So my girl & I have been doing some planning & our basic timeline is to get engaged within the next year & then take at least a year after that to plan the wedding.

My best guess, we're looking at ~May 2020, which seems far to me right now but everyone's telling us you wanna plan as far out as possible since this shit can take way more time than you'd expect.

Now, travel is a big part of our life (we met in Iceland, have done a bunch of international trips together) & we want to have a non-US wedding. Right now we're thinking Mexico since that's been a place we've loved visiting multiple times, plus my immediate family is in SoCal which means cheap flights.

We're thinking of having a smaller ceremony in the states that mostly has our familes, with the destination joint being for friends & immediate fam. ~50 people. I'm thinking we'd rent a big villa with a bunch of rooms to have folks down for a long weekend.

My friends recently got married in Portland & paid ~$8k to rent out this hall for the night. I think we could get a place in MX that would include rooms for everyone for under that. Plus, with things being cheaper in Mx, an open bar & food wouldn't be a problem. I'm imagining the logistics would be a little trickier since it involves travel for people, but besides that not too sure of the drawbacks.

Have any of yall ever planned/gone to a destination wedding? Good stories/bad stories? Thoughts/tips?