Travel Guides Couples Wedding And Honeymoon
Carlie Hoke
Though love knows no destination and the right union can be successful starting off in a small town courthouse on a Tuesday afternoon, many dream of their perfect wedding day from a very young age. The right venue or destination could bring these dreams to life, whether it be surrounded by all your family and friends or just the bride and groom at a secluded getaway.
Deciding whether a destination wedding is right for you and your partner can be complicated, as you have to consider your budget, the struggles of planning a wedding from a distance, and the likelihood of important guests being able to attend. Even so, up to 25% of celebrated unions are destination weddings. However, choosing to have your wedding domestically could bring down the costs of an out-of-town wedding and help ensure the people who you’d like to be there can more easily make it.
Cities like Paris and Venice may be known for attracting romantics, but the United States has plenty of places that are ideal for weddings and couples who wish to show their love for one another. Whether exchanging vows under city lights, tying the knot surrounded by nature, or breaking the glass on sandy beaches, these U.S. destinations are the most romantic for couples to be wed in.
Las Vegas, Nevada
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They may call it Sin City, but it would actually be a downright sin to leave the Wedding Capital of the World off a list of wedding destinations. The neon city may be known for shotgun weddings and spontaneous trips to a chapel on the Strip, but the truth is that Las Vegas can pull off practically any kind of wedding you can imagine with ease. This could make a Las Vegas wedding a whole lot of fun for everyone involved.
Whether you’re planning to get eloped or you’re bringing your loved ones along for the celebration, Las Vegas has numerous unique places to get married. A number of celebrity couples have gotten married right on the neon Strip in one of the many iconic chapels, like the Little White Wedding Chapel. The chapel offers quick and straightforward ceremonies that can even be officiated by an Elvis impersonator. This is a theme you’ll find repeated on the Strip, but practically every business in the city offers a wedding package of some sort — even the fast food joints.
While Vegas can be amazingly tacky in the best way possible, the city also knows how to class up a wedding when it needs to. If you dream of a lavish wedding, there are plenty of high-end hotels, casinos, and resorts that can provide couples with luxury experiences with very little planning involved. In fact, most venues don’t require much planning at all, making them an ideal choice for a stress-free wedding.
Walt Disney World
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Disney is as much for former kids as it is for current ones, and the hundreds of couples who get married at Disney World each year is proof that the House of Mouse’s most iconic theme park is a place for romance.
Truly, a wedding at Disney World is nothing short of magical, and the amazing thing is that every wedding at the park can be wildly different from one another. In reality, Disney World has so many different wedding venues within the park to make each wedding feel unique, especially when you consider the many different details aside from the venues themselves.
Every single detail of your event can be planned and provided by Disney from a menu of services, from your cake and food selection to floral arrangements and entertainment. Whether you want to exchange vows in front of the iconic Cinderella Castle, have an epic outdoor wedding, or go the traditional route with a chapel, Walt Disney World can help make sure your big day is flawless.
The Ozarks
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The Ozarks have a sense of mystique surrounding them that attracts all kinds of people and energies. The waters found here have long been thought to have healing qualities, and who knows what other Ozark elements may positively impact a brand-new union?
The many winding waterways of the Ozarks are just as gorgeous as the heavily wooded areas surrounding them, and scoping out the Lake of the Ozarks for venues will result in several options that would make for a jaw-dropping walk down the aisle. Grand barns like Weathered Wisdom Barn and Where the Creeks Meet create an airy atmosphere that brings the natural outside beauty of the Ozarks inside through sprawling windows and barn doors.
The Ozarks is home to many pocket communities well hidden among the trees, such as Eureka Springs, arguably its most famous town. Made up of artists and other creative residents, the eclectic town is a prime place for those who have a more free-spirited way of life to hold their wedding ceremony. Being surrounded by nature, creativity, and the people you love sounds like a pretty amazing party.
Alaska
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When you think about destination weddings, the wilderness of Alaska is probably the furthest thing your mind drifts to. Sometimes the last thought is the best, though, as The Last Frontier makes for a perfect backdrop for those with a penchant for nature’s extremes.
More than half of designated U.S. wilderness is in Alaska, and it’s pretty rough wilderness at that. Between the mountainous terrain, glaciers, and icy waterways, it takes a special kind of outdoorsman to brave the state. For the adventurous couple who love a challenge, the state’s many national parks are a great place to have a nature-filled wedding. If nothing else, the wedding photos would be out of this world.
However, there’s no need to panic if you’re set on a wedding with Alaska’s unique beauty in the background but have no desire to explore the wilderness. A cruise to Alaska can fulfill your wishes of a wedding among glaciers without the need to actually traverse them yourself. Exchanging vows at sea comes with its own sets of potential concerns, but as long as you have your sea legs, it can be quite the romantic escape.
Hawaii
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If you’ve dreamed of having an extreme wedding, you don’t have to jump out of a plane or exchange vows while paragliding to do so. Hawaii offers a luxury, tropical wedding destination your loved ones will be excited about, and you can even hold your ceremony within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at approved locations.
Even if you have no desire to start married life with a death-defying ceremony, a wedding in Hawaii can almost go undefeated in beauty, especially if vibrant and tropical flowers are a big part of the vision you have of your perfect wedding. Whether you’ve dreamed of getting married on a beach or exchanging vows while standing on lava rock, the romance is very much alive in Hawaii.
The Hawaiian culture is something to take into consideration when thinking about having your ceremony on one of the state’s islands. When traveling to the Aloha State, you must respect Hawaii and her residents. You may even want to respectfully incorporate some Hawaiian traditions in your own ceremony, like wearing a lei instead of a veil.
Death Valley National Park
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What better place to say “’til death do us part” than Death Valley? Despite the ominous name, the national park is actually one of the most unique and stunning places to have a wedding or, if you want a more intimate experience, elope.
You can certainly get married right alongside the extreme nature of Death Valley, but you will need to apply for a special use permit with the National Parks Service. Depending on where you intend on holding your ceremony, you may need to limit the guest list quite a bit. An elopement may be the way to go here, and Death Valley is practically made for an intimate exchange of rings. Locations within the park like Badwater Basin, Artist Palette, and the Mesquite Sand Dunes would make for killer photos.
For couples interested in planning a more inclusive event, the resorts around the area are almost as lovely as the park itself. The Oasis at Death Valley offers accommodations and wedding packages, and choosing this venue is a great way to plan a more structured event while remaining within the park. Alternatively, larger parties may want to head a couple of hours south to Big Bear Lake, which also offers gorgeous venues. However, if you do choose to marry in Death Valley National Park, Big Bear Lake is also a great group destination before the big day.
Nashville, Tennessee
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If you and your betrothed share a love for the South and country music, then there may be no place better to tie the knot than Music City. Nashville comes with the added bonus of being a popular bachelorette destination, so it would be a snap to have both the bachelor and bachelorette parties in Nashville before heading off to the altar on the same trip.
You get the best of both worlds with a Nashville wedding, as the city has many different faces. Broadway is the home of many honky-tonks that patrons can drink the night away with line dancing and live music, but the party city can also be quite charming where the glow of the neon lights doesn’t shine as bright. Spend your nights living it up in NashVegas and your days enjoying a town full of southern charm and music history. You can then top your destination wedding off with a venue that will steep your ceremony in elegance.
The Hutton Hotel, with its Analog music venue, offers the perfect downtown space for couples who want to incorporate a classic wedding with the music scene the city is known for. Nashville knows weddings almost as well as it knows bachelorette parties, and whether you decide to hold your event at an outdoor venue just outside the city or somewhere nestled within it, the southern city will provide you with some tender love and care to start off your marriage right.
Blue Ridge Mountains
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A mountain wedding makes for a celebration almost as beautiful as your union, especially in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the seasons change the mountains from their namesake color to vibrant reds and oranges. The mountain range is part of Appalachia, which runs from the top of New England to almost the very bottom of the East Coast. However, you’ll find the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina.
What makes the Blue Ridge Mountains stick out is their age, which only adds to their beauty. They’re some of the oldest mountains in the world and contain the highest peaks in the eastern United States. This creates views that are unlike any other. Wedding ceremonies often take place on overlooks where the eye can see for miles or down in valleys with gorgeous landscape views of the surrounding mountains.
Venues like Sky Retreat and Castle Ladyhawke, both in North Carolina, create a dreamy atmosphere among the mountains, while venues in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley consist of vineyards, farms, and estates that offer panoramic views of the mountains. No matter the venue, the ancient Blue Ridge Mountains can create a romantic and breathtaking wedding for two lucky individuals.
Southern California
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Your dreams of a barefoot beach wedding come true in SoCal, where some of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the country are found. San Diego, in particular, contains quite a bit of California’s best beaches and has around 70 miles of coastline within its limits. Del Mar also promises for a lux coastal wedding, and there’s nothing that screams romance more than standing on a beach under the wedding arbor with the love of your life.
Southern California is home to much more than just coastal wonders, though, and Joshua Tree National Forest offers a unique background for stunning wedding photos. For brides who want to share the spotlight with their floral arrangements, SoCal is home to many opulent flower farms, which can create jaw-dropping flower arrangements. Cielo Farms in Malibu and Dos Pueblos Orchid Farm in Santa Barbara both create magical scenes with flowers. You may also consider Malibu Rocky Oaks, though its show-stopper is certainly its cliffside ceremonies and vineyard views.
It’s not just SoCal’s natural settings that make it one for the books, as some pretty amazing wedding venues can be found in Los Angeles. There are so many possibilities for a wedding in Southern California that it’ll make your head spin, but the most important thing is who you’re facing when it comes time to walk down the aisle — no California venue can outshine that moment.
Washington state
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Washington state is known for its diverse environments, from the rocky coasts to Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market. While either of these makes for a wonderful wedding ceremony — yes, you can totally get married at Pike Place — we’re going to focus on the state’s lush forests. After all, they don’t call it “The Evergreen State” for nothing.
A forest wedding is cool and spiritual no matter how you throw it, but taking the party off the ground and into the canopies? Well, that’s a whole other level of magic that we are so down to explore. Venues like TreeHouse Point in King County and Emerald Forest in Redmond have created a peak wedding experience. After you exchange vows above the forest floor, you can spend your wedding night in the trees as well. If you ever wanted to feel like a wood nymph or tree fairy on your wedding day, there’s really no better way than to walk down the aisle of a treehouse bridge.
New York City
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Even though the entire state of New York could technically be on this list, from upstate venues to Niagara Falls, we’ll focus on NYC. The city offers endless ways to celebrate love on your big day, and whether you want a luxurious wedding at a venue like the Rainbow Room, an elopement at City Hall, or a rooftop ceremony, the Empire State makes for one grand place to tie the knot — no matter how big or small you choose to go about it.
New York City is known for its individualism, so planning a wedding here really allows you to explore your creative side. You could certainly go the traditional route, but if you really want to up the romance factor, plan your destination wedding with the city’s endless experiences in mind. This could make all the difference in creating a unique wedding that perfectly fits both members of the new union. The Green Building could be the perfect spot for an edgier couple, while the Brooklyn Art Library could appeal to a creative and bookish duo. If you’ve got the connections, having an intimate ceremony on a private rooftop with a view of the city could create something more magical than money could buy. New York City has everything needed to create beautiful moments, you just need to be here to make them.
Montana
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The Rocky Mountain region is one of the best natural beauties of the United States. Although all regions of the Rocky Mountains have their own charms, Montana is consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful states in the U.S., and its mountains certainly contribute to its natural beauty. Nicknamed “Big Sky Country,” the state has overwhelming views of meadows and mountains, creating some pretty epic wedding photos and a scenic backdrop to exchange vows. In fact, the only thing more breathtaking than the Montana landscape will be the view of your partner walking down the aisle.
Glacier National Park, one of the most beloved in the country for its beauty, is one of the best places to go for a destination wedding in Montana. However, you’ll need a special use permit, and the demand for weddings in the park is high. The park offers detailed guidelines for where and when you can hold your ceremony. You may also consider Paddle Ridge’s Park View Pavilion, which is located right outside Glacier’s limits and boasts some of the same views as the park itself.
A ranch in Montana is also a fantastic wedding venue option, and there is no lack of them here. Sky Ridge Ranch and Quaking Aspen Ranch both offer unparalleled views that create a picture-perfect wedding day that couples will bond over and remember for years to come.
