Weddingbee

Once we had our destination of choice nailed, it was time to pick a resort.

As I flipped through one brochure after another, my eyes began to glaze over at the sight of the same images over and over: 1) photo of woman lounging by pool, 2) photo of woman on wide (and weirdly empty) white sand beach, 3) aerial photo of resort that is indiscernible from aerial photo of other resort on opposite page, 4) swan-shaped towel art displayed on a bedspread which must have been designed by someone who was color-blind.

Since I’m dorky and secretly love research (oh Melvil Dewey, your name still inspires shivers) I went, of course, to the grand World Wide Web…

…and, oh my lord, it was just more of the same schmaltz!

There were pictures of beaches and couples canoodling and 80’s-style wedding dresses with pouffy bangs to match, but not much else except ads, ads, ADS AND MORE ADS!

Unless you really like ads, I’d say do yourself a favor and don’t try Googling ‘destination weddings’.

The golden ticket? Real reviews from past DW brides and other travelers. I know. It seems so obvious, right? But what can I say? When you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, your brain doesn’t run on all cylinders.

Here are a few of websites that I personally found the most helpful, and on which I spent countless hours while trying to decide where to have our DW:

• Debbie’s Carribean Resort Reviews - Definitely not the easiest on the eyes but if you can get past the crazy layout, you’ll find a site with straight-up, honest and incredibly helpful reviews of destinations and resorts, written by Debbie herself and her legions of fans. Be sure to check the weddings section.
• TripAdvisor - Recently redesigned, this website is very easy to use and features not only reviews written by travelers, but also tons and tons of photos. Be warned - as everyone in customer service knows, you’re much more likely to have someone complain about something than praise it, so take it with a grain of salt. The site does a good job of tracking overall rankings, and their Top-Rated lists rock.
• Canadianbride Talkboards, specifically, the Destination Weddings thread - This is a forum where brides-to-be and past brides (wives?) post questions and share information about planning their weddings. The great thing about it is that these gals feel your pain and so everyone is really helpful. No question is a dumb question.
• Weddingbells forum - Yep, also has a Destination Weddings thread. Although not as easy to use, the forum is another good place to find out what other brides out there are doing.
• Best Destination Wedding Forum - Another forum, but here the whole place is wall-to-wall DW brides.
• Facebook groups - You have to be on Facebook to use them but hey, who isn’t? These are a great resource, more for after you’ve narrowed it down to a few resorts and want to check them out. Go to the ‘Groups’ section and search for the name of the resort. There are even a few groups starting to pop up that are specifically made up of brides planning their weddings at those resorts. It’s even better than the forums because it’s a snap to share photos so there are a lot, plus you can chat it up more easily one-on-one if you want, and if you become ‘friends’ then often girls will share their entire photo albums with you. A picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, it’s REALLY true. What’s more, the response time is wayyyy faster (I swear, some of these brides must be logged on 24/7).

Although choosing a place to do your DW can be intimidating, it’s much like jumping into a cold lake - you just have to dive right in and pretty soon it doesn’t seem to be all that bad.

Do you have a favorite website that you used when planning where to have your destination wedding?

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