We’re Engaged! … Now What?
Why We Decided to do a Destination Wedding
Henderson’s Wharf courtyard engagement
We got engaged in November 2021, which was the era of cancelled covid weddings. Luckily, we were in no rush to tie the knot so we didn’t foresee this being an issue for our planning process.
My “Dream Wedding”:
I’m a pretty easy-going person that never dreamed about my perfect wedding. Sure, I could pick out some things I loved from my friend’s weddings but I couldn’t imagine my own as a single girl in my 40’s. With that said, I can put an elaborate Pinterest board together with the best of them. As soon as the engagement announcement was made, I jumped into all of the WOW photos from venues, to outrageous floral décor to the most gorgeous wedding dresses that all looked perfect on size zero models. Let the inspiration begin! … I loved living in this picture perfect planning bliss of inspiration.
The Reality Check:
From my initial research, I was drawn to the rustic barn feel, the nautical water theme, and maybe even the modern industrial look. One could say I had no idea what I wanted, but I called it “keeping my options open”. I made myself a TheKnot.com account and started reaching out to vendors in the Maryland/Virginia area. This was the first time the wind was taken out of my planning excitement sails. My favorite barn wedding location was $14,000 just to book the space for the day (nothing else included)! The place was gorgeous but we were paying for our own wedding and the sticker shock was a BIG reality check .… Next! As the search continued, I realized 10k - 15k was pretty standard for the available venues. “Available” being the key word there… with so many weddings being cancelled/rescheduled during covid, we were looking at dates almost two years out. I know I said we were in no rush but that felt like an eternity… there had to be another option!
Between price and availability, I literally looked at Todd and said… “I just want to go somewhere and have a three day party on a beach with our friends and family and say “I DO” at some point while we’re there”. Hello destination wedding research!
5 Reasons We Said YES to a Destination Wedding:
We loved the idea of getting married on the beach (especially in February)
We wanted a small wedding (under 50 guests)
We wanted to spend more than a few hours to celebrate with our friends and family
The thought of a one-stop planning process sounded glorious
COST! Our wedding and honeymoon combined cost a quarter of what we were quoted at home for just a ceremony
Spoiler alert… It was the best decision we could have ever made! More posts about the planning and BIG DAY results coming soon!
