If it seems like all your friends are choosing to have a destination wedding. You are not alone. Destination weddings are having a surge in popularity and analysts predict it’s just the beginning.
Contributor to Axios, Sareen Habeshian explains in her article, Destination weddings are booming, “Last year, 18% of couples hosted a destination wedding, according to a survey by The Knot, a wedding planning website.” Habeshian also explains, “"While the majority of 2023 couples are getting married close to where they live now, or in their hometown, destination weddings are making a post-pandemic comeback," Emily Forrest, head of communications at wedding website Zola, told Axios.”
According to Destination Wedding Global Market Report 2023 by The Business Research Company, “The global destination wedding market grew from $21.31 billion in 2022 to $28.31 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.8%.” They also predict that the global market for destination weddings is forecast to nearly triple in the next 4 years.
So what is behind this trend? Why are all of our friends choosing to have destination weddings?
Experts say our scrolling and sharing is a big part of why destination weddings are becoming more and more popular. The same market report cited, “The rising penetration of social media is expected to propel the growth of the destination wedding market growing forward.” Sure all weddings tend to have photo opportunities, but destination weddings in particular compel couples and guests alike to snap and share pictures and experiences. After all, when the backdrop to a wedding ceremony is a sugar-sand beach and a cotton candy sky, who wouldn’t want to capture the moment? As those picture-perfect weddings shared, tagged, and hash-tagged the audience grows and grows. It’s not just the guests who get to see the tropical florals and palm trees, it’s everyone on their social media feeds.
All of our social media sharing is doing a lot to popularize destination weddings, but that’s not where the influence of technology stops. With the internet, pulling off a perfect destination wedding is easier than ever. “According to an article published by Willow Wedding, a US-based wedding planner, in the US, 83% of wedding planning is now done online where 62% of couples create their wedding site, 52% use a wedding planning app and 54% implement a wedding hashtag on social media.”
Technology and weddings have become inextricably linked. Sareen Habeshian explained in her article from Axios,“Couples are opting for destination weddings because they want their celebration to feel unique, and it's never been easier to book vendors remotely.” Connecting with a destination wedding expert, pre-screening locations, and checking out resort amenities can all be done online. It makes the idea of hosting a destination wedding an ocean away seem a lot less intimidating.
The same is true for guests at weddings. With customized destination wedding websites. Guests can find all the information they need to attend a wedding hundreds of miles away. Couples who are working with a destination wedding planner can make it even easier for their guests. Destination wedding planners can manage the entire booking and reservation for guests. This ensures that wedding guests have a stress-free travel experience, but it also has a benefit for the wedding couple.
An experienced destination wedding planner that specializes in travel can take a lot of the organizational burden away from the wedding couple. They become the point of contact for guests and are in charge of negotiating prices, booking travel, answering questions, and changing reservations so that the wedding couple doesn’t have to involve themselves in the details of each guest's individual travel arrangements.
In sum, if you are noticing more and more of your friends are opting for a destination wedding, it is not just in your head. There really has been an increase in destination weddings. That increase is only expected to increase. The more we attend destination weddings, the more we share those experiences and popularize the idea of getting married on a tropical island, top of a mountain, or on a white sand beach. While the locations may be more and more exotic, the process is becoming more and more accessible. Technology has made it easy to connect with wedding planning professionals and to plan a perfect day a world away.
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