18 replies to this topic

[kerryjbrown]

Welcome! I can understand/feel your pain in this situation. I am in So. California and my FI is from Ireland. We offered to do a Florida wedding as it is in the middle but realized that our friend would not be able to make it as all our friends are on the west coast. We opted for Cabo as it was close and afordable for most but unfortuanately we took a lot of heat from the mother (even though she initially told us that it would be perfect as they have never been to Mx). The mom, sister and niece finally RSVP last montha nd booked flights, but both brothers are not coming as they have 3 kids and it is too much. No matter where you do it, people will not be able to make it and that is part of the decision in the destination wedding. Try and do it close enough to the majority of the people you want to attend so you can get some of them. They say only about 30% of people attend DW but in our case we got 43 out of 65 so our wedding that we had planned for 25 double in both size and budget. Good Luck..there are ton of helpful ladies (and men) on this site!

[Island Princess]

Hey There! Hows it going?
Ohh what a pickle your in!
Its about 10 hours from Sydney to Honolulu and I think its roughly the same distance from East Coast USA. If you two wanted to meet half way!
Good Luck in what ever you decide!

[litl_april]

Another thing to consider with Hawaii, is right now, at least for the US (sorry, I don't know about Australia) is flights are pretty low cost..the trick I've found, seems to be Tuesdays for booking. FI and I booked our flights with hotel and car package from expedia and the flights were right around $650/round trip (Flying in to Maui, out from Honolulu). I have to go home in April (from Iowa going to North Dakota, about 10-12 hour drive) for a dress fitting and bridal shower/bachelorette and a one-way ticket (b/c FI would be coming later but can't get more time off work b/c he's using basically all his vacay days for wedding/honeymoon) is the same price as our round-trip Hawaii ticket! Unfortunately, this means one of us will be driving (already the plan) and the other riding Greyhound, haha! Also I've got a lot of friends and my family who've found low-cost accommodations that are still rated well on places like TripAdvisor.com. We got a Marriott in Wailea room for 1/2 off during an Expedia sale! So browse around...it might turn out to be reasonable prices if Hawaii is where you'd love to go. Hope this helps!

[~Stephanie~]

Welcome and Congrats! Hopefully you will be able to find some answers here, these ladies are such a support system for this imporant time and so helpful!

[O'Driscoll Photography]

Congrats and welcome, Lisa!

Best wishes,
Tod

[Island Princess]

Quote:

Originally Posted by litl_april Another thing to consider with Hawaii, is right now, at least for the US (sorry, I don't know about Australia) is flights are pretty low cost..the trick I've found, seems to be Tuesdays for booking. FI and I booked our flights with hotel and car package from expedia and the flights were right around $650/round trip (Flying in to Maui, out from Honolulu). I have to go home in April (from Iowa going to North Dakota, about 10-12 hour drive) for a dress fitting and bridal shower/bachelorette and a one-way ticket (b/c FI would be coming later but can't get more time off work b/c he's using basically all his vacay days for wedding/honeymoon) is the same price as our round-trip Hawaii ticket! Unfortunately, this means one of us will be driving (already the plan) and the other riding Greyhound, haha! Also I've got a lot of friends and my family who've found low-cost accommodations that are still rated well on places like TripAdvisor.com. We got a Marriott in Wailea room for 1/2 off during an Expedia sale! So browse around...it might turn out to be reasonable prices if Hawaii is where you'd love to go. Hope this helps!

G'Day,
Because of the whole "financial crisis" around the world, not as many people are travelling so airlines have had to drop their prices to get people to travel.
The Aussies could probably pick up a sale fare starting from around AUD750.00 return with Jetstar!

[lisaann214]

Thank you all for your advice on a destination. We still haven't picked a spot, but I feel like we are making progress on the date and location choice, but it will most likely be Maya Riviera Mexico. As soon as I figure it all out, I'll let you know!

[H&F]

Welcome and congratulations Lisa! Good luck!

[peachess]

There is the most beautiful video on one of the hawaiian videographer websites about a love story between an Aussie and a girl from the United States. Maui Wedding Videos by Hawaii Video Memories I believe it is the 3rd sample video. It is just beautiful!