A destination wedding is a wedding held somewhere away from where you and your families live, so everyone travels to be there and stays at least a night. It might be a villa in Italy, a beach in Bali or a vineyard a long drive from home. What really sets it apart is that the wedding becomes a trip, usually a weekend or longer, rather than an afternoon and an evening.
There's no official definition, but you'll often hear a simple rule of thumb: a wedding 100 miles (about 160 km) or more from where the couple lives. Distance alone doesn't settle it, though. The better test is whether you and most of your guests need to travel and book somewhere to sleep.
That means a destination wedding doesn't have to involve a passport. A New York couple marrying in Napa Valley, or a Sydney couple in the Yarra Valley, counts just as much as a wedding on Lake Como. Some people call the closer version a "domestination" wedding, which is the same idea without the long-haul flight.
What usually doesn't count is getting married in your own hometown, even if you've since moved away, because most of your guests won't need to travel.
Once you've picked the place, most destination weddings come together in much the same way.
Life is much easier when one resort, hotel or villa can host the ceremony, the dinner and your guests. Our destination guides cover venues, seasons and the paperwork for each country.
You can't pop round to see the florist, so you'll usually have a planner or the venue's own coordinator on the ground. They book the local suppliers and run the day for you. Our guide on how to plan a destination wedding walks through that process from the first decision to the last.
Usually your guests pay for their own flights and rooms, and you look after the wedding. A block of rooms at a group rate makes that easier, and our guide to how wedding room blocks work explains the details.
When everyone's come all that way, it makes sense to make a few days of it. A welcome party on the first night and a relaxed farewell brunch are the usual bookends, with the wedding in the middle. A simple wedding website keeps the schedule, travel tips and RSVPs in one place.
Every country has its own marriage laws, and some make it tricky for visitors to marry legally. That's why plenty of couples sign the legal papers at home, then have a symbolic ceremony at the destination. Our guide to where you can legally get married abroad explains the options by country.
Photo: Pervez Taufiq
The big differences are who comes, how long it lasts and where the money goes:
Your timeline shifts too. Guests need longer to book leave and flights, so your save the dates and invitations go out earlier. Our guide to when to send wedding invitations has the dates.
It's a lovely fit if you'd rather have a smaller crowd, a few slow days with the people you love most and a setting that does half the decorating for you. Plus, your honeymoon can start the moment the last guest flies home.
It's tougher if your guest list is long, if grandparents or other relatives can't easily travel, or if you'd feel awkward asking people to pay for flights. Some people will say no, so it's worth deciding early how you'll feel about that. Our destination wedding checklist shows what the planning looks like month by month, which is a good way to test the idea before you commit.
Couples head everywhere from Europe's lakes and coastlines to beaches across Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean. Start with Italy, Greece, Bali, Fiji or Mexico, and use the season, the flight time for your guests and the marriage rules to narrow it down.
Photo: Pervez Taufiq
If a wedding everyone travels to sounds like you, pick the place first, then the people who'll help you run it, and give your guests plenty of notice. When you're ready to plan, our guide on how to plan a destination wedding takes it from there.
Written by
Senior SEO Specialist, Wedded Wonderland
Mark Tuason is the Senior SEO Specialist at Wedded Wonderland, where he writes and refreshes the brand's guides to destination weddings and cultural wedding traditions. He starts with the questions couples search for, checks the answers against trusted sources, and shapes each guide to help them plan, compare and book with confidence. Based in the Philippines, he specialises in content strategy and on-page SEO.
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