Regarding destination weddings, great advice, Carol - all of it. They can impose a major burden on family and friends who would love to be a part of the special day and who might have to forego the privilege based on the destination chosen.

That said, a few years back we attended a destination wedding in September or October in the Bahamas. It was beautifully done by the bride and the groom - no details were skipped and there were about eighty guests, and you knew these were the people who really wanted to be a part of the event. The only drawback was everyone worried about the possibility of 'weather' interfering with the big day. As luck would have it, all was perfect. They did have a back up plan - otherwise - it might have been a bit of a disaster had a hurricane decided to attend as well.

While we were attending this wedding we saw a few other ones take place and truthfully, they were rather sad in that the brides and grooms went to all the trouble of a photographer and gowns but there were almost no attendees - no walk down the aisle to the perfect beach sunset setting; no pre-wedding parties and no big reception with all the trimmings - band, cocktail hour, etc.

If I'm remembering correctly, the one we attended was held at the Radisson and the bride and groom had the typical rehersal dinner the night before, inviting all the guests in attendance, and then the ceremony on the beach followed by a white glove cocktail hour and eventually a sit down dinner reception and then the wonderful craziness you might expect from a group of their ages. The next morning there was a formal brunch for all the guests before the bride and groom took off for their honeymoon, also in the Bahamas, but at one of the Sandals Resorts.

This wedding still stands out in my mind as one of the nicest I've taken part in but there was a lot of thought and consideration put into it and it seems to me they made at least three trips to the Radisson in the course of making all their plans. In the end, it was a wonderful wedding and one few of us will ever forget.

In the end, I don't know that this would be taken as a moderately priced wedding or not, but had the couple held it in NYC where they were both living and working, the guest list would have been about 300 instead of a hundred and the other wedding expenses would have been costly, too, so from that perspective it was definitely a moderately priced wedding, if only in size. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />