Weddingbee Blog

I’ve always wanted an outside wedding. Always. This was a problem because:

a.) Mr. Balloon’s family is Catholic. Catholic weddings happen inside of the church, nowhere else. Their church is really gorgeous—it’s just that I really wanted my dream of an outdoor venue.

b.) The area that I’m from offered nothing of the dream outdoor venue I’d always hoped for. The few outdoor places that I did actually like were nowhere big enough to accommodate our huge guest list. The places that were big enough came with nothing, so the rental costs of chairs, tables, etc. would be ridiculously expensive.

OK, so I knew that weddings were expensive…but until we started researching and planning, I had no idea that they were quite as expensive as I started to find out! The national average is something like $28,000?! That’s a lot of freakin money for one day! A very important day, don’t get me wrong…but still ONE day! Now hearing me say that, you’d probably think that I’m the sane one who has the finances under control and doesn’t care about frivolous details that people probably won’t remember in a few years anyway…but that would be an incorrect assumption. I definitely don’t think it’s necessary to go over the top (AKA over budget) by any means, BUT like I told Mr. Balloons (who, by the way, is the one with the finances under control and wants to cut every cost possible), out of all the “parties” that we will ever host, this is THE party. THE party that is representative of who we are and the one time that we will have all of our family and friends, those most important to us, together to celebrate with and show them a good time! He understands, yet still insists many of my ideas aren’t necessary…good thing I’m a good convincer.

As the search continued, I kept hearing more and more about destination weddings. I was intrigued, so I researched more into it. Turns out, people can save a LOT of money on tropical-destination weddings in places like Jamaica!

Promotional image for Sandals Weddings by Martha Stewart

A lot of resorts even offer a free wedding with a minimum night stay at their resort. After talking things over with Mr. Balloons, we decided it would be awesome to have a unique wedding and save a lot of money in the process. We decided we wanted a small, intimate ceremony with just immediate family and close friends, who would make up our wedding party, and then we’d still have a big, normal reception back home when we returned. So we started tossing the idea around to family members and friends, and the idea was met with mixed reviews, which we knew would happen. A destination wedding definitely has its pros and cons. For us personally, though, the pros definitely outweighed the cons.

So here we were planning this tropical-destination wedding, when out of nowhere I had a certified Oprah “aha” moment. Style Me Pretty had become one of my favorite wedding-inspiration blogs and one day, while doing my daily research, I came across one of the most beautiful wedding locations I had ever seen. Ever. This gorgeous wedding took place in the lovely Aspen, Colorado. Check it out for yourself here: part one, part two, part three.

The wedding that inspired me to choose my dream venue!

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photos by James Christianson

This is the wedding that inspired me to change my thinking completely and decide to have a Colorado destination wedding (the “aha” moment)! It fell into place perfectly…by having a United States destination wedding instead of one overseas, we would be making things a lot easier on our guests. They could drive if they wanted to instead of fly, they could stay for as little time or as long as they’d like, they wouldn’t have to worry about getting a passport. “Please, please, please let this location be in budget,” I thought! I wasn’t getting my hopes up, as Aspen is one of the most expensive cities in the United States! I contacted their wedding coordinator who promptly replied…and it was in budget! YAAAAY! OK, so it wasn’t going to be really saving us money as a tropical location like Jamaica would, but it was going to make things a lot easier on our guests, and the breathtaking location totally made up for it anyway!

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photos by James Christianson

So we went through with booking the location, and we booked our reception hall near our hometown as well for our at-home reception. PROGRESS feels lovely, doesn’t it?

Our stunning wedding venue!

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by James Christianson

Did you consider having a destination wedding?