Reasons and Tips for an Island Style Wedding

Convenience. We just love it don’t we? Lawn mowing services, dinner deliveries, and online subscriptions are just a few of the things we turn to so we can stop and relax for a while.

So what would you say if someone offered to do the bulk of the running around for your upcoming wedding? Sounds very tempting, doesn’t it? And this is one of the “clinchers” why couples choose an island-style wedding. What they are actually choosing is relaxation where most of us have raised stress levels.

You still get to do the fun stuff like selecting the wedding rings, trying and buying a wedding gown, scrolling Pinterest for bridesmaid dresses and jewellery, but having your wedding at a resort in Fiji, Rarotonga or Tahiti means all the fiddly mundane stuff can become someone else’s job.

Some other great reasons to consider a wedding away from home are:

1. Bringing friends and family from all over the world to one gorgeous location
2. Escaping our winter for warm sunshine
3. Giving your wedding a relaxed holiday feel – and actually having a holiday!
4. The ceremony venue, photography, and dance venue are all in the one place
5. It gives the couple an excuse to return for wedding anniversaries!
6. Because of the additional costs for guests, island-style weddings are a good idea if you want a smaller, more intimate wedding

Four or five-star island resorts have years of experience bringing together a wedding, dealing with local suppliers and having purpose built areas just for weddings. Of course, the internet has made discussing options with the hotel wedding coordinator via email or Skype extremely easy.

If you do have guests scattered worldwide, we recommend setting up your own website. A personal wedding website is easy to design with lots of free or low-cost options available. It helps bring all the components together and makes it easier for you to get the information out to guests quickly and without any miscommunications. It will probably also stop a string of 4am phone calls from those wanting answers to questions. Flight and accommodation recommendations, what to pack, what to see and do, tour reviews, RSVP bookings, weather and dress code details will help guests learn about a destination they may never have travelled to before, as well as get them hyped about the whole glorious event.

Generally speaking, it is not good practice to ask guests to bring a gift to a destination wedding, however, if you have close relations (such as parents coming from the UK) they may want to give a gift anyway. This is when online registries like My Registry and Lovely Registry will close the gap between locations as well as ensuring you get the gift you want or need.

Once you have a good idea of who can attend, it should give you some negotiating power when booking flights and accommodation. And again, this is real-time information you can publish on your personal website.

So if you want to remember your wedding spending some quality time with friends and family and not just a day which flies by at lightning speed, think about the beautiful South Pacific palm trees, stunning rooms, and slowing down – because this is island time!