What is a destination wedding and why are they becoming so popular? Well a “destination wedding” isn’t just warm and tropical, although many times this is what we think of. A destination wedding is a wedding held somewhere other than the town you live in. So whether you live in Colorado and get married in Iowa, you live in Chicago and get married Hawaii, you live in Ohio and are getting married in Jamaica, or you live in England and are getting married in the Chicago suburbs, you are planning a destination wedding. These are just a few of the situations I will photograph this year-or plan!
One of the hardest things about a destination wedding is that most of your planning is done away from your home. The biggest things ceremony location and reception location you may not even get a chance to see in person if your location is too far away. But what about your photographer? The question has been brought up may times, do you hire a photographer in the locale that you are going to, or do you hire a photographer, maybe closer to home, and fly them to your destination? As a wedding photographer based in Chicago and planning my wedding in Hawaii on the island of Oahu, this is one of the hardest questions. Its really comes down to personal choice.
I have begun researching photographers in Hawaii and there are a few I would hire but I feel I am closer to the ones here on the mainland, even the ones that live in California. It doesn’t seem quite so far away, and while Hawaii is part of the United States, it almost feels like another country, they have their own culture, language and way of life. It’s that way of life, “the Aloha way” and the culture that Jon and I fell in love with and one of the main reasons we choose to get married there. From the time we stepped foot on the island of Oahu in late November 2007 to the time we got on the Aloha airlines flight (it is sad Aloha Air went out of business less than four months later) from Maui to head home, I knew this was a place that would always hold a special place in my heart and before we were even engaged I knew this was where I wanted to get married and share Hawaii and the Aloha (the way of life not the airline) spirit with my friends and family! Four months later Jon purposed to me on the beach in San Diego. [click here for the full story]
We decided right away that we were in fact going to have a destination wedding in Hawaii on 11-11-11. Yes we know it is a long time to wait, but we want to allow time for everyone to plan and save, so more of our friends and family could come. We also know that planning a wedding so far away on an island is going to take extra time, planning and research. Already it has not been easy. Within a week of our engagement we had a very close family member plead with us to consider another location for fear that not all of their extended family could go. While I was not surprised at the objection, I was surprised at the timing and the pressure put on me, a huge guilt trip. Even now a month later many family members still are not excited by the location, and seem very negative and against the idea. And its very hard, you want to have the full support of your family and friends. And although we are not asking for any help with the wedding, knowing that we will pay for the wedding ourselves and that the decisions are ours, its still difficult to not have our closest family and friends excited to go to Hawaii. I wonder if all couples planning a destination wedding go through this and one point or another. Although, we also had a friend tell us that a destination wedding is “so us” and we think so too, our engagement was a destination, and when we think of our wedding, we both think of warm, tropical and along the beach. So despite some people’s opinions Jon and I are sticking to our dream of a Hawaiian wedding. We know that not everyone will be able to come, and it’s a hard thing to realize. But in the end, the day is about the love that we have for each other, its about the two of us and beginning our lives together and we hope to be surrounded by as much as our family and friends as we can to celebrate the day.
So now that you know how we came to the decision of a destination wedding and the difficulties we have faced already, back to the original question, how do you choose a destination wedding photographer? Well to me it’s important to know the photographer before they join us on our special day, no matter where the wedding is. I want to meet him or her a few times and have an engagement session where I get to learn their style and their personality. To me the photographer becomes a close friend by the end of our wedding day. (Maybe this is why I make sure that the couples I photograph get to know me a little and we have an engagement session)
I will keep you all updated as Jon and I continue to plan our wedding and the decisions that we have to make. I finally understand what my clients go through when they decide to pick me to photograph their day. I hope with this planning and being a bride-to-be myself I can help other brides and grooms in their process, both in photography and with the other planning.
Currently I offer destination weddings anywhere around the world. If you are bride/groom (especially in the Midwest) planning a destination wedding and you are looking for a photographer, let me know we can have coffee and talk about it. I love traveling for weddings, whether its down the street or half way around the world, every wedding is a destination, its the beginning of a new place and life together!
Tina Jean Photography 