Wedding Bells

Far and Away

Eight things to remember when planning your destination wedding. By Roseanne Dela Rosa

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Tying the knot halfway across the globe can appear to be daunting, especially when you’re in unfamiliar territory. To help ease you into your planning, we asked Laurie Keith, owner and director of Romantic Planet Vacations Inc. (romanticplanet.ca), to share her top eight tips for destination weddings with us:

1. Research as much as possible. This can be done by reading various travel magazines and destination wedding books, browsing online, visiting tourism board websites, picking up brochures from your local travel agent and asking them their opinions on destinations and resorts, chatting with other destination wedding brides in chat rooms, and talking to others who have travelled to the destinations you're interested in.

2. List your interests, budgets, dates, estimated number of passengers, top destinations of choice, and be prepared to describe your perfect wedding. Is it on a beach, in a garden setting, in a beautiful gazebo, in a castle or at a famous site? Is it at a small quaint hotel or a larger resort? Another important question to ask yourself is if you want an all-inclusive resort. If so, this will help narrow down the search to the five main all-inclusive chartered destinations—Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. For these destinations, you can budget around $1,500-$2,000 per person for airfare, airport transfers and seven nights all-inclusive accommodations at a four-star resort. Other all-inclusive destination options such as St. Lucia, Antigua and Grenada are more limited and often range in the price of $2,000-$2,500 per person.

3. It is important to keep in mind that the hurricane season is at the beginning of July through to the end of November in the Caribbean. Most tour operators and resorts have hurricane protection policies to allow you to change your date, destination or resort if a hurricane should affect your trip. But if your travel dates fall in this time frame and you have a concern about hurricanes, then you may want to consider the west side of Mexico, including Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Ixtapa, Manzanillo or other Caribbean Islands outside the hurricane belt such as Grenada, Aruba, Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. For non-all-inclusive destinations, Hawaii, particularly Maui, is a good pick during the hurricane season, as they do not get hurricanes.

4. With Spanish-speaking countries such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Costa Rica and Mexico, the legal wedding ceremony will be in Spanish then translated to English. If this is a problem, then Jamaica is the perfect all-inclusive English-speaking wedding destination. Also note that Mexico is the only country that requires blood work from the bride and groom.

5. Group rates are valid for one week so be prepared to make a decision. Once you are convinced and completely satisfied with the resort and date, you will need to apply initial deposits to hold the space and rates. Deposits range from $150-$250 per person. Many brides and grooms will pay a minimum of 10 deposits to hold the group space, and then they will be reimbursed once their guests start booking.

6. It's a good idea to encourage your guests to book as soon as possible to guarantee availability and avoid disappointment due to rate increases. Romantic Planet Vacations offers complimentary e-flyers with all of the details including the rates, details of the resort and contact information that brides and grooms can distribute to guests.

7. Be very clear on the terms of the booking. Group bookings can be a little more complex so to avoid issues in the future, ensure you know and agree to all of the terms and conditions. Such terms advise that space can sell out for those seats without deposits received, taxes can go up, a minimum of 10 adults is required, and there are cancellation penalties, etc.

8. Booking extra services such as seat selections, stag/stagette spa or golf parties, group tours, a romantic private dinner, upgraded rooms and the like will greatly enhance your journey.