From the Desk of... Amy

My co-worker Amy proves that planning a destination wedding can happen from the comforts of her work desk...

"Sometimes an overly organized, control freak needs a well deserved break! That was my attitude when my fiancé and I set out to plan our wedding. We opted for a destination wedding right off the bat – a chance to get away with our family and closest friends and a good way to sit back, relax and let other people plan it for you. Sure there was some stress, but all in all it was by far the perfect choice for us.

The first step was choosing our destination. We decided on the Dominican Republic as it was one hot spot that we both had never been to and we had heard from several people that the beaches were to die for – and boy were they right! We figured that choosing a resort was going to be the tricky part as every travel brochure makes every resort look good and the online reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt. I didn’t have to go very far to get some ideas; it was in my very own office that two people suggested a particular resort as their friends had currently gotten married there. I told my fiancé right away and to my surprise he said that his co-worker suggested the exact same place! Little did we know that the recommendations would keep flying in throughout the year ahead, as more and more people exclaimed how wonderful the resort was! It was certainly an amazing feeling knowing we had made the right decision.



So what can I say about the planning? Well, it was pretty much organized all over email. In a day’s work I would be corresponding with my wedding coordinator in the Dominican Republic, sometimes several times a day. She was so quick and thorough, answering all my never-ending questions. In the end, the wedding day was summed up on a one page questionnaire which allowed us to choose everything from the ceremony site to the dinner menu. Easy peasy! Since it was so easy, even the Groom wanted to get involved. As we all know ladies, sometimes it feels like the man’s only duty is to show up. Well, not in my case. The Groom was just as pumped about the destination wedding and just how simple it was to organize that even he had a lot of say…even though I had the final one haha!



One thing I would highly recommend is having a very good and efficient travel agent. I think our biggest stress was dealing with ours. She was always slow to respond to our emails and messages and even had the audacity to not respond to our guests’ questions. It was pretty frustrating, especially when we were only a couple weeks away from our wedding trip and we still didn’t have our tickets! It wasn’t until the week before the trip that she finally apologized and mentioned that her father was recently diagnosed with cancer and she was taking care of him. Now, I’m not a completely heartless bitch, but I really wished she had told me sooner than later or maybe passed her workload on to someone else in her office. It would have definitely alleviated some stress in our lives and probably hers.



Ahhh…the wedding trip. There was no disappointment here. The resort was spectacular and the wedding day was truly one to remember. I figure it’s a great compliment when all of our guests asked if we could all go back again in a few years to renew our vows. Hmmm...do I sense another destination wedding to plan? Definitely!"


From the desk of Amy