It's funny, I don't know if it's just my particular set of friends or if it's my generation, but most of the people I know waited until they were in their 30's, or close to 30, to get married. Not only that, but most of us have bucked the whole traditional wedding in favor of a ceremony that is a little more special and (hopefully) less stressful. My husband and I are from Catholic families, and the thought of going through marriage camp with some priest we didn't even know made our stomachs churn. Marriage camp (or counseling, if you prefer) is a great idea if you're a good church-going Catholic, but we aren't. We knew each other for eight years before tying the knot, and asked all the Cosmo-commitment-quiz questions of each other, and were satisfied with that.
When we were married, the destination wedding was just becoming the thing to do. Madonna and Guy Ritchie were married in a castle, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas were married in a castle, some friends eloped to Hawaii. After realizing that the average price of a traditional wedding was $25,000, plus whatever the psychoanalysis would be afterward, we started looking in the fabulous direction, aka, anywhere away from the hometown. What we found was that not only are destination weddings more fun than traditional ones, they also can be much less expensive - even in a castle. Even those of us who don't have the budget of Madonna have found that we can have just as fabulous of a wedding, and the key is to go somewhere else.
The destination wedding is almost always a package deal. If you go the Caribbean route, that usually means that the resort you choose provides the venue and has coordinators on hand to take care of flower arrangements, catering, photography, and any other special thing you want. If you go the European route, you probably want to get married in a castle or some other equally romantic old piece of architecture. There are wedding planners who specialize in that as well, securing the castle or palace, arranging for flowers, food, photos, etc.
The truly magical thing about the destination wedding is that, even though every wedding is stressful in its own right, you get a cool, memorable ceremony and someone else does all the hard work. All you really have to worry about is picking out the dresses and tuxes (or linen wear, for the Key West wedding types), and telling the planner what else you want. That's it.
Last week's featured woman, Elise Hu, is planning her own destination wedding, and we're hoping to get some great tips from her in regard to the experience, too. In the meantime, if you're planning a wedding, here are some links to help you dream big:
- Destination Weddings.com
- Prague Weddings
- Irish Weddings Online
- Pier House Wedding Packages, Key West, FL
- Tropical Weddings Jamaica
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