What is a Destination Wedding Planner?

Seems like it’s pretty cut and dry, right? We plan weddings. In other destinations.

It’s not that simple and can often be confusing to those who want to elope or do a smaller gathering for their wedding in places like Mexico, Europe and Hawaii. There are Travel Agents, Resort Wedding Planners and the LOCAL Wedding Planners (to the place you want to marry). What is the difference and what is the benefit of a destination wedding planner?

Photography: Odessa James Photo

What does a destination wedding planner do?

Just like if we were planning your wedding at home, destination wedding planners will help you find your venue, vendors, design your wedding aesthetic, create that timeline and manage the wedding events on the day of. The only thing is, we don’t live locally to the destination. That’s not a bad thing though. Some people see it as a hinderance and while yes, we can’t just stop by on any given day to the venue, we work twice as hard and communication is key! We rely on our network, our own knowledge for the location, referrals and industry knowledge to connect you with venues and vendors that align with your vision.

Having someone to do all your research and vendor communications (especially in different time zones) makes it easier on you and we also weed out the information that doesn’t match with what you’ve asked for. Sometimes you look at a website and think a venue or vendor is going to be perfect but we uncover the reasons why it’s not then show you better options.

We assist you in planning a whole getaway if you want. Excursions, activities, welcome celebrations and farewell brunches. Whatever you’d like. We take the time to get to know you best so we can be your ambassador during planning and during the wedding week(end). We offer that shoulder to lean on for all aspects of planning and design.

How is a resort planner different from a destination wedding planner?

We do offer some of the same services as your own planner and resort planner should work seamlessly together to get you what you envision for your big day from communicating with vendors to dealing with timeline and layout details.

The biggest difference is that your resort planner is going to know the most about your resort, amenities, catering, etc. but they are also usually in charge of multiple events in a weekend (sometimes in the same day) so you will not have their full attention. It’s just how it is and we are not faulting them for that. Your own wedding planner is with you through the entire planning process and on wedding day, you are her single priority and she will fight gale force winds to make sure your reception table setup doesn’t fly away (*definitely a story there - haha)!

We are there to make sure your vision is executed the way we have planned it and to communicate those expectations with your vendors and venue team. Again - both are not the same but definitely should work together to create a smooth day for the wedding couple.

But what about just hiring a local wedding planner at my destination?

There is definitely a plus side for hiring a local planner - they know everything about the culture, the property, the activities and night life like the back of their hand. The main difference comes when you are planning a wedding in a location time zones away or in a place that might offer language & culture barriers. If you’re the main contact with a planner or venue out in say, Greece, and you live in NYC - there is a 7 hour time difference. Communication not only will be delayed because of that but if you haven’t brushed up on your Greek or the culture there, it might be a little confusing or difficult to get what you are looking for without some help. Our clients have found that having someone stateside help them with international weddings has helped with communication issues or wariness in understanding how different the wedding business can be across the world.

That being said - most destination planners find it very helpful to connect with local venue planners or wedding planners to work hand in hand to pull off some amazing wedding days for clients who are unfamiliar to the territory. Destination wedding planners who aren’t local can definitely take a lot of the guess work out of the guess work for you. It’s absolutely a good thing to find someone local to you, too that has been to your dream location, planned an event there and even speaks the language. Just extra brownie points!

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can work with us on your big day away, please visit our CONTACT page.

We plan up to 3 destination weddings per year and would love to hear about your dream destination.