How to Attend a Destination Wedding in Cancun (Without Blowing Your Budget)

 TRS Coral Costa Mujeres, a Registry Collection Hotel

How to Attend a Destination Wedding in Cancun (Without Blowing Your Budget)

Beautiful Cancun, Mexico 🌊
Destination weddings are more popular than ever. For the bride and groom, they often mean a stunning setting and a more affordable celebration. For guests, though, they can quickly turn into a pricey commitment once you factor in flights, hotel minimums, and resort rates.

So what do you do when you’re invited to a destination wedding—but don’t want to drain your savings? Here’s exactly how I approached a recent invitation and ended up saving thousands.

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The wedding hotel reality check

We were invited to a wedding at the TRS Coral Costa Mujeres—gorgeous, no question. The couple reserved a wedding room block at a “special” rate of $408 per night 😬
But there was a three-night minimum stay.

That’s over $1,200 before flights or transfers.

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Step one: look beyond the wedding block

A quick search showed that TRS Coral Costa Mujeres is an all-inclusive Wyndham property. On the Wyndham website, rooms were priced a bit more than the wedding rate—but with no three-night minimum 👀

Even better:

• Rooms were available for 30,000 Wyndham points per night

I already had 18,000 Wyndham points, so I was part of the way there. But how do I gather enough points?

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Step two: run the math on buying points

Wyndham offered me the option to buy points with a 45% discount. To cover three nights, I’d need an additional 72,000 points, which would cost $514.

For three nights at an all-inclusive? $514 is already a huge improvement over $1,200.

But could I do better? Of course.

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Step three: stack promos and transfers

Wyndham was also running an 80% bonus on purchased points. Buying 72,000 points would cost about $520—roughly the same.

Then I asked the most important question:
Do any flexible points transfer to Wyndham?

✔️ Yes—Capital One and Citi Thank You transfer 1:1.

I had 14,000 Capital One points. If I transferred those to Wyndham, I’d only need to buy 58,000 points, dropping my cost to about $420 💡

The points sale runs through February 18th, so there’s also time to:

• Shop through the Wyndham Shopping Portal to earn more points

• Keep earning points on my Capital One card

• Reduce the number of points I need to buy

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Step four: consider staying fewer nights

What if I stayed at the wedding hotel for just two nights?

• Two nights = 60,000 points

• With just Wyndham points, I’d need 42,000 additional points
  → Cost: about $300

• With the Capital One points transfer to Wyndham, I would need 28,000 additional points
  → Cost: about $200

But is that the best value for my Capital One points? or does it make more sense to pay the $300 and use Capital One points to erase other travel purchases like the shuttle or flights? 14,000 Capital One points will erase a $140 travel purchase and I will have 90 days to continue erasing. Unfortunately, purchases to buy points do not usually code as travel so they cannot be "erased".

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Step five: mix in another hotel

So where would I stay the remaining nights? Easy.

I checked the Chase Travel Portal and found:

• InterContinental Presidente Cancun Resort by IHG for 18,428 Chase points

• I could use the $250 Sapphire Reserve IHG hotel credit and pay just 6,000 Chase points. 

  
  
  
  
  

I could:

• Stay three nights for 35,000 Chase points + the $250 Sapphire Reserve IHG hotel credit, or

• Use my IHG credit card free night + 8,000 points for one night 🏨and the $250 Sapphire Reserve IHG hotel credit for a the second night. 

• There were also several Edit hotels in the area where I could use my Chase Sapphire Reserve Edit credit and points. 

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The takeaway

With a little flexibility and some points strategy, I turned a $1,200 hotel stay into a much smaller out-of-pocket cost—while still staying at the wedding resort and celebrating with the couple 🥂

Destination weddings don’t have to wreck your travel budget. Celebrate the bride and groom—and keep your savings intact.

Right now, there is a hot 75,000 bonus offer on the Capital One Venture credit card, you can read about it here. 

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Talk to me about your next trip and I'll figure out the best way to use your points and miles, Book a 1:1 consulting call, download my ebook, custom tracker or Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process.

Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the coaching program. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

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