Destination wedding planning tips are something a lot of wedding pros quietly search for, then close the tab because the whole idea feels too big. There are passports, resort contracts, guest travel, vendors you’ve never met in a country you may never have visited. It’s easy to assume destination weddings are only for people who have been traveling the world for years and already know every resort in Mexico by name.

That’s exactly the assumption my friend Tami Santini set out to challenge. In this episode of Engage Your Brand®, Tami shares how she built Paradise Getaways, her award-winning destination wedding travel agency, and how she now teaches other wedding and travel pros to do the same through her 20K System and Toolkit. We’ve known each other for several years, and I’m always amazed by how much practical wisdom she has about this corner of the industry.

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If you’re a planner, travel advisor, or wedding pro who has felt curious about destination weddings but a little intimidated, this one is for you. As Tami put it, if you feel intimidated, you’re normal.

You Don’t Have to Start as an Expert

Tami calls herself an accidental business owner. Her degree is in sociology and psychology, and she was working as a business development manager for Avon when an injury kept her out of the field. By the time she was cleared to return, her district had been given away, and the new one would have meant long drives away from her five young kids. She chose her family, and suddenly needed something flexible.

Then someone casually told her husband, Lou, that Tami would make a great travel agent. Something about that idea lit her up. She had no clue how to start a travel business, and, by her own admission, she figured it out the long and hard way.

Here’s the part that surprised me most. When Tami started, the furthest she had traveled internationally was Toronto, by car. Today she has been everywhere from Bora Bora to a European river cruise, and she visits the Cancun and Riviera Maya area so often she has lost count. But she didn’t begin with a passport full of stamps.

That’s an important reminder for anyone hesitating. Travel experience grows as your business grows. What matters at the start is your willingness to learn and your ability to serve couples well.

Why Wedding Pros Have a Head Start

Tami initially focused on honeymoons, but the return just wasn’t there. When she felt pulled toward destination weddings, her first reaction was fear. She worried about ruining someone’s wedding and wondered how she could possibly coordinate vendors in Mexico or Jamaica.

What she realized is that her role wasn’t to plan every detail from the ground up. Her role was to guide the couple: helping them choose a destination, handling travel logistics, and supporting them and their guests through the process. Some of the people she coaches do both the planning and the group travel side, and they become a true powerhouse for their couples.

According to Tami, the biggest mistake vendors make when entering this space is believing they need to have everything figured out first. They think they need certifications, extensive travel, a completely rebuilt website, and a long list of industry contacts before they can take a single client.

In reality, couples are looking for someone they trust to solve their problems. That’s why wedding planners and other pros who already work with engaged couples tend to do so well when they add destination weddings to their services. They already understand the mindset, the emotions, and the decisions couples are facing. Everything else can be learned with the right guidance.

Guest Experience Is the Real Wedding Weekend

When I asked Tami what couples are prioritizing right now, her answer was clear. Couples care most about the vacation side of the experience. They want a wedding weekend their guests talk about for years and wish they could do again.

That focus shifts how you plan. At a traditional wedding, guests come for the ceremony and reception. At a destination wedding, they’re staying three or four nights, so the ceremony is only a fraction of the overall experience. Fun, sun, relaxation, and shared moments matter just as much as the wedding itself.

Tami also makes sure her couples understand the investment their guests are making. Attending means spending money, using hard-earned PTO, and sometimes arranging childcare. Not everyone can easily hop on a plane for several nights. Helping couples see that perspective creates a more thoughtful experience for everyone.

If you’re planning or advising on destination weddings, a few guest-focused considerations can go a long way:

• Plan moments beyond the ceremony. Welcome dinners, group excursions, or a farewell brunch give guests more reasons to feel the trip was worth it.
• Talk through the guest list realistically. Adult-only weddings can work beautifully, but Tami suggests rethinking that choice if half or more of the guests have young children.
• Offer childcare options. Some resorts have kids’ clubs, local nanny services exist in Mexico and the Caribbean, and some families bring a trusted caregiver along.
• Respect guests’ time and budgets. Clear details early help people plan, save, and request time off.

Communication Makes Everything Feel Seamless

When I asked what it really takes to make a destination wedding feel seamless, Tami didn’t hesitate. It comes down to communication.

Many guests have never been to a destination wedding before. For some, it’s their first international trip. Naturally, they’ll have questions about what to expect, what to pack, and how everything works. Tami’s approach is to get ahead of those questions with email sequences that answer them gradually throughout the planning process. Otherwise, you end up answering the same question individually for a hundred people.

Communication matters even more when something unexpected happens. Tami recently had a destination wedding in Puerto Vallarta shortly after safety concerns in Mexico made headlines. She sent constant updates to guests, worked with other wedding groups heading to different parts of Mexico who were nervous too, and listened to people’s fears without dismissing them.

Some guests still canceled, including people very close to the bride. Tami found herself having heartfelt conversations with her client about how she wanted to feel on her wedding day, even if many loved ones couldn’t be there. The couple went ahead with their private island celebration, and the guests who attended had a wonderful time.

It’s a powerful reminder that this work involves more than logistics. A big part of serving destination couples is steady, compassionate communication.

The same principle applies to your website. With AI-driven search becoming more common, a clear FAQ section is more valuable than ever. Answering common questions about destination weddings on your general site helps potential clients find you and feel confident reaching out.

How to Start Growing in the Destination Wedding Market

For anyone ready to take the next step, Tami offers a refreshingly practical starting point. Most of the income in destination weddings comes from travel commissions, and to earn them, you need the right credentials. The easiest way to get started is through a host agency.

A host agency works almost like a buying group. It already has the licenses, insurance, and sales volume to secure higher commissions, and you split commissions with it. That means you don’t have to build an entire travel business from scratch before booking your first group. Later, if your sales volume grows, you can branch out on your own, as Tami and Lou eventually did. She’s honest that running your own agency brings plenty of headaches too.

From there, Tami recommends narrowing your focus. Rather than trying to learn every destination at once, pick a few resort brands you genuinely like. All-inclusive resorts are where she sees the most opportunity, since they have the infrastructure to host multiple weddings a year with ease.

If you’re just getting started, these steps can help you build momentum:

• Connect with a host agency. This gives you access to commissions and support without building everything yourself.
• Choose around three resort brands. Learn their wedding packages and what makes each one unique.
• Reach out to each brand’s business development manager. Share your interest, ask for training, and request invitations to familiarization trips.
• Charge a professional planning fee. Tami learned the hard way that offering destination wedding support for free isn’t sustainable.

Familiarization Trips Build Real Confidence

A familiarization trip, often called a fam trip, lets travel professionals see resorts and venues in person. Tami was candid that these trips aren’t always as glamorous as they look online. Some supplier fams move from resort to resort so quickly that you can’t remember which property was which by the end. On one trip to Aruba, she toured wedding venues the entire time and didn’t sit on the beach until her final morning.

The fam trips she hosts for her coaching community move at a slower pace. The group focuses on a few resorts, tours the venues, and meets with the wedding teams so everyone can truly absorb the experience.

This matters because destination couples are planning their weddings site unseen. Locally, a couple can tour the venue, taste the food, and meet their vendors face to face. With a destination wedding, they’re relying on you to know what the experience will really be like. Tami often encourages couples to take a pre-wedding trip, either to decide on a location or to get planning done once they’ve chosen one.

She has seen the light bulb moment happen again and again. Once someone visits a resort and sees the venues in person, they suddenly feel confident recommending it to couples. Tami notes that fam invitations are getting harder for new agents to secure, since many resorts now want to see sales first, which is part of why she’s passionate about creating those opportunities within her community.

The Profit Potential of Destination Weddings

Many planners are used to selling packages in the five-figure range and spending 80 to 100 or more hours on a single wedding. So I asked Tami what the financial picture looks like in destination weddings.

The answer depends on how you structure your business. Some pros plan the wedding virtually and then travel on-site with the group, which Tami considers a separate level of service with its own contract and fee. Others, like Tami, stay entirely behind the scenes. She describes herself as a keyboard warrior who can work with couples nationwide from anywhere with her laptop.

Income in this space can come from several sources. Tami explained them this way:

• A professional planning fee. Charged according to your level of service.
• Travel commissions. For a group of around 100 guests, she estimates you could earn at least $15,000, often more, depending on room rates and length of stay.
• Resort wedding commissions. Some resorts pay a percentage of what the couple spends. On a $40,000 wedding, a 10% commission would be $4,000, without planning the event itself.
• Bonuses and travel points. A sizable group can earn enough loyalty points for free weeks at a resort.

That last point has been especially meaningful for Tami’s family. With seven people, travel would have been out of reach without the points she earned through her business. There were even years she couldn’t use all of them.

Destination weddings also become a natural source of future business. Every couple brings a guest list of 40, 50, or more people who get to know, like, and trust you along the way. Later, those guests reach out about birthday trips, family reunions, and other vacations. Tami encourages new pros to niche down first, because a focused niche gives you a clear marketing message, and destination weddings were her fastest path to building a business.

That focus is also where the name of her course comes from. The 20K System and Toolkit is built on the idea that you can make $20,000 from a single wedding. The system is the framework she and Lou used to grow their business, and the toolkit includes the resources to support it. She’s currently working on a 3.0 version that reflects how AI is changing the industry.

Let Your Brand Reflect You

Even successful business owners wrestle with branding. Tami admitted that design doesn’t come naturally to her, and her brand has to stretch across a lot. She is a coach, a course creator, and a destination wedding specialist herself, so she wants something that feels soft and romantic while still capturing a fun, tropical spirit.

Her advice for wedding and event pros is simple. Your brand should reflect who you are. It’s tempting to look at successful people and copy their colors and style, and gathering inspiration is fine. But in a service-based business, you are the brand. If you’re bold, bright, and bubbly, a muted, trendy palette won’t feel true, and your clients will sense that disconnect.

At Emily Foster Creative, this is the kind of work we love helping with. We take everything that makes you, you, along with what your dream clients need to hear, and shape it into a cohesive brand and website. If you’re expanding into destination weddings or ready for a brand that finally fits, we’d love to chat.

Jump In and Figure It Out

Tami’s story is proof that you don’t need perfect circumstances to build something meaningful. She started with no travel background, no industry connections, and plenty of fear. What she had was a willingness to jump in, learn as she went, and serve couples well.

The best destination wedding planning tips aren’t about knowing everything before you begin. They’re about putting guests first, communicating clearly, focusing your offer, and seeing the destinations for yourself when you can. With the right support, destination weddings can become a rewarding, flexible, and profitable part of your business.

To learn more about Tami, visit her website and download The Ultimate Checklist to Multiply Your Destination Weddings Leads. Even if you’re not ready to grow in this space yet, it’s a great way to stay connected with what she’s sharing.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Tami Santini’s website
• The Ultimate Checklist to Multiply Your Destination Weddings Leads
• Destination Wedding Coach on Facebook (coaching, @tamisantini)
• Paradise Getaways on Facebook (travel business)
• Tami Santini on TikTok