What better way to let your guests know that you’re planning a destination wedding than by re-imagining your wedding stationery as passports and other travel-themed things? A friend of a friend did just that, working with Serendipity: Beyond Design to create pretty passport wedding invitations. Apparently, Serendipity liked the idea so much, they’re now offering custom passport wedding invitations in their Etsy shop!
Serendipity says: “Passports are a great way to excite your guests about the trip! Multiple pages provide enough information about traveling, accommodations, wedding day events and more. Personalize your Passport with a monogram, photo, history, stamps and map.”
Isn’t that almost disturbingly like the first page of a real passport? Well, putting aside the photo of a happy couple where a glowering “I just stood in a line at the post office and all I got was this awful picture” singleton ought to be. As you know, I’m a big fan of taking a theme all the way, and I think this wedding stationery does just that.
In keeping with the theme, the RSVP card is a boarding pass! Sweet!
A lot of people I know think destination weddings are rude, since they assume that all the guests have to take a vacation – and pay thousands of dollars – to go to your wedding. What do you think, Never teh bride?
Well, Christine, I can’t say I think it’s rude… since brides and grooms will have the weddings they want to have, where they want to have them. I do think that destination weddings have less of an etiquette impact than they might have once had simply because people nowadays tend to know people in various states and various countries.
For example, The Beard and I live in MA, but my maternal family and many of our friends live in NY, The Beard is from NV but his mother lives in WA, and my paternal family is mostly in FL with aunts and uncles all over. Oh, did I mention that most of my maternal family lives in Germany? For some, attending our wedding meant driving 45 minutes at most. For others, it meant a trans-Atlantic flight! Did we think anyone should use their vacation time or spring for plane fare if they didn’t want to or couldn’t afford it? Certainly not!
I can definitely see why receiving a destination wedding invite might be annoying and aggravating to some, but I wouldn’t call it rude. The bride and groom planning a destination wedding usually understand that their choice to marry in Aruba or wherever means that more than one guest will have to decline with regrets. I don’t think they assume all their guests will use vacay time or spend zillions of dollars – but they do hope that some will and realize they are asking a lot from people.
I’d also say that before one labels someone else rude, consider why they’re having a destination wedding. Sometimes, a destination wedding is a lot less expensive than a local wedding for the bride and groom (or whoever is paying). And a destination wedding can be the easiest way to avoid strife when you have families in different parts of the country who all want you to marry in their locale.
What NtB said.
Great advice, NtB! A wedding invitation isn’t a subpoena to testify in front of Congress. If you don’t want to spend the time or money to attend a destination wedding, you can simply decline the invitation. As long as the bride and groom are gracious about understanding why many of their guests may have to decline, I don’t think inviting someone to a wedding that happens to be in Aruba or Italy is rude at all.
As with most things, it depends on the delivery.
I would not be offended if a couple decided to get married at a destination venue, but I’d be miffed if they made it clear they expected me to be there. (BTW, if a couple really wants a destination wedding, they should think carefully if they need attendants: if so, next they should consider whether those targetted as attendants can reasonably afford the time and money involved. If there’s any question about finances, the couple should offer to pay for the trip or make it clear that it’s perfectly okay to decline.) Typically from what I’ve seen, destination weddings are small affairs, with a minimal wedding party and only a few close friends and relatives in attendance. While this sounds fun to me, if having such a small wedding doesn’t mesh with your idea of the big day, then mebbe you should rethink the concept.
So, yes, if done correctly they can work. I’ve planned a trip to France around my husband’s friend’s wedding- twice (2 separate marriages… long story).
These passport invitations are cute !!
These passports are just absolutely stunning!
As for the discussion about destination weddings, I don’t see why the bridal couple have to compromise on their dreams to accommodate others. As long as they respect and understand that their wishes may not be met by others due to money / unavailability etc., then really, why is it rude? An invitation is simply saying ‘we would like you to come if you can’ not a demand.