As I've hinted before, J and I are traveling to our wedding destination. Before I reveal our final decision, I thought it might be fun to reminisce on the ideas we had while planning. We had decided on a destination wedding because J hasn't exactly had the opportunity to travel, and we were itching to get away somewhere exciting. And we also knew that by having a destination wedding it would make the small wedding concept more believable to our friends and family. And to be honest, it just sounded so incredibly romantic to have an amazing weekend trip with our close friends and family, and instead of spending only a few hours together, we could spend a few days celebrating our lives together.
Our criteria was simple (and probably should have included more parameters, but you live and you learn!):
1. Must be somewhere either one of us has been before OR
2. Must be somewhere we could easily travel to scout out locations.
This quickly narrowed down our list, as the only time J has traveled is for Army-related trips, and I haven't exactly jet-setted around the world myself. Our travel distance to scout out locations was also limited by a) budget and b) time. So we started at the top, and worked our way day.
Our first option was Napa; J and I both are huge winos, and we were obsessed with the beautiful landscapes and the promise of amazing food. These plans were quickly squashed once we started contacting vendors in the Napa/Sonoma area. I recall one conversation J had with a venue in Sonoma, asking "What is included in the $8500 venue fee?" to which the woman answered "Well...nothing." So after some tears, wine, and How I Met Your Mother (are you sensing a trend yet??) we brushed off the crankiness, and said goodbye to the idea of Napa.
Next on our list of potential locales was the Bahamas. My mom and I had been there earlier in the year, and I had fallen in love. I again contacted some vendors that were of interest to me (and I had firsthand experience with), and my champagne wishes quickly squashed those dreams. We crossed this off my list after I realized the wedding packages at the resorts I was looking at wouldn't include things on our must haves list (private plated seated dinner, for example) and the wedding coordinators attitude was curt to say the least. So the Bahamas were a no-go.
Our last option, and one I hadn't even been considering at this point, was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I had been there at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica once before with my parents, and they had gone again because we all had loved it so much. My parents were completely on board with this plan, as they love the resort, and knew it would be beautiful. Soon I got sold on all the amenities and found myself actually EXCITED looking through wedding packages. And as you can tell through all my tears so far, I hadn't exactly been dancing for joy yet! So once I realized the packages were reasonable and fairly customizable, that I was promised privacy and no public crawling by in my beach wedding pictures, I was sold. I'll do a whole 'nother post on the beauty that is our wedding venue, but that's another post for another day!
So there you have it, the bumpy road to the happy ending that is our wedding destination!!
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