Ebook: How to plan your own destination wedding: do-it-yourself tips from an experienced professional

Should you have a destination wedding? -- Cleaning up and finalizing your guest list -- Choosing your wedding destination and date -- Choosing your wedding venue once you know where you're getting married -- How to decide on and stick to a real wedding budget -- Negotiating the venue contract with a private owner or hotel -- Wedding invitations: how does the whole process work for a destination wedding and what's the "wediquette": a multi-step process -- Finding vendors and dealing with vendors at your destination -- Managing helpful friends and parents, so that you can plan your wedding but still get their help with the dirty work -- Finding a minister and understanding the marriage license requirements -- Writing your wedding ceremony and why you should get it over with immediately -- How to handle your vendors at your destination while planning and executing your wedding -- Start writing your wedding schedule as soon as you start dealing with the vendors -- Newsletters, welcome letters, and welcome bags: tips for a smooth guest arrival -- Starting your packing when you start your wedding planning: there's literally no such thing as too early to begin that list -- Create a supplies-by-event list for each and every event, and shop ahead for the things you need to send or bring -- Create a vendor checklist and keep it updated -- Pay all your outstanding balances on time, or as soon as you get an invoice -- Shipping things ahead so they're waiting when you arrive at your destination -- Wedding party gifts and gifts for your parents -- Bring your own bridal emergency bag, and I don't mean the cutesy one you got as a bridal shower gift -- Creating special memories for just you and your fiancé -- Guest management at your destination: what to do once they actually arrive -- Your emotional state will affect every guest attending your wedding, so put on a happy face -- Do not forget to make cleanup, teardown, and shipping arrangements for the aftermath of your wedding -- Wedding gifts received at destination weddings: care and shipping -- Planning a reception back home after your destination wedding: don't do it right away.;"Ten years ago, when Sandy Malone was planning her Caribbean destination wedding, there was no Pinterest, no Instagram, and no Wedding Wire. The Knot and the Wedding Channel were in their infancy. And Malone was planning her wedding from scratch. The tips and advice in How to Plan Your Own Destination Wedding will help brides and grooms navigate the murky waters of destination-wedding planning--and they are murky because most do-it-yourself brides and grooms are looking to do something "different" from what all of their friends have done before them. Unfortunately, the more remote, bizarre, and challenging the destination is, the more attractive it appears to the do-it-yourself couple. That's where Sandy Malone, star of Wedding Island (TLC), who has been planning weddings for ten years, comes in. She offers advice to brides and grooms on how NOT to spend money on things they don't need to invest in, and where they DO need to spend money to make sure the event runs smoothly. She also gives tips on how to negotiate the contract with the venue, the "wetiquette" of invitations for destination weddings, finding and handling vendors abroad, and much more. This book offers the complete guide to destination weddings, by a true expert! "--