As amazing as your destination wedding locale may be, with all of its exciting activities such as snorkeling, catamaran cruises, rainforest canopy zipline tours, or big-city attractions such as shows and tours, it’s a mistake to fill every day and night with fun-sounding activities.
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Destination wedding guests will love you if you tell them, “Take the afternoon to yourselves!” Giving them downtime to just lie on the beach, or float in the ocean, or schedule a tennis game or massage for themselves, makes your destination wedding a more enjoyable getaway for them.
Everyone’s so hectic and frazzled in today’s super-busy world. We’re all over-scheduled and over-stimulated. So getting free time to spend as you wish can be more of a treat than being taken on tour after tour after event after event. An over-booked destination wedding weekend isn’t relaxing at all, even if you think it’s a treat to sign everyone up for fun-sounding activities.
When can you set some downtime hours for your guests to enjoy? Anytime! Mornings to lunchtime is ideal, with everyone gathering again for your hosted lunch. Post-lunch hours in peak sun is not the time for a cruise or tour, since guests will get parched and sun-baked, exhausted by the evening hours…so guests can take this time to gather in groups in their suites for afternoon cocktails and mingle time. And on at least one night, schedule nothing after dinner so that guests can have some romantic couple time alone…which may be what they appreciate most of all!
Courtesy of Caneel Bay, a Rosewood Resort
Sharon | April 13th, 2011 | See all posts by Sharon
Agree full heartedly.
I have recently talked about this for the bride and groom but it is true a destination wedding can be romantic for the guests as well