Anyone have a destination wedding?

We're thinking of doing a quickie just us in Vegas and then a couple years later having a big shindig with all our family. A beach wedding sounds lovely to us both. Has anyone had a beach wedding or done a destination wedding?

We are also worried about both sides of the family not being able to attend due to travel. How did everyone deal with this? Did you have two different ceremonies/receptions?

Yay for beach weddings! We had ours in Barbados right on the beach. It was terrific. It was also with just the two of us. We chose Barbados because it was beautiful, sunny, and didn't have a lot of red tape to get a marriage licence(just had to show our passports and fill out a form).  I had the same fears as you. Our family on both sides have health problems that don't allow them to travel so we didn't think it would be fair to have a wedding with just his side of the family or mine. We're planning to have a little ceremony in the Uk then one in the US.

We technically did a destination wedding.  I'm from Ohio and we still got married in Ohio, but it was away from my family and where I'm from...  I admit the all-in-one wedding held a certain appeal to not have to worry about finding a caterer, a minister, reception hall, accommodation for guests etc as it was all right there.   

Shortly after DH & I started seeing each other some friends of ours got married just outside of Vegas and it was absolutely lovely!  Some other friends of ours are in the process of planning their wedding in Disney for next year.  They seem to be gaining in popularity at the minute as you can combine your wedding service / vacation and honeymoon in one!   

If you know how far each side of the family is willing (or able) to travel you could try arranging a wedding somewhere in the middle, like Disney or Vegas, they're both easy locations to get to from the UK (if your OH's from Sheffield Robin Hood Aiport runs flights to Florida year-round).  Also nearby (closer than Manchester or Birminham) is Humberside Airport which do really good selection of flights with KLM / NWA...     But then if you're planning on moving to the UK and your family are willing to travel they may like to see where you'll be living (ut then that means the Fiance Visa route)...       Oh the possibilities!

Good luck!

Oooh the possibilities. So many options!
Thanks for the tips, ladies!

We tried to find a place that was equally easy (or difficult - haha) for everyone to get to, but in the end we just picked a place that we liked and let the chips fall where they may.  There was some good-natured grumbling about the distances involved, but no major tantrums.  In the end most everyone we wanted to come was able to, so we're not having any further ceremonies.

The yacht we got married on handles weddings all the time, and having one person to deal with for everything made the whole thing much easier than if we'd had to coordinate everything ourselves from thousands of miles away.

Good luck!

Carl