5 Tips for Destination Wedding Bliss in Mexico

Tips for Destination Weddings in Mexico
Tips for Destination Weddings in Mexico

This past week I ventured south of the border with my family to celebrate the wedding of my big sister. While this wasn’t my first time in Mexico, it was my first all-inclusive/destination wedding experience.

Those of you who know me and/or this site know that I feel more comfortable crushing a few pastor tacos down some sketchy Mexican side street than following the guidelines of a family resort, but the time I get to spend with family trumps any locational preference. 

I played the role of a tourist and ate my way from one buffet to the next while crushing every different kind of mojito the barmen could create.

While I don’t plan on making a habit of luxury Mexico holidays, I had a great time eating, drinking and not worrying about a thing. 

There are a few key tips however, that I would recommend in order to make your destination wedding/all-inclusive experience even more seamless. Here they are in no particular order. 

5 Tips for Destination Wedding Bliss

1. All-Inclusives can be a slippery slope, especially on day one. Find a way to harness your excitement or you’ll kick the tropical vacation off with a hangover instead of an early morning run at the extensive breakfast buffet. Also, if you have an afternoon flight home, don’t go too hard on your last few hours at the resort. Of course it’s a good idea when you’re there, but all that luster wears off once you hit that second hour of your flight home. #Turbulence

2. Don’t let them upsell you or give you the run around. With big ticket items like a destination wedding, resort staff and wedding coordinators might try to tell you something isn’t included or they’ll give you the “for you I will make an exception” in order to up their tip. If traveling around Latin America for almost four years has taught me anything is that you trust no one in regards to your money. It’s tough to say but you have to second-guess everything. We got out of a few tricks just because I knew Spanish and understand that people were trying to take advantage. Spansh knowledge or not, if something doesn’t seem right, say something and don’t budge.

3. Swim up bars are awesome. That’s not a tip, that’s just a fact.

4. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. Repeat after me. I saw two other brides this week get married with burnt shoulder and/or faces because they didn’t play it safe before the big day. The sun in Mexico is hot and it doesn’t need to be sunny out to get scorched. Moderation is the key and I can’t stress that enough. You’ll believe me when you see the wedding photos.

5. BYOStuff. Piggybacking on number two, the wedding department at many of the resorts in Mexico will charge you for each individual addition that you make to your wedding. For example, the DJ, lighting, place settings, etc. If you want to save yourself all these additional expenses, I highly recommend bring your own decorations and equipment. My sister saved a ton of money on her destination wedding by bringing her own iPod playlist, place settings, reception decoration and hired me as her videographer.  Smart.

Those are the most important tips I can offer from my first ever all-inclusive destination wedding in Mexico. If you have any other tips, tricks or advice I would love to hear it.

Maybe it will be me someday!

My name is Gareth Leonard, a Marketing Director turned World Traveler with a passion for slow, meaningful travel. I have been traveling the world full-time for the past 9+ years and document it all on Instagram and YouTube. Come join me!

10 Comments

  1. Well, that is really nice Gareth. I guess you need to plan something about the food as well. If you can plan it out well in advance, lots of money can be saved on that, too. And sunscreens, are always an obvious thing to carry.

  2. Hi,What you need is a wedding plneanr. In Rincon there are several wedding plneanrs that work with small groups that could answer all your questions. I was married on the beach in Rincon and we had 22 guests. The place where I got married closed (El Molino de Quixote), but I can recommend this: 1) Get married in the states by judge. Here it is a hassle. They make things so complicated.2) Get married here in a ceremony. In Rincon ship captains can marry folks, and there is one who also doubles as a photographer, Ted, one of the owners from the Lemontree Hotel. 3) Check with several wedding plneanrs so as to get a sense what the cost will be. Consider renting a beach villa where you can place most of your guests and where you can have your ceremony and reception.My brother was married at Villa Orleans, and there were about 50 guests. Those that couldn’t stay at the villa stayed at the The Lemontree which is within walking distance.The local paper Coqui of Rincon’s December issue is about weddings. You can go to their website and download the pdf version and start your research there.Good luck, and thank you. You just reminded me my anniversary is coming up. We were married right after New Year’s.

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