We've planned over 5,000 destination weddings here at DestinationWeddings.com over the years.  As you can imagine, we seen almost everything.  I'm one of the people that talk to couples before they start working with us, and I've found that there are a lot of things that people don't know about planning a destination wedding, so I figured I'd do a couple blog posts to see if I could address some of them.  So here we go....the top 10 things I wish couples knew about planning a destination wedding:

10. You can plan it yourself, but why reinvent the wheel?  I know that wedding planning in general can be a type of "rite of passage" for brides-to-be, and some get really excited about the planning.  You can still be involved in all the decisions with your destination wedding, but you should have someone helping you along that does it all the time. 

9. You're going to want to escape from your guests at some point.  I almost fell into this trap with my own destination wedding last year.  A lot of couples figure that their guests will only do a long weekend, and then they will have the resort to themselves after the wedding.  This is partially true - most guests do book packages less than a week long, but others may not.  This means that you will be running into all your friends and family when you're really going to want some alone time.  Do yourself a favor and either plan to move to anther resort, or an entire other destination after your destination wedding.  We did a separate destination and really liked the fact that we had two totally separate sets of memories - one for the destination wedding, and one for the honeymoon.

8. Group agreements are usually a good idea. Get out of the idea that just because you are traveling with a group that you will get some insanely low rate, it's not going to happen.  Yes, if you are planning a destination wedding with a good planner then you'll receive some benefits, but the main benefit is actually making sure that everybody has a room and is paying the same amount.  As room availability at a hotel gets slim, they usually charge more, and once they sell out...those guests that waited too long are out of luck.

7. Don't sweat the little things! I know that planning a traditional wedding includes getting really detailed about how everything will be decorated.  Do you know why?  Usually it's because the venue NEEDS to be decorated in order to look nice.  Most couples planning a destination wedding are having their ceremonies in an incredible area that has amazing natural beauty (beach, garden, etc).  Let nature speak for itself and leave the pom-poms and doilies at home.

6. You aren't expected to pay for anybody. There is no book of etiquette written on planning a destination wedding.  It's not like a traditional wedding where there are fairly set rules on what you are expected to do.  It is common knowledge that destination wedding couples don't pay for anybody expect themselves.  With that being said, if you have extra money you certainly can get charitable and help certain people out.  Some couples choose to offer a kind of voucher for guests (a certain $ amount per person), to help defray costs.  But again, it's not necessary.

Stay tuned for our final 5....

-Quentin