The best destination weekend wedding is one that you plan for yourselves. It’s a way to spend time together as a couple and create the perfect memories with the ones you love, without all of the stress and craziness that comes with planning your wedding from afar.
A weekend wedding is normally a smaller, more intimate type of wedding, with a very relaxed atmosphere. Planning for a wedding to last longer is a great choice - why celebrate for a few hours, when you can spend the whole weekend hanging out together, having fun and celebrating!
Having experienced a family weekend wedding where my eldest son got married, we can highly recommend it! Not only did they have a wonderful wedding, there was another great outcome that we were all delighted about. More about that later! Here’s my story of our family weekend wedding.
My Son and his Fiance Hired a Lodge
In January 2014, my eldest son was marrying his best friend Amy. After having spent some time living and working in Australia, they decided to get married in the Hinterland on the Gold Coast. Wanting it to be a small wedding with the closest of their family and friends, they opted for booking a Lodge high up in the hills.
Having the wedding ceremony, and the reception all in the one place, made planning so much easier for everyone, especially as most of us were travelling. It was also a bit kinder on their budget, after having canvased so many expensive wedding venues.
It also meant that by family members pitching in to pay for their accommodation, they were partially helping to pay for the venue. There was not enough room for everyone to stay, however there was plenty of alternate accommodation nearby for non staying guests.
The Wedding Ceremony and Reception
Deciding exactly where on the property to have the wedding ceremony was dictated by the weather, however we were lucky, the weather held out, and we were able to have the ceremony in the outdoors around the pool area. We all stood around the pool as Andrew and Amy made their wedding vows, and it was just wonderful. Everything felt so relaxed and yet there was still that sense of formality.
The reception was held under the verandah where the seating was intimate and cosy. External caterers were brought in to provide a delicious spread, and it all felt so very homely as we chatted away for hours. There definitely was that sense that you could linger for longer, it just wasn’t all over by a certain time.
Relaxed…
Everything felt so relaxed, yet there was still that sense of formality
As a Guest, the best part of the wedding was…
... that both sides of the family had time to familiarise and to socialize with one another. In fact, a couple of family members got on exceptionally well, but more about that later! It was a very casual, relaxing and extremely enjoyable wedding. No stress here!
What makes a weekend like this, is the unplanned moments, like sitting around the breakfast table chatting. It’s those before, in between and after moments that become so memorable. And it’s often the small things that can become important, such as finding a needle and thread to sew up a hem, or locating some safety pins to hold a tablecloth together. It’s about family and friends all pitching in when needed, and having the freedom of time to prepare for the wedding.
Where we stayed, there was a spa pool and a swimming pool at the Lodge, as well as a pool table, so there were plenty of activities to partake in. For us, even though it was nice to have extra activities to do, we didn’t even really need a lot of the activities, we just loved having the time to hang out together.
The day after the wedding
Brunch the next day was the scene of more interaction, and fun. A great way to recall the events of the previous day.
The spa pool was a feature again as it was such a lovely way to wind down and just chat in the comfort of nice warm water. The spa pool was also where Andrew’s older sister and Amy’s older brother discovered they were the same age, had been to the same high school, and hadn’t even known of each other! It didn’t take long for them to figure out that despite being a brother and sister of the marrying couple, they had so many more things in common. They became an item and have been happily together ever since! This is apparently a reasonably common occurrence, wedding guests becoming couples as a result of meeting each other at a wedding.
Special Memories
One of my fondest memories is of my brother arriving at the Lodge with long dangly hair and a fully grown beard, just trying to get a reaction from me. At that time, beards were definitely not in fashion! He was promptly taken to the hairdressers for a haircut and a shave. I vividly remember him being a backseat driver, just trying to tease me once again, the wind up your sister trick, trying to get a reaction, only to think it’s a hell of a joke when she snaps! Obviously, after many years of practice, I have learnt not to snap, which makes the challenge even greater for him.
Sadly, he was to suddenly pass away later on that year. So it’s special memories, special moments, and extra special weekend weddings, like this, that can become so valuable to us.
Conclusion
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you too, want the best destination wedding ever. You want it to be beautiful, memorable, and have all your guests talking about how much fun they had for years to come. That sounds pretty perfect! If this is what you are looking for in a destination wedding location, we’ve got a great package for you - Warblers Retreat has just the thing for you - our Eco Weekend Wedding Package. It has everything you need for an amazing celebration of love with family and friends who will always remember their time a secluded nature retreat. We can help make sure every detail of your weekend goes off without a hitch so have a chat with Barb, if this interests you.
Footnote: I also had the pleasure of later marrying my two eldest children’s Mother in Law! - Barb