10 Reasons You Should RSVP ‘Yes’ to a Destination Wedding


I have been to three destination weddings—in the Bahamas, Cabo, and Punta Cana—and each of them was absolutely fantastic. I’m so glad I went. In each of those cases, the friends were close enough that I wouldn’t have missed their weddings no matter where they were—but that aside, I’m able to look at each of those experiences and be really glad that I was a part of them.

Destination weddings are expensive—sometimes enormously so—and they involve much more planning than a typical wedding’s hotel-reserving and cab-flagging, and require the generous donation of your vacation days as part of your friends’ wedding gift. It’s no wonder that most people’s initial reaction to being invited to a destination wedding is often more than a little tinged with dread, or at the very least, frustration.

But with destination weddings, you also get to go vacation in a place that maybe you would have never otherwise visited. You get to partake in fun wedding activities (welcome booze cruise! Tequila tasting! Spa day!) that are not normally a part of a hometown wedding that starts this Saturday at 3pm at the church a few blocks away from your house. You get to make friends with the other guests, and deliriously rehash last night’s antics while lounging at the pool in the morning after the breakfast buffet. You get to focus your attention on the couple and the wonderful thing you’re all celebrating with them for a few days, instead of a few hours. It really is special and different and a very cool thing to be a part of—and I can pretty much guarantee you you’ll go home feeling like the money and the vacation days and the last-minute arranging of airport transport was totally worth it.

And so, I was happy to Bustle’s list of 10 reasons why you actually should go to a destination wedding. What we more frequently hear about concerning destination weddings is griping—and while, like I said, I totally get why, if your budget and time do allow for it, we highly recommend checking off Accepts with pleasure, and packing those bags.

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