We read a lot of weddings. It is the best part of this job. And every so often one comes through the submissions inbox that makes the whole team stop working and start checking flight prices.

This is that list: real weddings from our community, in places worth crossing the country for, with the real vendors who made them. Consider it a travel guide organized by feeling.

The New England sea air ones

A Newport wedding that proved love outshines the weather. Newport, Rhode Island is the American wedding-travel classic, gilded mansions, sailboats, fog that behaves like a hired mood, and this wedding is the proof that even when the coast does not cooperate, it delivers. If your dream weekend involves lobster rolls and a cliff walk, start here.

The night they felt most alive, a summer wedding at Misselwood. An oceanfront estate in Beverly, Massachusetts, golden light off the Atlantic, and the kind of summer-evening energy that makes every guest a romantic. New England in July makes a persuasive argument.

The mountain ones

Where the foothills meet forever, Elisa and Eric’s Colorado wedding. The Manor House in Littleton sits above Denver with the Front Range as a ceremony wall. Colorado remains one of the easiest destination calls in the country: real airport, real mountains, and a deep bench of Colorado vendors in our directory.

And if the mountain feeling is the whole point, our community includes venues built for it: Rockin’ TJ Ranch against Bozeman’s Bridger Mountains ($15,000 to $50,000, and here is our full weekend guide), Brush Creek Ranch for the luxury-ranch version, and Grand Hyatt Deer Valley for a ski-town wedding with resort polish.

The candlelight one

A romantic candlelight elopement in North Carolina. Wilmington, North Carolina, an elopement lit almost entirely by candles, and the strongest possible case that a destination wedding does not require a hundred guests. Sometimes it requires two people and a photographer with taste.

The prairie one

A romantic prairie wedding in Saskatchewan, Canada. The sleeper hit of this list. Endless gold fields, enormous sky, and light photographers dream about. Nobody’s guest list expects Saskatchewan, which is exactly why the photos stop you.

The heartland one

A black barn wedding at Stone Creek, Kansas City. A moody black barn, florals by The Wandering Rose, and proof the middle of the map holds its own against either coast, usually at friendlier pricing, which means more budget for the party.

The ones we would fly for next

Our venue community keeps growing in places that belong on this list: Fontainebleau Las Vegas for the glamorous version, Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for desert resort sunsets, Sea Ranch Lodge on the Northern California coast, and San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara’s hills. Every profile shows real pricing, because that is how we do things here.

If one of these made you check flights

Three things to know about planning a wedding away from home:

1. Lodging first. The venue and the guest rooms are one decision, not two. Our community includes Room Block Source (@theroomblocksource), who negotiate guest room blocks so you never play hotel middleman.

2. Local vendors are a superpower. Every wedding above leaned on people who knew the light, the weather, and the back roads. Our directory shows service areas and real starting pricing on every profile, filter by the region you are dreaming about.

3. Build the budget from real prices, not averages. Save the vendors you love in the free Vendor Builder and your budget assembles itself from their actual pricing, then lands in your inbox. Cross-check against real weddings with real totals in The Wedding Cost Report.

And if you got married somewhere worth a flight, submit your wedding. The next couple checking flight prices might be doing it because of you.