Planning a wedding can have so many moving parts. Now imagine trying to plan a destination wedding miles away from your home with no help. UH, no thanks! Trying to juggle all of the elements and details that go into planning a wedding can be difficult. Especially when trying to have a work/life balance as well! That’s why if you’re planning on having a destination wedding, you should know exactly what questions to ask your destination wedding planner. From experience to services and pricing you have to know what’s up and we’re here to spill the tea.

What Is A Destination Wedding? // Destination Wedding Planner

In order to start looking for a destination wedding planner, it’s important to know what a destination wedding actually is. A destination wedding does not necessarily mean you are jetting off to Paris, London, and Italy. Although… we are MORE than happy to travel for our couples. Just sayin’. A destination wedding could also be a wedding outside where you normally live. Several miles away, the next state over or even across the country. A destination wedding can be a magical getaway to celebrate you and your love which is why we absolutely LOVE our job. It brings our love for travel and serving our couples into one great big pot – woohoo!!

How Involved Will We Be In The Planning Process?

First and foremost, you want to be able to ask your *potential* destination wedding planner how involved you will be in the planning process. How involved you want to be in the wedding planning process completely varies from couple to couple. However, it’s important to communicate with your potential destination wedding planner about your expectations and their expectations. Will you still be able to make decisions and communicate your preferences? How often will you be able to go over certain details? These are all important things to consider when looking to hire a destination wedding planner!

What Services Do You Offer?

Making sure you communicate with your potential destination wedding planner about what services they offer is HUGE. Some destination wedding planners may offer a full wedding planning package, or just day-of coordination which are two very different things. There may be services that offer more hands-off or more hands-on services which is entirely dependent on how much support you’re looking for!

What Do Couples Typically Invest In Your Services?

Pricing is a huge factor in deciding which destination wedding planner to work with. Asking your potential destination wedding planner what investments with their couples typically look like will help you in establishing your budget and if you can afford that wedding planner. At the end of the day, whichever destination wedding planner you choose, you need to feel 100% comfortable and ready to make the investment. Destination wedding planners can charge a pretty penny for their services, but let’s just say it is completely worth it. Maybe we’re just biased, who knows – lol.

What Does The Client Experience Look Like?

This goes without saying that client experience is everything. As destination wedding planners, we want to make sure that our couples are feeling 100% taken care of. Having a positive client experience is the key ingredient to making sure planning your destination wedding goes smoothly. Some questions to ask your potential destination wedding planner are:

• Do you do check-ins with your couples? How often do you do those check-ins?
• What is the best way to communicate with you throughout the wedding planning process?
• Is there a limit to how many hours you will work on our wedding?
• When do we actually start the wedding planning process?

Whenever you’re looking for a destination wedding planner, you want to make sure that they have their client experience down pat. You want to leave speaking with them feeling calm, supported and ready to take on the world!

What Is Your Experience As A Destination Wedding Planner?

Now, we’re not saying that wedding planners with little experience are not good planners. Honestly, there are many wedding planners out there who do an AMAZING job and they are just starting to build out their portfolio. What we are saying is to determine how comfortable you feel investing in someone and their experience. Destination wedding planners with more experience are more likely to charge more for their services than planners who are maybe just starting out. Keep in mind, that this isn’t always the case though!

Make sure that when you are speaking with a potential destination wedding planner, you ask them about their experience. Not every destination wedding planner has been to every single venue, country, or continent in the world. However, knowing that they can perform and deliver amazing results no matter where they are is incredibly important.

Can I See Any Of Your Previous Work?

Along with experience, being able to see previous portfolio work is a MUST. It’s not enough just for someone to say they are amazing. You have to show them! Whenever we work with our couples, we ensure that we showcase a ton of our work to them. That way they get a better feel of who we are, what we do, and how we can best serve them. Whether it be through a service and pricing guide, their website, or a curated portfolio. Your dream destination wedding planner will have no problem sharing their past work with you and showing you what they are made of!

Do You Follow A Specific Style? Are There Styles You’re Not Comfortable With?

Not all destination wedding planners may do this, but some may only work with couples looking to create a certain “vision”. Remember, not all destination wedding planners may do this but it is something to look out for. Asking your wedding planner whether or not they have a specific style they lean towards or styles that they are not comfortable with will save a ton of back and forth. Typically you can tell just by looking at a destination wedding planner’s portfolio, but just to be on the safe side it’s good to ask! Some styles to consider are:

• Light, Airy and Flowy
• Moody and Dark
• Neutral and Bohemian
• Modern and Industrial
• Romantic
• Rustic and Country
• Vintage
• Nautical

These are just some of the many different themes & styles that you may want to aim to have for your wedding day. It’s important to have an understanding of what style you’re leaning toward when it comes time to look for a destination wedding planner.

Do You Have Any Preferred/Recommended Vendors?

Let’s face it, trying to coordinate a ton of different wedding vendors, especially in a new location can be tough. You don’t know what you need, or who to hire and it can get very confusing very fast. That’s what us destination wedding planners are for! Oftentimes, destination wedding planners will have a list of preferred/recommended vendors that they will be able to hand off to you to inquire with. They will be trusted and well-respected wedding vendors that will come together to help turn your wedding vision into a reality. Don’t mind us, just girl bossing over here!

Questions to Ask Your Destination Wedding Planner

At the end of the day, you want to choose a destination wedding planner that’s right for you. You want someone who is going to support you, be transparent with you and also provide you the experience you want AND deserve. Hopefully, some of these questions to ask your destination wedding planner will have helped you in making the right decision for you and your wedding day vision. If you’re still thinking about whether it’s the right time for you to hire a destination wedding planner, check out this blog here! It may just be the wake-up call you never knew you needed!