Customer Reviews

Beyond Vegas: 25 Exotic Wedding and Elopement Destinations Around the World

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you are considering eloping, I highly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of Beyond Vegas. It is the best book that is out there on the subject. Though it may be more popular if the title reflected better what it was about.

I bought both this book and Let's Elope when planning our escape from a typical wedding. Let's Elope can get you excited about the idea of eloping, but does not really provide much good information on how you would actually go about planning an event in any of the countries in which you might be interested. Beyond Vegas actually gives you the details you need to plan your wedding (elopment) in 25 countries, and we actually used this information to plan our wedding in Scotland. The authors actually got married in all of the destinations discussed in their book, and give all the pointers you need, not just what can be found on the official country registrar web sites.

My fiance and I dreamt about having a small wedding in Europe with a few close friends and family, but we didn't know where, and we had no idea what would be involved. After reading this book, we fell in love with the idea of getting married in Scotland. The book got us on the right track for researching it and made us realize that getting married there would definitely be possible and feasible.

This book gives a great overview of the logistics of getting married in various countries...it even rates the countries in terms of the difficulty of getting married there if you are a U.S. citizen. It is a great starting point if you are thinking of getting married in another country.

...researching on your own. I bought this book because I'm a travel agent, want to evetually get marrried away, and am always interested in what others suggest to clients.

Honestly, I found the book an "ok" source of info. Sadly, I ended up wondering where the couple involved in the book would get married next and what they would wear.

I am not opposed to destination wedding guidebooks, but this one could be a bit more interesting.

I enjoyed reading Tabb and Silverstein's Beyond Vegas quite a bit. While some chapters ended up relatively untouched for personal reasons (Wyoming ski lodge elopement, too cold: New Mexico kiva ruins shindig, too weird), all the ideas were creative and well thought out. I can only think of one chapter that seemed like something anyone could have thought of (Ch. 1, wedding in a castle in Scotland).

Beyond that, the writers/partners were quite ingenous and thrifty, finding wonderful wedding sites at the drop of an incredibly inexpensive hat. In Santorini, Greece, the couple married on the balcony of their rented villa, overlooking the black volcanic cliffs and ocean-covered caldera of the Cyclades. Cliche? I think not. In Figi, the whole crew geared up in traditional skirts for a native wedding complete with National Geographic-quality melee.

A word to the wise, though-- these vacations were a lot cheaper in 2002, just after 9/11, when Tabb and Silverstein eloped those dozen times. The preface says that the couple never spent more than $5,000 on their most expensive elopement. Elopements are rated in the book on a dollar scale from "$" to "$$$$", and Satorini was given a "$$". When my beau and I looked into what that would cost in 2006 dollars (going to all the same hotels and booking the cheapest flight), we were shocked to find that the price of the same vacation would be no less than $5,000. While that's still a fraction of the cost of a white wedding, it's no "$$" on a 5K max scale. Take that into consideration as you read along.

This book is just brief descriptions of places to go. There is not enough information to plan the trip, the details about marriage licences (for Jamaica) are incomplete and miss some of the details that have tripped up other couples.

Beyond Vegas is the best book for uncovering and discovering non-traditional wedding ideas. The extensive research that Tabb and Silverstein have done on the subject simplifies an otherwise overwhelming event! The book is well-written and provides relevant and useful information such as, price ranges, obtaining a marriage license, actual phone numbers, accomodations, and activities. Beyond Vegas is a great book to buy if you're planning a wedding or know someone who needs a little wedding guidence!

I want to go to Bali! I want to go to Greece! I don't want to have the boring wedding we're planning. I'm buyidng this for my fiance.

I saw a big stack of these books at our local book store and picked it up, because my fiance and I have been really struggling with our wedding plans. He's getting really grumpy and I'm just tired. It was fun to look through this book and all the fun pictures of cool places to go. We're going to have a regular wedding with lots people and cake but I bought this anyway. Hey, I can fantasize, can't I? I think Lisa and Sam are a riot. I loved reading about their adventures in places like Kenya. They have a real holesom way of apeaking and I liked that.

I was disappointed that the book was filled with typically already tried and true suggestions. The out of the box ideas were mostly domestic (Wyoming?) and, well, there's a reason most people who stay in the States end up in Vegas. I liked the Nuts and Bolts section for each locale. That was useful information: legal requirements, when to go, etc. and the brief descriptors of specific places to stay was nice. With the internet at my fingertips, I found most of the included information pretty redundant though. It was nice to have all the info pulled into one book, but I didn't feel like it really started any wheels turning. My fiance and I ended up getting our elopement destination from the HBTV show House Hunters. It's possible that leaving the book lying around did help draw my partner into the conversation. It's also possible that he did (or would have done) that in his own time anyway. Color pictures would have made the book more inspiring. I'm glad I bought it used and it came in like-new condition. Saved some $$ and took most of the sting out of my disappointment. I'd recommend it more for someone less traveled either in the early stages of planning or looking to act very spontaneously... but then you probably won't take the time to order and read a book!

Fantastic book filled with great information. It's all about elopement destinations of which they researched personally by getting married numerous times. If you want a small, intimate wedding or to forget about the hupla of a traditional wedding and just elope in an exotic destination, this book is for you!