Destination weddings look meaningfully different in 2026 than they did five years ago. Couples are trimming guest lists, extending trips, prioritizing content, and leaning into tropical color palettes that would’ve felt bold in 2020. If you’re planning your destination wedding for 2026 or 2027, here’s what’s actually trending across our DW Specialist bookings this year. 1. Wed-cations Replace Wedding Days…
Planning a destination wedding
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Not every destination wedding ceremony is the same. Some are legally binding at the wedding destination, while others are symbolic. Some layer in religious or cultural traditions. Some blend two heritages into one shared ceremony. Choosing the right ceremony type shapes your paperwork, your budget, and the experience your guests remember. Here’s how our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists walk couples…
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Before you start touring resorts, comparing packages, or picking a wedding date, our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists want you to know a few things. Not the surface-level tips you’ll find on any wedding blog, but the honest, first-hand feedback they give couples in their first phone call. This is the pre-planning briefing we wish every couple got before they started…
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Maui sits at the top end of the Hawaiian island wedding market, with a luxury and boutique-luxury resort scene concentrated on the Wailea, Ka’anapali, and Kapalua coasts. A destination wedding in Maui varies with the resort tier, guest count, package selection, time of year, and vendor choices, in line with the broader Hawaii state cost range. These averages reflect real…
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A genuinely free destination wedding in Central America is one of the most accessible options in the region, and not just because of room-block math. Three of Riu’s Central America properties offer a true Free Wedding Package with no minimum room requirement, eligible with the purchase of any room category. That’s unusually generous compared to the typical “free with 35…
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A destination wedding in Central America in the under-$10,000 tier is built for larger groups, fuller productions, and the kind of wedding-week scope that lets you bring 30 to 50 guests without the wedding-package math running away. Riu Guanacaste’s Indulgence package, the anchor of this tier, includes a four-hour DJ-led private reception, live music, a complimentary first-anniversary night, and a…
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A destination wedding in Central America in the under-$5,000 tier scales up from the entry-level elopement structure into a full ceremony-and-reception combo. The under-$5,000 tier delivers private cocktail hours, plated or buffet dinner receptions, 20 to 30 guest counts, upgraded floral arrangements, and the kind of polish that fits a real destination wedding without crossing into luxury-tier pricing. This guide…
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A destination wedding in Central America opens up something the Caribbean can’t quite match: Pacific-coast volcanic landscapes, rainforest-meets-beach scenery, the Panama Canal as a wedding-week conversation piece, and Costa Rica’s pura vida pace woven through the resort experience. For couples wanting a destination wedding that doesn’t look like everyone else’s Caribbean photo album, the under-$3,000 tier here delivers more than…
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A destination wedding in Antigua in the under-$10,000 tier is built for bigger groups, fuller productions, and the kind of wedding-week scope that lets you bring 50 or more guests without the wedding-package math running away. Antigua’s all-inclusive resort scene scales well at this tier, with private dinner receptions, DJ entertainment, and the polish that turns a destination wedding into…
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A genuinely free destination wedding sounds too good to be true. In Antigua, it’s a real option for couples willing to book a qualifying room block. The math works because the resort comps the wedding-package line item when your group reserves enough room nights to make the celebration worth the comp on the resort’s side. That structure makes Antigua one…
