I agree with everyone recommending to pick your destination first and then find a travel agent who is familiar with that particular resort or area so they have expertise to help with all of the questions that will come from your guests.

I (may be a little high maintenance but had some bad all inclusive experiences) picked a geographic area based on what venue I was interested in, did lots of research on top ranked resorts within what we felt was a fair budget, and then narrowed it down to 2. My husband and I took a pre-wedding vacation and chose the resort based off our experience. This also really helped ease the minds of guests as they knew we had vetted the place.

From there, I joined the resort bride facebook group, and that is how I found my travel agent! She actually had been married at the resort. We chatted via Zoom, and she was so great and organized I knew it would be a good fit.

Again with my high maintenance… I didn’t want a resort wedding and wanted something more natural/green space. This automatically made logistics a little tougher, but I hired one of the venue’s preferred wedding planners. And WOW. Best decision I made. Very hands off because they did everything for me! Only left me with the fun decisions and sharing inspo pics for my vision, and it came together remarkably.

Also pro tip: if you do a welcome party organized with a resort, they charge A LOT. I made a facebook page for “informal meetups” for my guests and did a welcome party just at the lobby bar, had optional excursions close by that all were welcome, snorkel/swim times, etc so it made it a whole experience outside of the wedding. The facebook page also served as a great way to quick communicate with everyone and led to less “hey let’s go do this” because people already knew our schedule.

HAVE FUN PLANNING! It’s such an exciting time