u/Hairy-Chocolate8188

Hello everyone,

I am getting married in Feb 2028 (so we are in early planning stages) at Castillo Seralles an Ponce, Puerto Rico. I am wondering if anyone else has gotten married in PR and if so, if you have any recommendations?

In particular:
Catering -- I am vegetarian so ideally a caterer who actually has good options, not just an afterthought (PR food in general is super meat-heavy so this has been a sticky point for us)

DJ or Band -- open to both, would love a mix of PR music + more American music. I LOVE to dance so this is a big priority for us
Decor/rentals
Photographers -- we already have a few in mind, but still nailing this down & open to recs if you've had a good experience

Also, any tips & tricks you have from your PR or destination wedding to save on costs??? We do not have a giant budget, but are hoping to have a really lovely event. My fiance is from PR so our wedding had to be "destination" for half our guests and local for half no matter where we had it. Trying to figure out how to make this happen without breaking the bank!

Hi everyone,

My fiance and I live in Michigan and are getting married in Puerto Rico, where he is originally from (since we come from different parts of the world, our wedding has to be "destination" for half our guests and it is a much bigger ask financially to do it in Michigan + PR is just stunning so this made sense for us!). The challenge is that we don't have a destination wedding budget, so to speak, as we are both graduate students.

My family and I are pretty crafty so I am very open to DIYing, but I am wondering from others who have had to travel/fly for their wedding, what is the biggest bang for our buck in terms of what to DIY and what to contract? We only have so much suitcase room and we will maybe do 3-4 trips there before our wedding to bring stuff, wedding plan + visit his family. On the plus side, we are still about 1.5 years out from the wedding so we do have time + also local storage available as his family in PR is open to giving us some closet space.

Another challenge is that some common cost saving mechanisms, such as fake flowers, cost MUCH more due to shipping fees. I got a quote for our dream fake florals for about $3k (assuming no DIY and going all out), the shipping alone with an additional $2k when it would have been free in the continental US. Many other online fake flower vendors I could find wouldn't even ship to PR period. Back to square 1 🙃

Nearly all the advice I can find online for PR weddings is MUCH bigger budget than we are aiming for since they are mostly Americans doing destination weddings. I have to assume there are local Puerto Ricans without these huge budgets, but it's been tough to find those resources online.

Any & all tips welcome -- both DIY tips + general how to lower the budget tips for a non-local wedding.