Wedding Bonanza
Weddings and travel go hand in hand. Be it destination weddings where we arrange everything from the resort to the decorations, building dream honeymoons, groups where we transport all the guests/photographer/bridal party for a special rate (assuming there are enough people to qualify) , or just flying individuals from point A to point B so they can attend someone’s nuptials, weddings are huge in the industry. Normally I tackle a few a year in some capacity, but for the last few weeks I’ve been all weddings all the time.
Destination weddings can be a great way to save money, as only the people you really love will usually drop the chunk of change to fly to your exotic locale, making it not only more personal than the standard giant shindig, but cutting down the price per guest that you have to pay. In financial times like these, the bottom line is always a concern, but few people are going to forgo the whole “wedding and lifelong commitment to the person of your dreams” concept just to save a few bucks, so they’re looking for some way to make their budget go farther, while still getting a wedding that looks spectacular. Consequently, my company has chosen to focus on this as one of their fall promotional campaigns, so we’re all getting additional wedding training to make us even more qualified than we already were to make your wedding spectacular.
On top of the training, I suddenly found myself with not one but two detailed honeymoons to arrange, a wedding registry to facilitate and a destination wedding group to send to Liberia, Costa Rica for a springtime ceremony. I’ve never before been surrounded by so much happiness combined with so much pressure to make the perfect day all they dream it will be. It’s challenging and interesting at the same time. I’m breathing cakes and dresses, watching Rich Bride, Poor Bride on TV for tips, repeating the laws of maiden name versus married name travel (whatever your passport says has to match the name on the ticket. I don’t care, and neither does the government, what your name is going to be) and learning what it takes to get your marriage license translated into Spanish. The running joke with my bf is “no, I’m not hinting at anything. It’s just work,” and luckily he’s cool with that. Besides, he knows I’m not that subtle.
Maybe it is the economy sending more people abroad. Or maybe it’s the pressures of daily life making us all need to get away from it all. But whatever it is, my clients sure have wedding fever!