Recently I had the privilege of attending Engage!09 at The Ritz Carlton (image above) in Grand Cayman, a luxury wedding industry summit – and boy was it fantastic. Not only were the people and social events fabulous, the learning I took away from the summit was insane. The list of speakers really reads like a Who’s Who of the wedding industry.
Carley Rooney, co-founder of The Knot spoke about the economics of the industry today. While some of it was sobering, what was really interesting was that more and more couples are opting for destination weddings and spending is up. Of the 2 million or so couples getting married every year, about 20% of them are choosing a destination. FUN! But what is a destination wedding? There are oodles of definitions. A destination wedding is one that is 200+ miles away from where you live – so this could be a US-based destination wedding, or one that’s more exotic overseas.
According to The Knot’s research, the Caribbean tops the list for most destination weddings with 37%. Mexico’s second with 23%, followed by Hawaii (17%, which is the #1 honeymoon spot, though), and Europe rounds out the list with 9% of couples. For those of you wanting to be a little bit different, I’d suggest looking into Europe for your “I do’s.” Beaches, mountains, rich culture and delicious food, Europe really does have a little bit of everything. Tune in here for more spots on the hot locations in Europe for your destination wedding.
