We are planning a destination wedding in Costa Rica and anticipate (maybe) 50 people coming. I want to set the date to March 2026 and am just starting to think about getting things in motion. Does anyone have any suggestions for locations/cities/resorts/venues in Costa Rica? And any other suggestions for a first time planner? Especially since I’ve never been to Costa Rica!

Also for budget - I’ve seen online that destination weddings in Costa Rica can cost the couple around $10k in total, which is super cheap compared to a wedding in the States. Is this true? Should I plan for this being possible?

Hiii Reddit! Would love a little advice from this group 🔆.

I’m a 2025 bride currently planning a destination wedding in PR, in the San Juan metro area. Most of my fam lives there, but I’m planning from stateside. Since my fiance and I both have insane schedules (he’s a PhD student and I travel a lot for work) we’d slated September as the month that works best for us next year. When we spoke to our venue coordinator about it and mentioned our fears around rainy season / hurricane season, she validated the fears but said the weather could be unstable at any time throughout the year, and that she’d had her wedding on a September and loved it. My family also said it would be fine. At the time, for some reason, that assuaged my anxieties and we felt we should take the gamble, and locked in a date for 9/22 of next year.

But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m wondering if we need to figure out a way to change our date. It’s an outside venue with a tented reception, and the outdoors area was what really had us falling in love with the venue.

So I’d love to hear from you all. If any of you live in PR, have gotten married in PR or have visited frequently: in past Septembers, does it rain all day on most days? Have any of you had luck with your September weddings? Would welcome any and all advice here! Thank you :)

I am young and my cousin has asked me to help find him cleaners for his wedding next year in a specific area, how do you go about finding cleaning teams for this?

Has anyone been married in an intimate wedding in Europe? I’m on a budget, but would love to get married in a castle or a chapel in Europe next fall. I’ve found quite a few options I like on the internet - but wanted to reach out here to see if you guys had any recs!

i’m getting married today (ahhhhh!) and my venue sent me a a reminder list yesterday. on it it states:

“Gratuity is not included in any of the venue fees. Gratuity is left up to the client's generosity. Your consideration of the staff working on your wedding is greatly appreciated.”

the staff is one “event helper” who is a NOT a day of coordinator. i really don’t know what they do but today when i was setting up at my rehearsal she was just sweeping and helping the facilities manager with bringing out the things the venue provides. this leads me to the facility manager. he set up the bar outside, the tables for the reception and the chairs outside for the ceremony. the venue provides all these things. he was also pretty rude and kind of stood on his phone the entire time or just hovered over us while we were decorating. that really pissed me off. oh, and he felt the need to point out that my rented linens were cheap and had creases. if you’re expecting a tip, keep your useless opinions to yourself.

i just want to be clear, these two people did not help me / nor touch anything i brought and i don’t expect them too but why do i have to tip them? there’s nothing in my contact about it and isn’t it literally their job to do these things?

if i do tip them how much should it be? and please don’t come for me lol im just confused!

Anyone know where I can get clear sealable leak proof ornament type balls? I will be filling them with liquid and hanging them. I need them to not leak.

Hello!

I (27F) am getting married in 2026. Yes, I know it’s verrrryyyy far off: but I am a type A planner and I like to start mood boards, and fabric ideas.

I’m a costume designer and I’m known for my lavish gowns and creations: so I feel like I have a big responsibility to live up to making sure everyone in my wedding party looks as amazing as they possibly can.

I’ve been on:

• jjhouse
• azazie
• WedTrend
• Revelery
• Bird Grey
• Bella Bridesmaids
• Jenny Yoo
• David’s Bridal

And I’m just so…. Bored? The sill purges and colors are all just so….. underwhelming. I want my wedding party to feel beautiful in what they’re wearing: not like a potato sack made of chiffon.

So brides and other wedding planners: where should I look for fun, colorful, preferably floral, full length formalwear?

(NOTE: since I did mention my sewing profession: I am not going to make my wedding parties looks. I feel like having something made for me for once will be a nice treat. So all suits, dresses, and such are going to be bought. If I have extra budget money I may make my reception gown but we will see when it gets closer to 2026).

Thank you!!!

My fiance and I are planning to get married in the next 2 years. I have been thinking a lot about what our festivities will look like, and this is what I have so far.

We are looking to get eloped in Hot Springs, AR. This is a town that means a lot to us and we want to show that in our celebration. We will spending a full week there and taking things at a slow pace. Enjoy a spa day at the bathhouses, have two separate days for photos at different locations with different vibes (actually going to the courthouse one of those days), finishing the week off by having 50-75 of our closest friends and family come down for a more rehearsal dinner type reception at The Porterhouse then ending that night by a fire with those who choose to come. I have a photographer in mind that I am willing to pay well for her time, and I'm flexible with my photo days idea. It's all far enough out to keep plans flexible. I'm really just aiming for September 26, 2025 or September 26, 2026.

So now my question comes. What tips and tricks do you have for a plan like this. I plan on doing most of my hair and makeup for everything. Decorations and plan for the reception dinner will be made in plenty of time ahead and delegated to my closest friends for set up with detailed instructions. I'm not worried if things aren't 100% how I want them, but I plan to give instructions enough to get what we are wanting without much input from ourselves day of.

What have you guys found were the easiest ways to delegate things and how did you run your wedding celebrations if similar to these. Also, if you had a wedding similar to this, what did it end up costing you? Without much thought into budget, I hope to keep the total package under 15,000.00. Please let me know if that is unreasonable lol. Thank you in advance!!

Discuss anything on your mind with your fellow wedditors. This is an especially great place to ask short (1-2 lines) questions or commonly asked questions instead of making an individual post.

All discounts and deals should be posted here.

Don't forget to check out the latest Monthly Check In thread! The Monthly Check In is great for finding date twins, as well as seeing where others are at in their "To Do" timelines.

Guys, I’m just planning to have a simple civil wedding and for my honeymoon I would love to go somewhere with my man but also not somewhere outside US, but just have a good weekend out somewhere. I hope that makes sense. Any suggestions? I live in Houston

So my partner and I have been tossing around the idea of getting married privately at the courthouse and then having a mega reception/celebration the next day. Thoughts? Anyone ever had or experienced an occasion like this? How was it, was it awkward? Did it feel less special because the wedding wasn’t witnessed? Any tips?

Also is it still considered a reception if it’s the next day? Should we just call it a celebration of love or something? Thanks guys!

Hello!! My fiancé and i are planning a destination wedding to vegas and would love to know anyone’s opinions on venues? We are looking at Caesar’s and Flamingo currently since the strip will be the easiest area to be close to each other. If anyone has any tips on a fremont area wedding too I’m not opposed at all! Just wanted some input to help get the ball rolling before flying to visit and tour!

This is a bit of an odd situation and I’m looking for advice on what to do. My fiancé and I are having a very small intimate wedding that just includes our parents and siblings. I am very introverted and wanted to exchange our vows in a private setting but my fiancé and I compromised on having our families there because it is important to both of us.

We are having an informal celebration a few weeks later with the rest of our extended families and friends.

This is where i’m at a crossroads on what to do. So far wedding planning has been completely drama free and this is the only thing that has been hard!

My future SIL recently started dating someone and we have never met him. I am very uncomfortable with the idea of basically a stranger being at our ceremony when it is so intimate and private and we aren’t even having any of our close friends there.

My brother is bringing his girlfriend, but I feel they are much more serious in that they own a home together and are having a baby plus I have a relationship with her.

I don’t want someone there that will be in the photos and memories when they may not even be together in a years time and I’m uncomfortable around new people.

We live out of state from them so it’s not feasible for us to meet him several times and create a relationship with him before the wedding. My MIL is adamant that it will create a lot of hard feelings if we don’t invite him and my fiancé is torn because he agrees with me but doesn’t want to upset his sister or family and create bad feelings.

I don’t know what to do here, any advice?

The wedding is in the state we live so our families do have to travel to it. Everyone was on board with this when we started planning.

We haven’t said anything yet to her about this. Thank you in advance to any commenters. I am very new at posting so sorry if this is hard to follow!

Need help creating a wedding hashtag for my upcoming wedding. I’m having some “writers block” and can’t think of a clever one. My last name is Case, I’m looking for something punny, romantic that involves the last name.

My daughter and I had a meeting with a florist last week. I was on Zoom, and the meeting was set up by the venue wedding planner. It was about an hour long. Mostly, we just talked and shared my daughter’s “vision” (planner’s words). My daughter showed a few inspiration pictures, and they showed us maybe 5 of their work during the meeting. And, the florist said they were an event stylist, so they were really talking about how to incorporate small things for the personal touches (Star Wars, DC, etc). Today, we got the quote and design ideas. Three of the photos they showed us in the meeting were the ones we discussed. None of what we talked about other than the wisteria arch is even close to what we discussed. And the quote was $5300. This is insane, right? Are the design proposals this basic?

I’m currently planning my wedding which is about 2 months away. I’ve been searching for a disposable film camera app that is just like the POV app, but for free lol. I’m having an approx. 250 people wedding and every app I come across I have to pay for that amount of people, and it’s quite pricey for me. Does anyone by any chance have a free alternative that can do all the same things ?

• no download of an app necessary
• camera that pops up so you don’t HAVE to upload after that fact but can snap and have it upload automatically
• allows a cap on number of pictures taken per person
• allows me to view & approve the photos before allowing the rest of the guests to see them

Pleaaaaase help me id appreciate it so much!!!

I found a dress I cry in everytime I put it on, it's the only dress that does it too. I feel so beautiful in it.

I just ordered it and it's being made now which is very exciting.

The photo I have here is of the stock one they had in the room that I tried. I ordered my dress in black tho and am gonna add embroidery leaves to the straps.

Im sooo nervous to see it actually made 😬 I hope it still gives me those amazing feelings just amplified.

But what do yall think? It ended up being very different then what I was looking for but I think it flatters me well. :)

I did want something simple and clean. (It does have little beading across the bust as well)

Anyone want to grab coffee and talk planning?

I don’t want to do a first look and instead am hoping to opt for a cocktail hour with just the wedding party around 12:30-1:30 in a pre-ceremony dress. This will also serve as a photo op in lieu of extensive getting ready photos. I’m sad that I won’t get to wear my dress all day and am wondering if I will regret this choice. I just know I want that dramatic ‘first look’ moment as I come down the isle but also want to have time to decompress with my hunny a little before the big show lol. My ceremony doesn’t start until 3:30 if that helps!

Hi has anyone been married at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Miami? It is very pricey but the cathedral is stunning and we love that we can bring our own officiant (the priest we would like from a different church has already met with us and confirmed he is available on our wedding day). Wondering if anyone has been married here and what their experience was coordinating with the cathedral. Also wondering what the parking situation was since the parking lot seems pretty small! Thanks in advance :)

Wedding is October 2025 but our engagement pics aren’t until January and our photographer said it will take about 3-4 weeks for us ti get the photos. If we sent out our save the dates in February is that enough time for people? It would be 8 months prior to the wedding.

We are working with a very strict budget (and small comparatively to other weddings i’ve been to), but i’m wondering if videography is worth budgeting for. Brides who hired a videographer, do you watch your video enough to justify the cost? Brides who didn’t, do you regret not having one?

I got a note from my bridal salon that my dress had arrived (yay!). With the note, they sent a payment link for the balance and said we could schedule fitting/ adjustment once final payment was received. Is that standard? Seems weird to pay full balance sight unseen. In NYC if that makes a difference

Hello lovely brides!

I recently got married this past weekend, and while I can not wait to share all of the good experiences, I feel I need to warn brides against a terrible vendor I worked with over the weekend. I hired a bartender for our afterparty through Thumbtack. The vendor is called Boozie Byrd and the owner is Chrissany B.

First and foremost, Chrissany was extremely difficult to communicate with. I booked her for an after party for my wedding. On my wedding day, radio silence from her. I had to text her multiple times to get a response, only to find out she would not be our bartender anymore and she would be sending someone else named Gina.

Despite my frustration with her poor communication (taking days to respond, requiring follow up from me), I decided that at least we would still have someone there since Chrissany said she was sick. Gina ended up with the wrong address and made me feel bad for it despite the fact it was my wedding day. Once that got sorted out, she showed up with a very poor attitude and unprepared.

I received so many complaints about Gina within the first hour of the after party, I decided to just send her home early. I agreed with my guests that she was not a positive contribution to the atmosphere. I very kindly and courteously requested a partial refund as a show of good will from Chrissany. She took days to respond again. Followed up with her today only to find out she won’t refund a single penny. Gina also recorded us without our permission. Not sure why we were told that other than to make us feel uncomfortable for complaining. I asked for a copy of the footage to feel more comfortable, they refused.

GO WITH ANYONE ELSE, TRUST ME. My gut had numerous doubts and I truly wish I had listened. This was my wedding night for crying out loud! She says she is "well-respected" in the area as her final goodbye to me...

My fiancé and I have hit a stonewall looking at all the destination elopement options. We’re looking at preferably Cancun (cheaper flights for us) and was wondering if anyone had great (or horrible) experiences there. We’re open to other locations too! TIA 🫶

I’m wondering if it’s possible to leave parents info as unknown in New Jersey or other states around nyc (we live in Brooklyn & I was married previously (in Brooklyn city hall & included my parents info at that time)

I have an extremely painful & strained relationship with my whole family & would really rather they not be included on this marriage licence (there’s no problem with his family & they would be listed) I’m assuming that if we got married in another ny location the record would automatically include their info since I’m already in the system (so to speak) of the state - tho if it’s not the case that would definitely simplify things)) afaik only Alaska & dc & (maybe Maryland?) don’t ask for parents names birth places & dates etc

traveling far at all is not really possible bc of various reasons (ppl we want there not able to make it otherwise & we have been postponing for the past yr+ due to some insurance coverage issues & I’m now 8,8 months pregnant 🤰… thanks 🙏

Just got back from our honeymoon after our wedding two weeks ago and thought I’d share a few thoughts since this sub was so helpful to me during the planning process! It may seem like there are more cons than pros, but overall the wedding was an absolute dream and a memory I will cherish forever :) I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Things that could have gone better/advice

1. I can’t stress this enough, make sure that you have enough time to get ready. For some reason, my makeup artist decided to do my makeup last and my hair took longer than expected, despite me telling both the hair and makeup artists what time I needed to be ready by in order to make it to my first look. This kind of threw things off for the rest of the day because I literally had to throw on my dress and RUN out the door - I didn’t get time to even look in the mirror before running out, or put on the perfume I picked especially for that day (it’s ok I got to wear it on my honeymoon) or put on deodorant (ew) :( or decide what necklace to wear. I had a couple options in mind and planned to make a game day decision because I wasn’t able to try them with my dress beforehand. I’m fine with the one I picked but wish I’d been able to see all the options. I also didn’t LOVE my makeup; it was beautiful, and I didn’t NOT like it, but I wish we’d had more time to fine tune it. I felt stressed and rushed for a lot of the remainder of the day after starting out like this.

2. Make sure you have a DETAILED plan in case it rains, especially if your wedding is outdoors. My wedding and reception were both outdoors but I didn’t think it would actually rain because we don’t get much rain where I’m from, but it POURED. All day. It was fine because it was a beautiful, moody vibe and the overcast conditions made for beautiful photos, but could have been better with some more planning. I did ask the venue beforehand about what the protocol was if it were to rain and they assured me they had umbrellas guests could use for the ceremony if absolutely necessary and a canopy they could pull over the entire patio for the reception if needed. I also asked our photographer for any rainy day tips and she suggested clear umbrellas (which make our first look pics I’ve seen so far absolutely to DIE FOR - highly recommend). So it was good that we had this stuff figured out in advance, but unfortunately, my shoes and dress got completely soaked. I did bring backup shoes to change in to in case my bridal shoes started to hurt my feet, but did not bring any shoes suitable for wet conditions. So my feet were soaking wet and freezing cold for 8+ hours. Also if I were to do things over again, I would have packed a hair dryer in my bag for the venue so that we could have used it to at least attempt to dry out my dress.

3. Practice walking in your dress and veil before you walk down the aisle. My dress was a big beautiful ballgown that consisted of 11 pounds of fabric - when DRY at least (now imagine how much weight was added with it being sopping wet). I wasn’t able to pick up my dress from alterations until 10pm the night before the wedding and wasn’t able to try it on at all before wedding day. Additionally, since our venue and pictures before the ceremony were outside in the mountains, I was carrying my dress around to try to avoid it getting wet and muddy as much as I could. This meant that I had never practiced walking in my dress until I walked down the aisle (which also had stairs!). Needless to say, I had a bit of a hard time walking in the dress and the veil (which kept getting ripped out at the slightest touch) which was all I could think about walking down the aisle so I don’t have a smile on my face in any of the pictures and feel a little sad thinking that it was not at all beautiful or graceful like I imagined.

4. Similar to above on practicing walking in your dress, if you have a long veil, practice walking in your veil to make sure it will stay in!! My hairstylist thought the comb thing would be enough to hold it in, but I think if I had tried walking around with it in after my hair trial or even just around the house before the wedding, we would have realized that it needed some bobby pins or something extra to hold it in (especially considering the added weight after it got wet!). I had planned to wear my veil for the entire day by using a pin to bustle it up, but it wasn’t possible to do so because it kept falling out of my hair and we didn’t have time to mess with it. Before the wedding I had thought about getting a shorter veil to change into during the reception and I wish I had done that.

5. Since I was so stressed about my dress and veil situation before walking down the aisle, I didn’t get a chance to have a moment with my dad to really take everything in. Definitely wish I’d been able to be a little more present!

6. This is going to sound weird, but I wish I had drank a little more before the ceremony!! I was so stressed out that I feel like I wasn’t able to really take things in and enjoy until after the ceremony was over. I think a drink or two might have helped loosen me up a bit.

Things that went well

1. Bridesmaids - We had a small, intimate wedding with only close friends and immediate family. At the beginning of planning I considered not having a wedding party and I literally don’t know how I would have handled the day without my bridesmaids, so I definitely recommend having them if you’re on the fence. One of my bridesmaids is very outspoken and she was an absolute angel about advocating for me (especially because sometimes I feel uncomfortable doing it for myself), for example telling people when I needed some space, keeping people on track on the schedule, and reminding me to be present in the moment. Before the ceremony from the bridal suite we could hear the DJ telling people to find their seats and my sweet bridesmaid turned to me and said “do you hear that? That’s the sound of your wedding starting!” Little things like this really helped make the day special, so if you’re in this sub as a bridesmaid, take notes!

2. Cake cutting - I honestly wasn’t very excited about doing a cake cutting, thought very seriously about taking it out, but my mom insisted and I’m so glad we did it. Weirdly, the cake cutting was my favorite part of the day (other than our first look). We had a small, plain cake for cutting from a grocery store bakery and other individual desserts from a speciality bakery for the guests and it worked out great. We used the song “Radio” by Lana Del Rey (“now my life is sweet like cinnamon, like a fxckin dream I’m livin in”) and it was perfection.

3. Videography - Wasn’t sure what section to put this in. We didn’t hire a videographer, for budget reasons. But one of our family members is a professional photographer/videographer and very kindly agreed to set up a tripod to record our ceremony for us. He went way above and beyond and made us a cute little compilation video with lots of little scenes and details from the day set to the song we used for our first dance. It’s so incredibly special and I can’t imagine not having it. Also our friends are super great and filmed some things (cake cutting, first dance) that I didn’t think I’d care to see in a video and I love them so so much. So I definitely recommend getting a videographer if you’re on the fence.

4. Venue/Day of Coordinator/Preferred Vendors - Our venue was super awesome and came with a day of coordinator. They were incredible. Highly recommend having a day of coordinator. Also our other vendors (DJ, florist, photographer) were all people from the venue’s preferred list, which worked out great because not only were they great vendors, but they were all used to working together and knew each other, which helped things run smoothly. For example, a glass got broken on the dance floor and the photographer knew who from the venue to grab to clean it up so we didn’t have to worry about anything. Also the photographer knew the florist, so she offered to pick up our personal flowers before meeting us for our first look.

5. Micro wedding - I mentioned earlier that we only invited close friends and immediate family (<50 guests). I was worried it might be awkward but it was perfect for us. I was glad to be able to spend time with each of our guests and don’t think I would have enjoyed the day as much if there had been more people there. There were a few ruffled feathers with our parents over this decision (they’ll get over it), but glad we stuck to our guns!

6. First look - I’m running out of time, so can’t go in to too much detail here, but so glad we decided to do a first look. This was my favorite part of the day.

How did you decide whether or not to wear a veil?

I never was super excited to wear one, and am now roughly a week out and just realized I don't have one.

I'm not sure if it's worth getting one now or not.

I think it would look nice in some photos, but I think I'd really only like to wear it briefly and then take it off because I love the back of my dress and don't want to take away from it.

Anyone wear a veil just for a few photos before ditching it? I'm not sure if that's practical or a bad idea. I don't want it to mess up my hair, but I also don't know that I want to deal with a veil all night.