Well our family vacation and wedding plans appear to be coming to an abrupt halt! We have plans to go to Playa Del Carmen Mexico to get married and have a family vacation in about 30 days. The Center for Disease Control just issued a travel advisory stating the following:

At this time, CDC recommends that U.S. travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico.

Yikes! I just sent a debit card authorization form to our wedding coordinator in mexico for the cost of the wedding this morning (before the travel notice was issued). After I sent it I did manage to let the lady know that we may cancel the trip due to the health concerns and not to process my payment. I told her I would let her know by the end of the week if we do cancel (looks like we will)... If she holds true to her word then I am only out $200 (the deposit I already paid). If she charges the card then I will be subject to an additional $300 cancellation fee, plus who knows how long it would take them to credit back the money to my account.

My parents will be out $600 bucks (they paid $100 per person for "cancel for any reason" insurance through the travel agent.)

Perhaps given the travel advisories some of this money would not be charged...

BUT the worst part is that leaves us with a few weeks to plan a freaking beach wedding and a vacation... YIKES! My fiance had her dress altered to fit her with no shoes, and I have purchased "beach wedding" attire to wear. So I guess the worse case scenario is that we get married in a small chapel here in barefoot beach attire!

I know that some people have had much more problems from this virus (sickness,loss of life, ect.) but Holy CRAP what a nightmare for us!

We are all off work and are going on vacation somewhere... Likely won't plan an out of the country vacation on such short notice. We have considered Florida though.

Any suggestions on some good beach vacations here in the US?

Crappy timing for certain.

Here are some ideas...

Hawaii
Laguna Beach, CA
Malibu, CA

...and a cut & paste from a "california beach wedding" website:

Most of the California State Beaches allow weddings. Here are some contact phone numbers for the state beaches:

L.A. County (310) 457-8185
Ventura and Santa Barbara - (805) 648-4059
Orange County - (949) 492-0802
San Diego - (619) 688-3260


Weddings - Los Angeles County Beaches

Beaches operated by L.A. County - (310) 574-6756.
For general information visit their web site: L.A. County Beaches.
Permit information for L.A. County Beaches: Group Activity Permits


Weddings - Orange County Beaches

Beaches operated by Orange County

Newport Beach - call community services at (949) 644-3151

Laguna Beach - (949) 497-0716

Huntington Beach - (714) 536-5281

That really sucks!

India and Malasia just issued a travel advisory for Canada as well as Mexico and a couple of other places, so I guess a beach wedding in Canada is out.

That really sucks, sorry to hear that. I recall the swine flu scare of 76. I was in the Navy at the time and we were required to have the swine flu shot. Man I tell ya, that was about the sickest I had ever felt after that damn shot. It wasn't only me a bunch of us got extremely sick from it.

Man, that sucks, David. I sure hope you're out less money than you think. My coworker just got back from Cabo on Saturday, so I guess she just made it. Hopefully she didn't bring any swine flu with her.

Good luck on the last-minute changes!

That sucks, hope you can work out alternate plans.

At this point, unnecessary travel, in general, is not advisable in my opinion. While fatality is not a big risk so far in US or Canada, I'd just rather not be the one on a plane who unknowingly takes it to a new city because another carrier happened to be on board..

Now that the Alert level has reached phase 4, by definition, it means human intervention can not prevent the spread Internationally so it is no longer such a strong matter of "where" you travel to.

Not a panic mode comment at all. I remain optimistic. Just passing along some training I received as co-chair of our companies Health and Safety Committee.

Sorry about the timing. That's a real bummer

There are many nice places to get married in the US though, so don't sweat it too much. Besides, this will give you something to talk about for the next 50-60 years - "remember when we couldn't go to Mexico for our wedding because of the {great|overblown|devastating} flu pandemic of 2009?" It's all about the memories.

Whatever happens - just remember that things will work out. I can only imagine the absolute chaos that would have erupted had our wedding plans been interrupted like this a month before D-Day. My wife probably would have had a nervous breakdown.

You guys will figure it out and it'll end up being the happy day that it's supposed to. It'll come together. Even if your Axiom friends have to show up to do the catering and DJ-ing. You know we'll bring a good sound system. And there are a few of us (I'm looking at you, Wid) that can put together a mean BBQ. And I know we've got a couple of quite decent photographers lurking about too. Do we have a priest in the house? Oh yeah, we could do it. An Axiom wedding.

I've read that many airlines are waiving fees and/or penalties for travelers who cancel tickets to Mexico. If your wedding coordinator runs a reputable business, I'd hope that they would allow you to cancel your plans without too much expense. I'd hope so, anyway.

Nothing says happy honeymoon like Swine Flu!

You have my sympathy.

We just got back from Kauai and had a great time. Also, I was thinking "Malibu" before I read Craig's post.

I like Peter's idea!

+1 for a beach wedding in the US.

It worked for Gail and me, married in 2001 on the beach at Hilton Head Island, SC. I believe this is the outfit we went through. It was perfect. For an additional $80, she brought along a friend who shot 4 rolls of film with a nice semi-pro outfit, giving us the negatives along with prints. Nowadays, he'd probably shoot digitally onto a card that he'd give you, I guess.

Good luck!

Or you could hire Bren...
He'd probably shoot live ammo onto a life sized card cutout of the happy couple, that he'd give you, I guess.

I just saw a spot on the news here at work - they were interviewing a guy who's wedding plans were caught up in this mess. Was that you?

I thought every man's mess was the result of wedding plans???

OK, I either need a rimshot for that one or a smack to the head. I certainly know which one my wife would give me.

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

David,
How many people were to travel to the wedding location? Julie and I got married 7-7-07 in Northern Ca. (just south of Monterey) on the cliffs above the beach. It was at Seascape Resort. We had plans to have 150 person or so wedding in town at a local church in Oct, then we decided in June to skip all the planning/ wedding day anxiety and had just our minister, her husband (friends of mine) and us for the ceremony on the cliff. At the main Seascape Resort there was a large fancy wedding going on. All we had done was book a room at the resort and used their property. It was away from their main areas. It was very easy, and inexpensive.

Obviously if you have a larger group, this freebie ceremony would not quite work. Also, the vacation aspect would be much better in Hawaii for sure.

PS. We were at a family get together not long after our decision to go simple when I mentioned in passing our new plan for the 'just us' Seascape ceremony... The family said WHAAAAT? We had forgotten to share our new decision prior to that.

It was not the first marriage for either of us, so simple just felt better. The family understood after they got over the surprise. For (especially the bride's) first[s][/s] only wedding, the 'very' small option may not be one. ;o)

Sorry to hear your wedding plans were dashed. That is a difficult thing to deal with. I am sure you will find a beautiful way to honor and celebrate this wonderful day.

Best to you and your fiancé.

Thanks for all of the info everyone!

I think we have decided to have the wedding here... We decided to split the wedding and vacation in two and let my parents worry about the vacation and we can worry about the wedding.

We managed to find availability on short notice for Saturday May 30 at a chapel in the woods here in town that has a nice view and is reasonably priced. We also managed to secure a wedding photographer on short notice. The photographer we are using did our engagement pics a few weeks ago and actually met up with me today to deliver the pics she finally got in. I asked her about her availability for our wedding and surprisingly she was free.

Things are coming together, but we still have to get bridesmaid dresses picked out and sized (weren't having any at the beach wedding), and the groomsmen fitted for tuxes (or maybe we will go with shirts and ties only), get invitations together at a last minute, ect.

Regarding the vacation: My parents are going to wait and see how this flu thing plays out and maybe we will go to mexico after all. Since the wedding is no longer a part of the vacation they can wait until the day before the trip and cancel with their "cancel for any reason" insurance. If the swine flu situation doesn't get better and the mexico trip doesn't happen, The two of us will find somewhere to fly to in the US on our own for our honeymoon and we will leave my parents, sister, and her boyfriend behind. If the swine flu situation gets much worse then maybe we'll just load up the car and go camping in the mountains for a week who knows

also, I emailed our wedding coordinator from mexico and told her the wedding was off and not to charge my card. I went ahead and called my bank and canceled my debit card in case they decide to bill me anyway... I just didn't like the idea of my debit card number being listed on an authorization form for $3K somewhere in mexico...