A destination wedding essentially means a wedding held away from the couple’s normal place of residence and usually overseas. This kind of wedding has soared in popularity, increasing 400% in the last ten years. The appeal is in having a wedding which combines adventure, tradition, paradise and an element of the unknown, whilst sometimes being a cheaper alternative to staying at home.
Whilst some destination weddings involve only the couple themselves, others include an intimate gathering of close family and friends and at the top of the scale are the big grand weddings, with everyone invited and numerous parties taking place over the course of a weekend.
So if you are considering a destination wedding and wondering if it is right for you, here are some pros and cons for you to think about.
Pro: A Complete Package
The benefit of a destination wedding is that the resorts that offer wedding packages will include just about everything you could possibly want. This is big business for them, so they will compete on package size and the services they offer. A typical package could include: ceremony and local officials, photographs and video, reception, flowers, hair and make up, wedding cake, choice of ceremony locations. Along with this the happy couple may be treated to a room upgrade both before and after the wedding, along with free dinners, excursions and activities.
Con: Planning a Wedding Long Distance and Legal Red Tape
You need to be familiar with the legal requirements for marrying in your chosen destination. For some it is just a matter of being ‘resident’ for a few days, other will require extensive legal paperwork to be carried out before hand. So make sure you check before you book as to what is required. If the process looks particularly complicated then hire a local wedding coordinator to help sort everything out for you. You may also need to find local wedding vendors if you are not taking a package deal for your wedding.
Pro: Avoiding Stressful Family Situations
Your guest list is likely to be smaller than if you had your wedding locally & with booking a wedding package you will avoid lots of the stress normally associated with weddings. If your family are driving you mad trying to get you to invite all & sundry, put your foot down & tell them it will be an intimate wedding for friends & close family only. Alternatively go on your own & send them pictures!
Con: Family Members & Friends You Love May Not Be There
Having a wedding some distance from your normal place of residence can mean that certain guests will not be able to attend either because of the cost of getting there and accommodation or perhaps because they cannot travel any great distance. Make those people particularly close to you aware of your plans before you book and send out your invitations.
Pro: You’ll Save Money By Not Having 200 People at a Reception
Typically a destination wedding can cost less than a traditional at home affair. But be aware that wedding etiquette calls for the bride and groom to pay for the hotel accommodation of their guests, along with food & most other expenses. Your guests will only pay for their own airfares. If this is outside your budget, look for alternative locations a bit closer to home or consider a smaller guest list.
Con: Some of your loved ones may not be able to afford to travel that far
You may have to consider paying some or all of the fares to get the people who matter to you most to your wedding. Again, talk to them beforehand and see if you can come to some arrangement which suits you all. One solution maybe is to ask the travel agents about discounts for group bookings.
Pro: By Combining Wedding and Honeymoon, You can afford to go to that Dream Honeymoon Locale
A destination wedding offers you the luxury of being able to combine your wedding and honeymoon in a fabulous location. Some travel companies will offer packages which will see you married in one location and then whisked away to another destination for your honeymoon. All of which would cost you less than booking a traditional wedding at home and a separate honeymoon.
Con: With Your Family Around, and a Wedding to Worry About, Will You Really Get a Honeymoon?
This is really down to you and the understanding of your guests. Look into going to another hotel or location after the wedding where you can enjoy some time alone. Book into your destination a few days early or arrange to leave a few days after all your guests have gone home. If neither of these is possible then make sure your guests will have plenty of things to occupy them after the wedding so you can both spend some time alone.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
HOW TO PLAN YOUR WEDDING RECEPTION
When it comes to planning the wedding reception , it pays to know exactly what your budget is. The good news is that no matter what the size of your budget, large or small, there is a perfect reception venue available for everyone.
As a guide, your wedding budget should allocate 30% of the total to your reception. Where costs can really start to mount is in the smaller details such as decorations, rentals & outside catering. Here are some hints & tips to help you cut the cost of your reception food & drink, as well how to throw your reception on tight budget.
Renting a Hall
If you choose to rent a hall or large room for your reception, then there are several things that you will need to take in to account beforehand. For example there is the cost of hiring the room, using their servers (many will have them include in the price & may not be negotiable), then there is the cost of decorations, flowers, food & beverages.
With hiring a hall there are several things that you will have to pay for, such as decorations & beverage. But some hall venues will give you a range of options to pick & choose as you like.
Your choice of hall type will also have an impact on your budget. For example a grand banqueting hall will typically cost more than a community hall. Another consideration is if your budget is small to start with, then renting a hall could leave you with more effort & fewer options than booking a package with a different style of venue.
Here are some tips about renting a hall & keeping your costs down.
1. Halls should only be considered if you have 50 or more guests on your list.
2. Choose between an open bar or a cash bar for your reception, when renting a hall. An good alternative is to provide beer yourselves & have a cash bar for those want a mixed drink.
3. Choose a hall you can decorate yourselves.
4. If you need servers, then choose a hall that has them included in the price or one that will let you bring your own.
5. Make sure your choice of hall will cater to your needs & budget.
6. Avoid extra costs for catering & hire a hall that will let you supply your own food.
7. Save money on your catering with finger foods, vegetable & fruit trays. This will also cater to the vegetarians among your guests.
8. A casual style buffet reception will be cheaper than a formal sit down meal.
9. Have a cash bar as an alternative to giving a wedding gift. It is a great way to accommodate your guests & will save you money on the hall hire.
10. Choose a midweek wedding date as weekend dates are always more expensive.
11. Good rates can be had for winter time weddings.
12. Pay by cash & negotiate a deal on the price for doing so. Most venues will have to pay a charge to accept payments by credit cards so they are more likely to agree.
13. You can save on your catering costs by holding the reception in the daytime & offer just canapés or snacks, rather than a formal evening meal.
Having a hall wedding reception needn’t cost you the earth, particularly if you pull some of the tricks I have mentioned. Also consider holding your reception outdoors. Some may think that an indoors reception is more elegant than an outdoors one, but this needn’t be the case & an outdoor event can be more fun & cost you less.
As a guide, your wedding budget should allocate 30% of the total to your reception. Where costs can really start to mount is in the smaller details such as decorations, rentals & outside catering. Here are some hints & tips to help you cut the cost of your reception food & drink, as well how to throw your reception on tight budget.
Renting a Hall
If you choose to rent a hall or large room for your reception, then there are several things that you will need to take in to account beforehand. For example there is the cost of hiring the room, using their servers (many will have them include in the price & may not be negotiable), then there is the cost of decorations, flowers, food & beverages.
With hiring a hall there are several things that you will have to pay for, such as decorations & beverage. But some hall venues will give you a range of options to pick & choose as you like.
Your choice of hall type will also have an impact on your budget. For example a grand banqueting hall will typically cost more than a community hall. Another consideration is if your budget is small to start with, then renting a hall could leave you with more effort & fewer options than booking a package with a different style of venue.
Here are some tips about renting a hall & keeping your costs down.
1. Halls should only be considered if you have 50 or more guests on your list.
2. Choose between an open bar or a cash bar for your reception, when renting a hall. An good alternative is to provide beer yourselves & have a cash bar for those want a mixed drink.
3. Choose a hall you can decorate yourselves.
4. If you need servers, then choose a hall that has them included in the price or one that will let you bring your own.
5. Make sure your choice of hall will cater to your needs & budget.
6. Avoid extra costs for catering & hire a hall that will let you supply your own food.
7. Save money on your catering with finger foods, vegetable & fruit trays. This will also cater to the vegetarians among your guests.
8. A casual style buffet reception will be cheaper than a formal sit down meal.
9. Have a cash bar as an alternative to giving a wedding gift. It is a great way to accommodate your guests & will save you money on the hall hire.
10. Choose a midweek wedding date as weekend dates are always more expensive.
11. Good rates can be had for winter time weddings.
12. Pay by cash & negotiate a deal on the price for doing so. Most venues will have to pay a charge to accept payments by credit cards so they are more likely to agree.
13. You can save on your catering costs by holding the reception in the daytime & offer just canapés or snacks, rather than a formal evening meal.
Having a hall wedding reception needn’t cost you the earth, particularly if you pull some of the tricks I have mentioned. Also consider holding your reception outdoors. Some may think that an indoors reception is more elegant than an outdoors one, but this needn’t be the case & an outdoor event can be more fun & cost you less.
THE HISTORY OF A.C. CARS
AC Cars was established in 1907 and is the oldest British car manufacturer that is still producing vehicles today.
The AC name came from the name of their first commercial three wheeler - the autocarrier, which was designed and manufactured by John Weller.
In 1908, a new passenger version called the “AC Sociable” was introduced. The name came about because the passenger and driver’s seat were side by side and not in tandem as many other three wheelers were at the time. It was also the first time that the initials AC had been used.
During World War 1, AC continued to produce vehicles as well as shells and fuses. By 1919, they were back in full car production with 10hp and 12hp engines. These were later replaced by a six cylinder 16hp model.
For the next few years, AC turned to producing four wheeled vehicles and did not produce another three wheeler until 1953 with the AC Petite. The petite was powered by a 346cc single cylinder two stroke Villiers engine and had an aluminium body fastened to a light steel frame.
The all new Ace arrived in 1953, designed by John Tojerio. The Ace used the old 1991cc AC engine.
The distinctive body was produced in aluminium and looked similar to contemporary Ferrari models and it would also form the basis for the lengedary Cobra.
The AC Cobra was produced during the 1960s and is perhaps one of the most iconic cars of all time.
The first 75 ‘Cobra Mark I’ (including the prototype) were fitted with the 260 engine (4.2L). The remaining 51 ‘Mark I’ models were fitted with a larger version of the Windsor Ford engine, the 289 in³ (4.7L) V8.
By 1963 the leaf-spring Cobra was losing its supremacy in racing. Shelby tried fitting a larger Ford FE engine of 390 in³. Ken Miles drove and raced the FE-powered ‘Mark II’ and pronounced the car was virtually undrivable, naming it ‘The Turd’. A new chassis was developed and designated ‘Mark III’.
Cobra Mark III production began on 1 January 1965; two prototypes had been sent to the United States in October 1964. Cars were sent to the US as unpainted rolling chassis, and they were finished in Shelby's workshop.
Unfortunately, the Mark III missed homologation for the 1965 racing season and was not raced by the Shelby team. However, it was raced successfully by many privateers and went on to win races all the way into the 1970s.
Interestingly, 31 unsold competition cars were detuned and made road worthy and called S/C for semi competition. Today, these are the rarest and the most valuable models.
AC Cobras had an extensive racing career. Shelby wanted it to be a "Corvette Beater" and at nearly 500 lb less than the Chevrolet Corvette, the lightweight car did just that. The Cobra was perhaps too successful as a performance car and reputedly contributed to the implementation of national speed limits in the United Kingdom. An AC Cobra Coupe was calculated to have done 185 mph on the M1 motorway in 1964, driven by Jack Sears and Peter Bolton during shakedown tests prior to that year's Le Mans 24h race. However, government officials have cited the increasing accident death rate in the early 1960s as the principal motivation, with the exploits of the AC Cars team merely highlighting the risk.
AC also produced the AC Frua until 1973. The AC Frua was built on a stretched Cobra 427 MK III coil spring chassis using a very angular handsome steel body designed and built by Pietro Frua. With the demise of the Frua, AC went on building lesser cars and eventually fell into bankruptcy in the late 1970s. The company's tooling and eventually the right to use the name, were licensed by Autocraft, a Cobra parts reseller and replica car manufacturer owned by Brian Angliss.
In 2006 Carol Shelby's own Shelby Cobra sold at an auction in Arizona for £2.8million.
A road-going Shelby Daytona Cobra replica is being manufactured by Superformance and Factory Five Racing, a well known kit car company. These cars use Peter Brock's bodywork designs, scaled up to increase room inside, and a newly designed spaceframe chassis, they are powered by Roush-built Ford Windsor (Sportsman) engines. The Superformance Shelby Daytona Coupe is the only modern day vehicle recognized by Shelby as a successor to the original Coupes. Peter Brock's Australian namesake, the race car driver, was killed while driving a GM-powered replica of a Shelby Daytona Coupe in competition in Australia in 2006.
To date most continuations are produced in fiberglass, with some very special customers custom ordering cars with aluminum or carbon fibre bodywork.
Shelby Motors built 22 ‘427’ competition roadsters. In 1965, one was selected and converted into a special model called the 427 "Cobra to End All Cobras”. The first one of these (number CSX 3015) was originally part of a European promotional tour before its conversion. This conversion called for making the original racing model street legal with mufflers, a windshield and bumpers amongst other modifications. However, some things were not modified, including the racing rear end, brakes and headers. The most notable modification is the addition of Twin Paxton Superchargers. This gave the car an alleged 800 bhp and 462 ft lbs of torque at an astounding low of 3000 rpm. Officially rated at 0-to-60 at 4.5 seconds, legend and lore have it as doing that in a little over 3 seconds as one must lay off the throttle heavily just to get traction off the line.
The AC name came from the name of their first commercial three wheeler - the autocarrier, which was designed and manufactured by John Weller.
In 1908, a new passenger version called the “AC Sociable” was introduced. The name came about because the passenger and driver’s seat were side by side and not in tandem as many other three wheelers were at the time. It was also the first time that the initials AC had been used.
During World War 1, AC continued to produce vehicles as well as shells and fuses. By 1919, they were back in full car production with 10hp and 12hp engines. These were later replaced by a six cylinder 16hp model.
For the next few years, AC turned to producing four wheeled vehicles and did not produce another three wheeler until 1953 with the AC Petite. The petite was powered by a 346cc single cylinder two stroke Villiers engine and had an aluminium body fastened to a light steel frame.
The all new Ace arrived in 1953, designed by John Tojerio. The Ace used the old 1991cc AC engine.
The distinctive body was produced in aluminium and looked similar to contemporary Ferrari models and it would also form the basis for the lengedary Cobra.
The AC Cobra was produced during the 1960s and is perhaps one of the most iconic cars of all time.
The first 75 ‘Cobra Mark I’ (including the prototype) were fitted with the 260 engine (4.2L). The remaining 51 ‘Mark I’ models were fitted with a larger version of the Windsor Ford engine, the 289 in³ (4.7L) V8.
By 1963 the leaf-spring Cobra was losing its supremacy in racing. Shelby tried fitting a larger Ford FE engine of 390 in³. Ken Miles drove and raced the FE-powered ‘Mark II’ and pronounced the car was virtually undrivable, naming it ‘The Turd’. A new chassis was developed and designated ‘Mark III’.
Cobra Mark III production began on 1 January 1965; two prototypes had been sent to the United States in October 1964. Cars were sent to the US as unpainted rolling chassis, and they were finished in Shelby's workshop.
Unfortunately, the Mark III missed homologation for the 1965 racing season and was not raced by the Shelby team. However, it was raced successfully by many privateers and went on to win races all the way into the 1970s.
Interestingly, 31 unsold competition cars were detuned and made road worthy and called S/C for semi competition. Today, these are the rarest and the most valuable models.
AC Cobras had an extensive racing career. Shelby wanted it to be a "Corvette Beater" and at nearly 500 lb less than the Chevrolet Corvette, the lightweight car did just that. The Cobra was perhaps too successful as a performance car and reputedly contributed to the implementation of national speed limits in the United Kingdom. An AC Cobra Coupe was calculated to have done 185 mph on the M1 motorway in 1964, driven by Jack Sears and Peter Bolton during shakedown tests prior to that year's Le Mans 24h race. However, government officials have cited the increasing accident death rate in the early 1960s as the principal motivation, with the exploits of the AC Cars team merely highlighting the risk.
AC also produced the AC Frua until 1973. The AC Frua was built on a stretched Cobra 427 MK III coil spring chassis using a very angular handsome steel body designed and built by Pietro Frua. With the demise of the Frua, AC went on building lesser cars and eventually fell into bankruptcy in the late 1970s. The company's tooling and eventually the right to use the name, were licensed by Autocraft, a Cobra parts reseller and replica car manufacturer owned by Brian Angliss.
In 2006 Carol Shelby's own Shelby Cobra sold at an auction in Arizona for £2.8million.
A road-going Shelby Daytona Cobra replica is being manufactured by Superformance and Factory Five Racing, a well known kit car company. These cars use Peter Brock's bodywork designs, scaled up to increase room inside, and a newly designed spaceframe chassis, they are powered by Roush-built Ford Windsor (Sportsman) engines. The Superformance Shelby Daytona Coupe is the only modern day vehicle recognized by Shelby as a successor to the original Coupes. Peter Brock's Australian namesake, the race car driver, was killed while driving a GM-powered replica of a Shelby Daytona Coupe in competition in Australia in 2006.
To date most continuations are produced in fiberglass, with some very special customers custom ordering cars with aluminum or carbon fibre bodywork.
Shelby Motors built 22 ‘427’ competition roadsters. In 1965, one was selected and converted into a special model called the 427 "Cobra to End All Cobras”. The first one of these (number CSX 3015) was originally part of a European promotional tour before its conversion. This conversion called for making the original racing model street legal with mufflers, a windshield and bumpers amongst other modifications. However, some things were not modified, including the racing rear end, brakes and headers. The most notable modification is the addition of Twin Paxton Superchargers. This gave the car an alleged 800 bhp and 462 ft lbs of torque at an astounding low of 3000 rpm. Officially rated at 0-to-60 at 4.5 seconds, legend and lore have it as doing that in a little over 3 seconds as one must lay off the throttle heavily just to get traction off the line.
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