The Tamesis
If you find yourself newly engaged and wondering how to plan a destination wedding, you’ve come to the right place. This is where I am in 2024 – my then-boyfriend and I had just become fiances, and we knew we wanted to have an intimate wedding abroad. As we began doing research and planning our schedule, we quickly realized we didn’t have time to visit any potential venues in person. Would it be crazy to plan our destination wedding from afar without visiting our venue? perhaps! But do we still have a choice? Unfortunately, no!
Below, learn how we planned a destination wedding remotely from New York and everything we learned along the way.
Decide on the location for your destination wedding
The first step in planning a destination wedding is choosing the location for your big day. It can be a place that is special to you as a couple, or it can be a place that is meaningful to your family or tradition. It can also be completely arbitrary – I was studying abroad in Bologna, Italy, and my now-husband and I went to Tuscany for a long weekend over spring break. We sat together overlooking the rolling hills, drank wine, looked at each other and said, “I’m going to get married here.” And so we did (12 years later).
Of course, there are many factors to consider when choosing a destination wedding location. You need to consider the time of year: What will the weather be like? Are there any local events happening during this period that may affect accommodation, availability or pricing? Is the area easily accessible year-round?
Once you have narrowed down the location and time frame, start making a list of potential venues in the area that you can reach out to.
Narrow the list to venues that feel like “you”
While we knew early on where we wanted to get married, choosing a venue was a more difficult task in itself. I started with a simple Google search this Best Wedding Venues in Tuscanyclicked through the many results, and stumbled across an Architectural Digest article that called a venue “an understated choice for understated brides”—it felt like it captured exactly what we were looking for. I immediately bookmarked it to show my fiancé and after reading reviews of the venue and a full social media following of their accounts, decided to get more information. Something about Lazy Olive Villa feels right.
