I thought the Captain of a cruise ship could legally perform marriages at sea on cruise ships. But, I guess I was wrong. If anyone really knows the rules on this feel free to comment.

Anyway, it was just announced last week that Captains on Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises can now legally perform weddings at sea. Before this point they could only perform vow-renewals at sea and weddings in-port with a local official. Why did this all of a sudden become legal? Here’s a quote from their press release:

“…with the recent re-registration of seven of Celebrity’s eight ships in Malta, where
Azamara’s two ships also are registered, government regulations have
changed to allow for captains to perform legal marriages while the ships
sail the seas of the world.”

Both cruise lines are offering wedding packages from the basic Captain performed wedding package starting at $2,500 to private full-blown receptions. Check the Celebrity Cruise and Azamara Cruise websites for details! This could be quite the destination wedding option!

Anybody planning a Cruise Wedding?

Don’t bother getting Preston Bailey to plan your wedding, unless you are planning on spending over $500,000. But, you can have a destination wedding designed by Preston Bailey for less than $5,000 at Sandals.

Preston Bailey put together a four destination wedding packages that include everything you need. By everything I mean the décor, bouquet, boutonnière, table setting, centerpiece, chairs, cake, and more.

Sandals calls their wedding packages Weddingmoons since you also have your honeymoon in the same place. Check them out here Dream Honeymoons; Destination Weddings at Sandals Resorts!.

I never was a big fan of the all inclusive chain resorts like Sandals or Club Med but in the case of having a destination wedding this might be a good thing to look into. Planning a destination wedding can be pretty stressful, trying to coordinate all the issues with out being there can be a problem, especially if you are trying to do it on the cheap. If you can afford it, having a good wedding planner with experience handling destination weddings would take a lot of stress out of the planning process. But, these Sandals packages might just make this doable for the average couple.

Anybody have experience with Sandals or their Weddingmoons? Anyone planning a destination wedding? What problems have you had?

I had the unique experience this last Thanksgiving to have dinner on the Queen Mary.  This was really something different and pretty interesting.  The Queen Mary was built during the 1930’s as one of the most luxurious cruise ships of the time.  It kind of reminded me of the Titantic but is actually bigger than the Titantic.  The Queen Mary was used for troop transport during World War II and served as a cruise ship through the 1960s.  Currently the Queen Mary is permanently docked in Long Beach, Ca.  

So why should you care?  As a wedding blogger, I’m always on the job!  First thing I noticed on the Queen Mary was the wedding chapel.  I also noticed the great food and the beautiful, history filled art deco salons available for receptions.  Not to mention the beautiful views from pretty much every where including the Sun Deck, which is also available for wedding ceremonies.  Plus, the 365 staterooms on the Queen Mary where you and all your guests can stay.

So, if you are looking for a unique and memorable wedding location checkout the Queen Mary!  It can be a very nostalgic destination wedding location!

Rhonda

Last Thursday and Friday, my husband and I went to Solvang, Ca for our anniversary. Solvang is a small little town established by Danish settlers back in the early 1900s. The architecture and atmosphere is fashioned after traditional Denmark. It is located in the wine country made famous by the movie “Sideways” north of Santa Barbara.

We stayed in a place called the Wine Valley Inn (picture below) which was quite a good deal considering it’s right downtown (less than $100/night). So, what did I like about Solvang? The weather was great, there’s bakeries everywhere and they are awesome and what else? Wine! There’s a bunch of wine tasting rooms all over the place. We really liked The Olive House where they had an olive and wine tasting. They actually paired the different stuffed olives with a different wine which you got to taste together!

Anyway, if you are looking for destination wedding options, you might want to check out Solvang. Not too sure if it would be a good idea for a huge wedding. But if you are having a small quaint wedding and want your guests to get a taste of wine country, check out Solvang.

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Rhonda

Our Wedding Plus

Looking for some unique wedding invitations for your beach or destination wedding? Carlson Craft has some unique destination wedding invitations that would be ideal if you’re having a beach wedding. These wedding invitations have an adorable sandal strap ribbon. They are printed using thermography, meaning the letters are raised. In order to protect the ribbons, these wedding invatations come with a “pillow” envelope! I love the cute reception and response cards too!

Here’s another unique destination wedding invitation from Carlson Craft. This wedding invitation would obviously also be great for a beach wedding. You can customize either one of these invitations online.

You can click on the wedding invitations to get more information!

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Rhonda
Our Wedding Plus

Having a destination wedding is the ideal way to celebrate your wedding in a romantic location and bring your family and friends with you. With a destination wedding, your wedding can be celebrated over days rather than just hours!

So don’t you think if you are going to have such a great event you need to announce it properly? Then you need destination wedding invitations that match the theme of your destination wedding. Checkout these unique destination wedding invitations for various themes.

Destination wedding invitations for a casino wedding.

Destination wedding invitations for a winter resort.

Destination wedding invitations for a tropical wedding.

Destination wedding invitations for a nautical wedding.

Don’t forget to give your guests plenty of time to plan ahead with unique destination wedding save the dates. Check out this post for options: Great Save the Date OptionsFor more information on these destination wedding invitations or other wedding invites checkout our Save the Date Shop!

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Rhonda

Our Wedding Plus

It’s Friday again! Know what that means? It’s time for the top 5 wedding blog posts of the week!

Again, these are some of the posts I enjoyed this week while exploring the wedding blogosphere, in no particular order. If you have other posts you enjoyed feel free to share them!

- Leslie from Decidedly Uncomplicated gave some great advice about having an “uncomplicated” destination wedding at home. Doesn’t make sense to you? It will after your read her post “Destination Wedding Right Here at Home.”

These two posts deal with family issues. Everybody has them!

- Never teh Bride from Manolo for the Brides is back from her wedding with a great post about dealing with family during your wedding. Checkout The Pleasures and Perils of Family

- Miss Kiwi at Weddingbee wrote about conflict with family members in her post “We are Family – Just Not You” This will strike a common cord with many of you. Everybody has family conflict at one level or another so check out the advice in the comments, it might help.

These next two posts contain interesting information about having alternative wedding receptions.

- Ethical Weddings had a great post about things to consider if you want to have a vegetarian reception. It’s not just the food that you need to think about. Check out Katie’s Vegie Wedding post.

- Christie over at Our One Heart had a great post about having an alcohol free reception. She past on some info she found at Event Ethos. Alcohol addiction has destroyed many families and lives so I can see why some people would not want to have it at their wedding reception. Her post “No Alcohol at Your Wedding?” has great advice if you want to go this route.

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Hope you have a great 3-day weekend!

See you next Tuesday.

Rhonda

Our Wedding Plus