It was important that my partner and I had the wedding that was truly right for us, and credit card rewards made it so much easier to get that.
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My partner and I love adventure, which is why we're always planning our next vacation or road trip. Shortly after we got engaged, we debated potential wedding locations that might make sense, like a bigger wedding near home in Seattle or an intimate wedding abroad with just the two of us.
When our vision for the wedding started to crystallize, we decided on a destination wedding in Oahu. We could have a smaller wedding, and people could show up for us and make a vacation out of the trip. My partner's family had ties to Hawaii, and we saw it as an opportunity to make our wedding something extra special.
Our first step was to find a local wedding planner who understood the challenges of planning a wedding as queer people of color, and we found that support in The Gay Agenda Collective. Our wedding planner was also able to help us find inclusive vendors that fit the bill, and they even got us discounts with certain vendors that they worked closely with.
Through our conversations, we realized that we wanted to intentionally plan our wedding in a way that was very specific to us, whether it was by providing lawn games so people could have fun and meet each other or having an audio guestbook where folks could leave voicemails that we'd listen to forever. We hoped that people felt loved and cherished the way that we did when we were in the presence of our blood and chosen family, and planning a beautiful wedding that reflected our love was a way to show that.
Although the sales tax in Hawaii was less than half the sales of our home state, and our guest count would be much lower, it was clear that our wedding would still be a pricey event.
Because we were planning a destination wedding, we knew that in addition to the usual vendors for the wedding day — like rentals, photographers and videographers, food, and decor — we would also need to book flights, hotels, and a rental car for the day.
My partner and I are based in Seattle. We knew that we wanted to earn points or miles on our credit cards in a way that would benefit both of us, especially because we had the means to pay off our credit cards in full. After looking at a few options, we decided to use our Alaska Airlines credit card.
Alaska Airlines has a primary hub at our home airport, and it's the primary airline that we use for almost all of our trips together. The airline also offers direct flights to Hawaii Island, Kauai, Maui, and Oahu, which made it easy for our local loved ones and us to get to Oahu without worrying about only having one flight option or navigating a transfer.
We saved on our flights to and from Oahu using the companion fare benefit, which has no blackout dates for booking. This saved us hundreds of dollars since we booked our flight during peak season in July. We also earned thousands of miles on wedding purchases like the hotel and transportation.
We also spent enough to be eligible for a bonus points offer for our 2024 spending. These miles enabled us to book future trips including our honeymoon, and we knew that we'd be able to book future roundtrip flights to cities on our travel list like Austin, Chicago, or Manhattan.
Because I had Alaska Airlines MVP status, I could check in two bags for free, which was a benefit on top of the one bag that Alaska Airlines cardholders get as a benefit. This made it easier to pack personalized postcards for our wedding seating chart, Polaroid film, toiletries, and outfits to wear during a week in Oahu.
We were able to pack our wedding outfits into a garment duffel bag, and we got to board earlier so we could get it in an overhead bin as soon as possible. On the plane itself, I got 20% off in-flight WiFi and in-flight meals, which meant that I could use the 5½-hour flight time to send pitches, conduct research for my next story, and email my wedding planners with one last signage request. We also ordered the Mediterranean Tapas box on the flight to tide us over before we landed.
