Where To Start? Half The Guests Are From Canada, Half Are From The Uk

[deecol]

Hi everyone!  Congrats on your engagements & weddings!

 

I was so happy to find this website and connect with couples in similar situations!

 

My fiancé Colin and I are planning a 2016 wedding, anywhere between April-June/July (depending on price, availability etc - we're flexible).  We have looked at a few resorts, and narrowed it down to Mexico (1st choice) and the DR (2nd choice).

 

We currently reside in Ontario, Canada.  Colin is from London, England, so half of our guests will be from the UK and half from Canada - does anyone know how we can get this process started?  Do we start with a resort and book rooms then have our guests find they're own travel (which would probably be more expensive)?  Do we find travel agents from each Country to coordinate this?

 

I spoke to a wedding planner from Canada and she said she is unable to book flights for the UK group due to Canadian laws but can negotiate a land only rate with the resorts.

 

Thank you in advance!  I appreciate any help and advice you can offer!

[acw271011]

Congrats and welcome! You've definitely given yourself plenty of time to get organized and you'll find tons of ideas and suggestions here from all of the other brides.

Definitely a travel agent is a must and the person you spoke to is right in that they can't do the UK end of things from here. Have your fiance talk to his family members and see if any of them have an agent they would recommend there. Packaging is very similar there as in Canada. The ladies here would recommend several good agents in Canada. you need someone who will look at what you want, your price point and the various packages offered to help you plan and will become your best friend over the next year or so, so definitely someone that you are comfortable with will be important. I'm biased in favour of Mexico so that would be my preference but your agent will help you with all of that. Then take some time to read through the site. The vendor reviews and so on.

Good luck and happy planning!

[Moments That Matter]

Welcome deecol, and Congrats on your engagement and upcoming dw!!! 

 

we're partial to the Mayan Riviera's charms as that's our homebase, and here are some reasons why......enjoy!!!

 

 

 

 

wishing you all the best with your plans - cheers!!! team MTM

[TinkerSofi]

We have some guests from Colombia and Argentina and it was the same for us, our travel agent could only help us with their land arrangements but they have to take care of the air. Maybe talk with a TA from the UK and see whether she/he would be able to help you with both land and air and then compare prices. You might have to split your guest list into two, working with two different TAs or it might be cheaper to get your Canadian TA to book all the land for the UK people and just get each person to find the flights on their own. We used the later choice because no one in Argentina or Colombia had prices that far out so we couldn't compare prices and decided to play it safe. 

[deecol]

Thank you all for your replies so far!  I really appreciate it!

 

@TinkerSofi - You had a Canadian TA book all the land and everyone from Argentina and Colombia booked their own flights?  Can I ask where you're destination was?  Sorry for all the questions!  I really appreciate the help!

[kmk2016]

This worked for us too. Canadian TA booked all packages for Canadians, and the land only for all our international guests. This was to Mexico. Everyone from other parts of the world (US, Hong Kong, Hawaii and Australia) would have booked flights at a later date.

[TinkerSofi]

@@deecol that's right. Neither Argentina or Colombia has package vacations so they couldn't have worked with a TA from there to get better packaged pricing anyway, but it's different in the UK so it might be worth looking into. We're going to Playa del Carmen

[deecol]

Thank you both @@kmk2016 and @@TinkerSofi - Very helpful!  Did it end up being more expensive for the Non-Canadian group to book their flights separately?

 

My fiancé worked in travel in London and does here as well but in a different field, he has a friend of a friend in the UK working on getting us some prices and options.  And I've been in touch with an old school friend from here to help with the Canadian bookings.  Could the two TA's possibly coordinate so everyone is at the same resort and basically under the same booking but they could sort out the flights separately or would that not work? (Hope that made sense!)

[kmk2016]

Thank you both @@kmk2016 and @@TinkerSofi - Very helpful! Did it end up being more expensive for the Non-Canadian group to book their flights separately?

 

My fiancé worked in travel in London and does here as well but in a different field, he has a friend of a friend in the UK working on getting us some prices and options. And I've been in touch with an old school friend from here to help with the Canadian bookings. Could the two TA's possibly coordinate so everyone is at the same resort and basically under the same booking but they could sort out the flights separately or would that not work? (Hope that made sense!)

You wouldn't be able to link the bookings with two TAs.... They would be separate and not sure how that would work, you would definitely lose out on perks and bonus offers, make sure your TA specializes in Destination weddings and has a relationship with the hotel you choose.... They can often get you major perks that help keep costs down or experiences upgraded. That's worth its weight in gold.

[TinkerSofi]

I would say it is more expensive to buy flights and accommodations separately rather than getting a package but since there are no packages over there they didn't really have much of a choice. I would definitely ask both TAs if they can work together and put people under the same grouping so that you can still get the perks such as free people, etc. I'm actually using one of those free people to bring my friend from Argentina. She just has to pay for her flight but had I not gotten her to book with the group I couldn't use that perk to help her out.

 

 

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