Travel agents can help take the stress out of wedding travel
By Jenn Hall
Planning a local wedding can be difficult. Planning a destination wedding can bring more challenges, which is why it’s helpful to get a travel agent.
Nicole Beck said agents, like herself, can be really, really helpful in navigating all the details.
“We work with hotels directly,” said Beck with Aura Travel in St. Joseph. “Most (hotels) have a wedding department and can even bring on a wedding coordinator. We are happy to be that in between.”
Travel agents don’t get involved with the wedding colors or floral arrangements, but in her experience, Beck has suggestions to make the planning a little less stressful.
One of the first decisions should be if the destination wedding is legal or symbolic.
“Symbolic is a lot easier and a majority of what people end up choosing,” Beck said. “The wedding is real. You just come back and get a marriage license at home.”
Depending on the country, couples can be required to be there so many days in advance, documents have to be translated and sometimes there are more steps.
For example, Jamaica is a little bit easier to work with and a local wedding coordinator can help but at a cost.
“We’re obviously here to help but, to a certain extent, (couples) need to do their own research to have a general idea of when you want to get married, where and have some of those thoughts ironed out,” she said. “And talk about a budget to make sure you’re on the same page. Honest and realistic.”
Having a general idea of those attending is helpful, too. There is a big difference in travel packages for 10 people versus 200. Knowing those details helps travel agents get the most accurate pricing information.
Couples should keep in mind that destination weddings are not the same across the board. They should reserve a date as soon as possible for a couple of reasons: weather and availability.
Recently, a group was heading down at the same time the hurricane was hitting. The wedding had to be moved from Friday to Saturday, when some were set to fly home.
“So just be aware of hurricane season,” Beck said. “We always highly recommend travel insurance for that reason.”
Also, many resorts only allow for one wedding a day. Beck said she has seen couples wait too long and the date is already spoken for.
“Then there are times, it’s too early,” Beck said. “It goes in stages.”
She suggests a 12 to 18-month range for narrowing down availability. As far as rooms are concerned, those can be booked far in advance. Airfare is about 11 months out.
And if you are getting married locally but traveling for your honeymoon, Beck offers some tips for the name change.
“To a certain extent, it’s kind of simple,” she said. Book under your maiden name if you haven’t gotten through all the paperwork processing. If you have a valid passport in your maiden name, use that.”
It’s a little different if the bride is traveling a while after the wedding. Standard processing time for passports is six to eight weeks, but you can pay to expedite.
