When it comes to planning weddings in dream locales, Martha Stewart and The Knot have nothing on us Chicks. To celebrate the impending release of Terror in Taffeta—Marla Cooper’s debut novel about a destination wedding planner—we’re sharing the places we’d love to walk down the aisle. Read on, because we’ve got those nuptials covered!

  Marla Cooper

As far as I’m concerned, half the fun of planning a destination wedding is daydreaming about where to throw it—which is why it’s hard to choose one perfect locale! In fantasy wedding ceremony number one, I’d get married on a gorgeous, white sand beach at sunset. But I’d have to find a secluded enough spot so that random naked beachgoers couldn’t wander past as we said our vows. I’d also have to consult the tide charts to make sure the chairs wouldn’t get washed away, which would bring up visions of the Titanic, and, well, let’s just scratch that and go to fantasy wedding scenario number two. That would be in an ancient castle (as opposed to a new-fangled castle) in either Italy or Ireland. And also, the castle would be haunted, because, having an actual ghost at your wedding—what could be cooler than that? Fantasy wedding scenario number three would be among the vineyards in the California wine country, which are beautiful at dusk and, as an added bonus, you’re guaranteed not to run out of wine. Find me a haunted castle on a white sand beach with a fully stocked wine cellar and I’ll send my deposit check ASAP!

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Lisa Q. Mathews

Rats. Marla already nabbed all three of my fantasy destinations! (I could probably skip the haunted part of the castle scenario, though.) Oh well, guess I didn’t stick that save-the-locale magnet up on the fridge. And that’s why Marla’s writing the cool mystery series with the highly organized wedding planner. But I did have a blast at Tina and Tony’s Wedding, that interactive show back in the 90s. I loved it when one of the bridesmaid actresses pretended to puke in the powder room (I think she was pretending). It might be fun to throw a mystery-themed dinner wedding, probably in Brooklyn, where they have big halls for that sort of thing. Of course, then I would have to find a different groom, because my husband would immediately divorce me.

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Kellye Garrett

I honestly haven’t given much thought to my fantasy destination wedding. I have, however, given lots of thought to my fantasy wedding dress. (Thank you Say Yes to the Dress and you too Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta!) At the risk of sounding, well, tacky, if I had to choose a destination wedding spot, I would pick Las Vegas. To be clear, I don’t mean “Meet your husband for the first time at 8 PM and get married by the nearest overweight Elvis impersonator at 8:13 PM.” I’m talking classy Vegas. The one where Celine and Mariah and J.Lo and Brit-Brit hang out. My aunt got married in Vegas at the Venetian and it was amazing! First, she walked through that huge hotel in her wedding dress while strangers snapped pictures and told her how beautiful she looked. (She did!) And then she and her husband got married in a super private ceremony on one of their gondolas on their (man-made) canals. I loved it! So Vegas it is. And this is definitely not a case where what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless, of course, you get it annulled two days later.

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Ellen Byron

I always dreamed of getting married in one of two locations. First place  went to a glamorous Manhattan landmark like the Rainbow Room, complete with a twinkling night-time city vista. My other dream location was a bucolic spot in Morris, Connecticut called Apple Hill. It’s a meadow atop a hill that offers panoramic vistas of Bantam Lake, where my parents had a cottage for over thirty years. Pastoral and still, Apple Hill offered the polar opposite of my sophisticated New York wedding fantasy.

But when I actually did get married, it was at neither location. My husband and I met in Los Angeles, and it seemed easier to plan a wedding where we lived than where either of us had moved from. (He’s a St. Louis boy.) So we found a historic old adobe ranch in the western reaches of the San Fernando Valley, and said our vows surrounded by roses, orange and grapefruit groves. So my actual wedding never lived up to either of my bridal fantasies. But it was still a dream come true.

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So would we Chicks make great wedding planners, or what? Let us know your dream locale in the comments section below and we’ll take care of every detail. (And be sure to check out Terror in Taffeta, which comes out next Tuesday, March 22!)

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