READING 2 A Destination Wedding

A DESTINATION

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold. 4.3

Wedding

A year ago, Emily Reese and Josh Knoll got engaged1. The couple surfs, and one afternoon at the beach, Josh wrote “I love you. Will you marry me?” in the sand. “Of course, I told him yes,” Emily laughs.

Later, Josh and Emily called their families. “When we told them, everyone was happy,” Josh says. There was just one problem: Where would the couple get married?

“Josh’s family is from Chicago,” Emily explains. “They wanted us to have the wedding there. My family is in Miami, and they wanted it in that city. And Josh and I work in San Francisco.”

Then the couple had an idea: have a destination wedding.

“We planned to honeymoon in Baja (Mexico) and go surfing,” Josh explains. “So we said to ourselves, let’s have the entire wedding in Baja on the beach.”

Today, one in four couples in the U.S. has a destination wedding. The couple and their guests travel to an interesting place (in another city or country) for the event. Couples do it because it’s fun, but there’s another reason. The average American wedding costs around $35,000. Often, a destination wedding is several thousand dollars less, mainly because fewer people attend. The average number of guests at a destination wedding is 48, compared to 136. That’s a big savings, especially for couples who pay for it by themselves.

Emily liked the idea for another reason. “I couldn’t picture myself in a church in a formal dress,” she says. “I wanted something casual and fun.”

When Emily and Josh got married in Baja, only close family and friends came. “It was small, but we all enjoyed ourselves,” Emily says. “Also, before the wedding, I didn’t know Josh’s sister. But she stayed in Baja for a few days, and I spent time with her. It was a great way to meet my new in-laws2 and get to know them.”

Top Destination Wedding Locations for Americans

Las Vegas, Nevada Hawaii Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin

Islands Jamaica The Bahamas Mexico

1 to get engaged: to agree formally that you will marry someone 2 in-laws: your spouse’s parents and siblings

San Francisco Chicago

Baja California

Mexico Miami