At least half of my wedding guests have to fly across the Atlantic to come to my wedding…I didn’t make it easy on them. That’s a high ratio of traveling guests and a big headache if you like to control everything the way I do.

When I knew I would be requiring so many people to fly, I asked around and researched what other destination brides do. I found out that having a travel agent who can handle all of your guests’ travel plans is helpful. So, I organized with a travel agent I know to help all of our guests get their flights and their pre or post wedding plans organized in Europe. She was very sweet to simply agree to charging everyone the agency booking fee and not request anything else from me.

I put her email and phone number on our wedding website (on our “flights” tab) for everyone to easily contact her and she would guide them through the procedure. She only needed their tentative dates and cities of arrival and departure to track the prices, and then she would contact them when she thought the price was as good as it was going to get. I even specified all of the recommended airports and travel dates on our website, so they wouldn’t need to ask our agent too much.

Even though I thought I had covered all of the bases, the questions began rolling in as soon as the invitations went rolling out. Everyone had a question and no one was comfortable with contacting our agent and trusting she would help them to get the best fare. I have ended up spending the past month guiding every person in every aspect – from the city to fly into to how to arrange their pre or post travel plans. I have turned into a travel agent. I know way too much about airline fares, passports, specials deals, AMEX discounts, trains in Italy, hotels in Greece, Orbitz’s low fare guarantee, etc.

I can’t pinpoint what it was that made my guests nervous, but I want all of them at my wedding so badly that I would have done anything to help everyone get there. It’s tough to plan a destination wedding because you feel like you’re putting your guests out in expecting them to travel, spend money, use vacation days and whatnot to get to your special day. If I was having my wedding in NYC, I would have to deal with the Italians getting here, so there really was no easy way out. At least this way, I don’t feel like I’m putting my fiance’s relatives and friends in a bad position – just mine. haha. It’s better that way…I guess.