Planning for a Destination Wedding Birmingham AL

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Answering Some Questions You May Have

If you’re seriously considering a destination wedding, you already may have dozens of questions in mind. This article can answer many of them and help make your destination wedding a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The following addresses some of the bigger-picture questions you may be wondering about:

With so many amazing places to choose from, how do we decide where to have the wedding? The short answer is to find a place that’s in some way meaningful to the two of you.

How long should we wait to book the wedding? The sooner, the better. If you have your hearts set on Santorini in Greece, you may have to wait two years or longer to nail down a date at a preferred place. Saturday nights everywhere book up fastest. But you can always get married tomorrow in Las Vegas.

Is it wrong to e-mail save-the-dates? If everyone on your guest list has e-mail and checks it regularly, go ahead, but that means forgoing tangible ones that provide a lasting remembrance.

How do we handle friends and family with kids if we want to keep the wedding adults-only? And what do we tell people who expect to be invited — but aren’t? One of the advantages of destination weddings is that people expect them to be smaller than at-home ones, so they usually understand.

Which last name should be on the bride’s first passport: maiden or married? You can’t legally change your name until after you’re married (unless you go to court to do so beforehand). To avoid confusion, I advise you to keep all ID and travel documents in the same name until you return.

Is it tacky to get married in Las Vegas? At the AAA Five- Diamond Award-winning Bellagio hotel, wedding packages range in price from $1,500 to $15,000. They’re definitely not tacky, nor are chapels inside Las Vegas’s other top casino hotels.

Do we need a wedding planner? If you’re having a small wedding at a hotel or chapel that provides its own wedding coordinator, absolutely not. However, bigger events and ones in more-remote locations where weddings aren’t an everyday occurrence require local assistance.

How important is visiting the destination before the wedding? Checking out your location prior to the festivities can help set your mind at ease. But as long as you have someone in the location working on the wedding on your behalf, you plan to get there ahead of time, and you’re not a control freak, visiting isn’t essential. Again, the bigger the wedding, the more advance planning is required, which argues in favor of having your feet on the ground well before your event.

How long do we have to entertain wedding guests after the ceremony? Typically, the reception follows the ceremony and then a farewell brunch takes place on the last official day of the wedding. After that, they’re on their own (and so are the two of you!).

Who pays for what? Couples usually pay for their own destination weddings, sometimes with assistance from family. Guests pick up the tab for their travel and lodging.

Seeing stars: Celebrity destination weddings
Nearly ten years ago model Cindy Crawford and nightclub impresario Rande Gerber had a barefoot wedding at a beach resort in the Bahamas. She wore a short white gown, and he stood up in a white shirt and Armani pants. Photographs of their happy day attended by a few close friends and family members circulated around the world, inspiring thousands of other couples to choose an easy, breezy destination wedding for themselves.

Crawford and Gerber weren’t the first stars to get married away, and they certainly won’t be the last. But they’re in good company. The following couples also said their vows far from home:

Ashley Judd and Dario Franchetti: Skibo Castle, Scotland

Avril Lavigne and Deryck Whibley: Montecito, California

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner: Parrot Cay Resort, Turks & Caicos

Bill Gates and Melinda French: Four Seasons Lanai, Hawaii

Brett Hull and Darcie Schollmeyer: Esperanza Resort, Los Cabos, Mexico

Christiane Amanpour and Jamie Rubin: Odescalchi Castle, Bracciano,Italy

Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman: Staglin Family Vineyards, Napa Valley, California

Duke and Duchess of Windsor: Château de Candé, Loire Valley, France

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker: Paris, France

Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale: St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, England

Heidi Klum and Seal: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Gibraltar

Liv Tyler and Royston Langdon: private villa, Barbados

Madonna and Guy Ritchie: Skibo Castle, Scotland

Pink and Carey Hart: Costa Rica

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren: Sandy Lane Resort, Barbados

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: Odescalchi Castle, Bracciano, Italy

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott: Wakaya Island Resort, Fiji

Reba McEntire and Narbel Blackstock: Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.: Jalisco, Mexico

Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin: Oxfordshire, England

Las Vegas chapels attract more celebrities and civilians than anywhere else.
Although not all star weddings have stood the test of time, they certainly seemed like a good idea at the moment. Vegas wedding alumni include:

Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton

Britney Spears and Jason Alexander

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis

Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu

Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos

Natalie Maines and Adrian Pasdar

Paul Newman and Joann Woodward

How can we transport a wedding gown without it getting completely wrinkled? Tissue paper, tissue paper, and more tissue paper.

Can the groom still wear shorts if the bride wants to wear a long gown? Yes — if he’s man enough to bear the scorn and ridicule of his yet-unborn children when they’re old enough to view mom and dad’s wedding pictures.

Does the captain marry couples on a cruise ship? Only captains of Princess ships are permitted to do so. On other cruise lines, couples are married by a regular officiant when the ship is in port.

Will we feel as if we’ve missed out on something if we don’t get married at home? If you define home as the place where the most important people in the world are, then anywhere you bring them together will feel like home. Lots of couples also plan at-home receptions afterwards.

Making Your Wedding Legal: What You Need to Know

In order to become legally married, you need to apply for and obtain a marriage license and have your vows formalized by an authorized officiant within a designated time period. When you’re getting married in a location other than your hometown, you must follow its laws to ensure that your marriage there is legal. This section briefly looks at various locations within the United States and elsewhere to help you be aware of laws in different destinations.

Marrying in the United States

Marriage license laws and requirements differ from state to state and locality to locality in the United States. All have a minimum age requirement, but that varies as well. If you’re getting married in the U.S., prepare ahead of time by finding out what the laws and requirements are where you intend to marry. To do so, contact the town or county clerk in your chosen destination and ask how to apply for a license.

Different U.S. states permit a wide range of officiants to perform civil and religious ceremonies. Find a state-by-state list at marriage. about.com/cs/marriagelicenses/a/officiants.htm. To have a religious ceremony in a U.S. church, synagogue, mosque, or other house of worship, contact the local cleric for information.

Getting hitched in another country

A legal overseas marriage license is also legal in the United States, as long as it doesn’t break any state laws. Exceptions include same-sex marriages, which are legal in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Spain, but not in the United States. Only in Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut can same-sex residents legally marry.

For all couples, countries outside the U.S. have strict guidelines before issuing a license. These can include residency requirements and the expense of translating relevant documents into the country’s official language.

To avoid delay and complications when marrying abroad, many couples opt to first have a private civil ceremony where they live.

The event that takes place during the destination wedding then becomes a symbolic ceremony.

If you want to have a religious ceremony abroad, set the wheels in motion by requesting a meeting with your rabbi, minister, or parish priest. He can put you in touch with regional headquarters, which can help you contact overseas prelates.

Don’t allow yourselves to fall in love with the idea of marrying in a foreign church simply because its stained-glass windows are amazing or the architecture is majestic. Some churches and synagogues don’t accommodate the wishes of couples who aren’t long-standing congregation members.

Getting Going: 20 Steps to a Destination Wedding

Even the simplest destination weddings require a degree of planning. If you follow a logical order in doing things, you can feel less stressed, work more efficiently, and accomplish all the necessary tasks on schedule. How much time do you need to set everything up? That depends entirely on you and how complex the wedding you have in mind is.

Breaking down the process to 20 steps, these are the major milestones:

1. Decide that a destination wedding is right for you.

2. Choose possible dates.

3. Consider where to go.

4. Select a destination.

5. Draw up a guest list.

6. Pick a place to wed and a place to stay.

7. Alert friends and family.

8. Make travel arrangements.

9. Decide whether or not you need to hire a planner.

10. Shop for wedding wear.

11. Focus on the type of ceremony you want and the spot.

12. Decide on the type of reception you want.

13. Pick a reception location, caterer, and menu.

14. Select flowers, decorations, and music.

15. Opt for photography, videography, and/or a Web cast.

16. Arrange all group activities for the wedding weekend.

17. Pack all the necessities (from wedding attire to important documents); you can ship remaining items, such as guest welcome bags, to your location.

18. Arrive early to check on the details.

19. Savor every moment of the occasion.

20. Continue onto the honeymoon or head directly home to start the next chapter of your life together.

If I, a destination bride whose party-organization skills previously were limited to throwing my dirty clothes in the closet and opening up a jumbo bag of M&Ms before guests arrived could pull off an event of this magnitude, so can you. By referring to this article, you can find what you need to know, when you need to know it, and how to make it all work for you.

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For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license.

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