Wedding Destination Tips From Two Gurus
Today Norm Goldman, Editor of Sketchandtravel.com &
Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as a guest, Denise and Alan
Fields, authors of BRIDAL BARGAINS and the BRIDAL PASSPORT
WEDDING PLANNER. Both are in bookstores nationwide or you can
order online at WINDSORPEAK.COM.
The Fields have been featured on the TODAY SHOW, OPRAH and
DATELINE NBC.
Thanks Denise and Alan for accepting our invitation to be
interviewed.
Norm:
Please tell our readers how you started writing about weddings
and why did you want to write about this subject matter?
Denise and Alan:
We began writing in 1989 as we were planning our own wedding;
yep, we are still married today. As two starving college
students in Austin, Texas, we quickly realized planning a
wedding was a darn expensive endeavour. We wanted to know how to
save money but still have a nice wedding without getting ripped
off. We heard the horror stories from our friends and decided
the world needed a consumer's guide to tying the knot. Bridal
Bargains, our first wedding book, was the result of that effort
it was first published in 1990 and now is in its 7th edition,
with 500,000 copies sold. Our latest book, the Bridal Passport
wedding planner (the Dollars & Sense Guide to Planning a
Wedding) was published in December 2004.
Norm:
What in your opinion makes for a wonderful and unique wedding
experience, where everyone would be left with fond memories? As
a follow up, do you have to spend a great deal of money to have
such a memorable experience?
Denise and Alan:
Think about the best weddings you have ever attended and what
made them so memorable? Chances are it was a FUN event first and
foremost. That might have been a combination of several factors,
a unique setting, a great band, and so on. Focus on those
factors when planning your own wedding. Conversely, realize
there are many parts of a wedding that are expensive, but
contribute little to the fun aspect of a wedding flowers, for
example.
No, you don't have to go bankrupt to plan a memorable wedding!
Yes, you may have to make a series of trade-offs to pull it off,
but you can save and still have a fantastic wedding. Example:
instead of a fancy downtown hotel, you can rent a historic home
that lets you bring in your own caterer. That enables you to
hold the total cost down, way under what the hotel would charge.
The key: you save money in ways your guests don't see. A bottle
of house wine from a hotel might be $50; that same bottle from a
wholesale club like Sam's or Costco would run $10. Do you guests
know the difference? No.
A destination wedding is another great way to save and you have
a special setting for your wedding, without all the cost of a
domestic affair.
Norm:
What tips would you have for destination brides who plan to
bring along a wedding party? It's a growing trend for
destination weddings to now have a fairly sizeable wedding party
sometimes about 50, so it would be great to get their tips on
group airline discounts, hotel blocks.
Denise and Alan:
Good news: the travel biz has awakened to the
destination-wedding trend. As a result, many airlines and
resorts have special discount packages for those planning a
wedding. Airlines, for example, are courting destination
weddings with special group discounts. Many resorts now have
on-staff wedding planners to ease planning; and special discount
rates for blocks of rooms.
The best advice: work with the airlines group booking department
and/or the resort's meeting planners. And always double check to
make sure any special rate you get is really a deal and simply
price the same stay or fare on a travel web site. Most travel
companies honestly offer groups a better deal than regular
travelers; but it always makes sense to double check.
Norm:
Could you tell us something about the advantages and
disadvantages pertaining to different unique venue weddings as:
beach, park, museum, mountain ski lodge, tent, train, yacht, and
other sometimes off- the- wall sites? (Perhaps you can add a few
of your own.)
Denise and Alan:
Name a destination and you can get married there---ski buffs can
take their vows on a mountain top in Telluride, beach fans on
the white sands of Aruba and so on. The key advantage of a
destination wedding: you are already in the place where you will
honeymoon. That cuts down on the travel, as you just travel once
to both the wedding and honeymoon.
With all unique venues and destination weddings, the biggest
trade-off is control. You will have to trust a wedding planner
at the venue to help coordinate the details. And that means not
being a control freak. Many tropical venues may offer a stunning
setting, but slim pickings when it comes to finding a
photographer (there may just be one or two on an island). Ditto
for other remote locales, like a ski resort.
Norm:
If you had to choose 5 ideal geographic wedding destinations
from the point of view of ambiance, costs, etc, which ones would
you chose and why?
Denise and Alan:
Hawaii is probably the best combo of both ambience and ease of
use and no changing dollars into a foreign currency, a very
developed tourist biz and so on. Specifically, we would
recommend the north shore of Kauai in the summer; Maui or the
Big Island in the winter.
Mexico offers the best value for the dollar. A falling dollar
has made foreign travel pricey just about everywhere, but the
peso remains a relative bargain for Americans. Resorts like
Cabo, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta offer that beach wedding (and
Caribbean water) at a discount price. Top pick: Cozumel, for its
excellent snorkelling.
Telluride is our favorite mountain resort to tie the knot,
summer or winter. Winter lets you enjoy a world-class ski
mountain; summer is hiking, white water rafting. A selection of
the top restaurants makes this a winner year around.
Orlando is among the best bargains going and most airlines offer
deals on air/hotel packages here and the raft of entertainment
options is second to none. And its more than just Disney . . .
you will find Universal, Sea World and a plethora of water parks.
Norm:
Do you have any tips as to how couples can get the best value
for their dollar when they are honeymooning?
Denise and Alan:
Two words: shoulder season. The shoulder season is the space
between high and low seasons. No, you probably don't want to go
to a tropical isle in August. How about April? In the Caribbean,
you can find great deals in the shoulder season after Easter but
before summer vacation times.
Hawaii is cheapest rate after New Year's until mid March, when
spring break crowds end deals. Deals also abound in Hawaii in
the fall, from Labor Day until just before Christmas. Hence,
November would be a great time to go for a honeymoon.
Fall is also a great time to visit the wine country of
California or the Rocky Mountains on a honeymoon.
Norm:
What are the 5 most important factors, cost-wise, a future
bride and groom should bear in mind when planning their wedding
and why?
Denise and Alan:
Location, guest count, time of day and wedding style are the
most important budget factors. Some thoughts:
Location: Where do you envision the wedding? Reception? The
location will drive much of the cost. A hotel reception is much
more expensive than a home wedding, for example.
Guest count. A no brainer this clearly impacts the budget!
Time of day. A 2pm wedding is much less expensive than an
evening affair, Why? Guests already have had lunch and are not
expecting dinner! Brunch or lunch reception are also less
expensive than dinner.
Wedding style: Do you have envision a garden wedding? A
beach-side ceremony? Or a formal Catholic mass? The style of
your wedding is a major driver of costs.
Norm:
How does one go about finding out about the different marriage
regulations around the world? Is there a web site that we can
click on et voil