Plan your Dream Destination Wedding

Nothing says January in Canada quite like planning a getaway to somewhere much warmer. If you’re recently engaged, consider planning a destination wedding + honeymoon combo. The average cost in Canada for a wedding is at around $35,000 putting the affair-of-the-century (that you deserve) outside the budget range for some. So, why not invest your budget into the destination wedding of a lifetime?

Destination weddings are no longer considered an elopement, but instead offer couples a one-of-a-kind dream day with magnificent views and less stress. Most resorts now have full-time wedding planners on staff to help with all the international paperwork and local vendors, so all you have to do is step off the plane, sign some papers, and mosey up to the bar for an Appletini.

The first step is planning where you want to go. According to Pew Research Centre, this is a list of current countries that embrace same-sex marriage as of June 2015.

Photo Courtesy of PewForum

Photo Courtesy of PewForum

Tahiti (Bora Bora) is part of the French Polynesia in the South Pacific where you can relax in your own thatched-roof bungalow with a glass floor over fish-speckled water. Sounds delicious, right? It gets better. The Polynesian culture believes that a person with both masculine and feminine qualities are considered gifted and closer to the divine, and their Rae-Rae’s (transvestites, transsexuals, and drag queens) are an integral and highly respected part of their culture and industry.

Photo Courtesy of Vacation Idea

Or how about Queenstown, New Zealand? A popular resort destination with glassy lakes, white-tipped mountain peaks and tons of sporty adventure. It also has some seriously kickass locations for wedding photos. And if you don’t mind the cold, plan for the end of August through to the beginning of September (winter in New Zealand) and take advantage of the largest Winter Pride in the Southern Hemisphere while you’re there!

Photo Courtesy of © Heli Weddings Photography

For an unforgetable wedding venue in an enchanted landscape, there’s always Iceland.  Rustic wood churches, hulking blue glaciers, or thundering waterfalls, your nuptials can be shared in front of any number of mind-blowing backdrops. And Iceland knows how to throw a same-sex wedding party, (Soon after same-sex marriage was legalized (back in 2010), the prime minister of Iceland (the world’s first openly lesbian head of state) married her favourite gal), so there are wedding consultants a-plenty after touchdown. 

Photo Courtesy of Bored Panda